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15. What were the intended/expected and actual outcomes of offering fare-free service?

16. Did the implementation of fare-free service impact parking in any way, positive or negative (e.g., less parking facilities needed or unanticipated parking problems due to people parking in neighborhoods and then using free transit for the remainder of their trips)?

17. Did fare-free transit cause any increase in development or an influx of residents or employment or change in property values?

18. Can you attribute any advances in “livability” to the fare- free service?

19. Have you been able to quantify any of the benefits to your community due to fare-free service (e.g., reduced conges- tion, pollution, gas usage, etc.)?

20. What have been the benefits (intentional or unintended) of a fare-free system?

21. A typical concern with free-fare systems is that there might be rowdy teenagers or vagrants who use the buses to the dis- comfort of other riders. Have you had to put more resources into supervision or security as a result? Do you have policies that prohibit loitering or round-tripping? If so, what ordi- nances did you pass and can you share that ordinance? 22. Some people think that when no price is charged for a ser-

vice, that the service has less value and treat it with less respect. Have you detected any evidence of that (increased vandalism, lack of respect to operators, rowdiness, etc.)? 23. Have you conducted surveys of your riders’ pre- and post

fare-free service? Do you know your passengers’ opinions on fare-free service in terms of their satisfaction with the quality of the experience of using the free service?

24. Have your operators embraced the free-fare system, or do they note any difficulties?

25. Do you think that fare-free service has allowed your buses to stay on schedule more easily due to reduced dwell time, or does additional ridership cause the bus to operate more slowly?

26. What are the challenges (anticipated or unanticipated) asso- ciated with your free-fare transit system?

27. If ridership increased after the institution of fare-free ser- vice, have you done surveys of passengers that would help you determine if the increased ridership has been due to the same passengers riding more, or did the free fares attract truly new riders?

28. Did you have to lay off any employees as a result of going fare-free (such as fare box technicians or money counters), or were they reassigned to other positions?

29. What was the internal business case for operating fare-free? 30. What was the external business case for operating fare-free? 31. Assuming ridership increased, what types of changes did the

transit agency or other entities make concurrently and post- fare elimination that might have also affected total ridership (e.g., reduced or higher-priced parking, new employment gen- erators, increases in university enrollment, a sharp increase in gas prices, etc.)?

32. If the free-fare system was discontinued, why and how was it discontinued?

33. What evaluations were conducted (if any) after the fare-free system was implemented (or discontinued)? Can you provide a copy of any white papers or analyses that were written?

34. Have you ever had significant complaints from any element of the community that led to reconsideration of the fare- free system? For instance, some people say if the service is not important enough for the users to pay for, why should others pay?

Can you also provide some fundamental statistics about your agency and your community?

Population of the service area: _______

Number and type of buses in your system: _______

Annual ridership: _______ Average daily ridership: _______ Passengers per hour: _______ Passengers per mile: _______

This synthesis represents the first comprehensive attempt to identify those transit systems that currently utilize, or at one time utilized, a fare-free policy. A report completed for the city of San Francisco in 2008 could identify only six public transit systems that oper- ated on a fare-free basis (8). A few of the transit managers of fare- free systems indicated that they thought they were the only transit agency in the country providing fare-free service. It is hoped that this listing will help them communicate to their mutual benefit, and make it easier for others who are considering implementing fare- free service to contact them for more information on their expe- riences. Information for those systems identified in the course of preparing this report is provided below, in alphabetical order:

1. Advance Transit—Hanover, New Hampshire/Wilder, Vermont http://www.advancetransit.com/index.htm

2. ApplCART—Watauga County, Boone, North Carolina http://appalcart.com/contact_us.html

3. Asheville Transit System—North Carolina (experimented in 2006) http://ashevillenc.gov/residents/transportation/ city_bus/default.aspx?id=19446

4. Aspen Shuttles—Aspen, Colorado http://www.aspenpitkin. com/Departments/Transportation/Free-Aspen-Shuttles/ 5. Atomic City Transit—Los Alamos County, New Mexico

http://www.losalamosnm.us/transit/Pages/default.aspx 6. Breckenridge Free Ride—Town of Breckenridge, Colorado

http://www.townofbreckenridge.com/index.aspx?page =943

7. Cache Valley Transit District—Logan, Utah http://www. cvtdbus.org/index.php

8. Canby Area Transit—Canby, Oregon http://www.ci.canby. or.us/transportation/CAThomepage.htm

9. Chapel Hill Transit, North Carolina http://www.ci.chapel- hill.nc.us/index.aspx?page=1175

10. Citylink—Kootenai and Benewah Counties, Idaho http:// www.idahocitylink.com/contact.php

11. Citylink Edmond, Oklahoma http://edmondok.com/ communitydev/citylink

12. Clemson Area Transit, South Carolina http://www.catbus. com/

13. Commerce Transit http://www.ci.commerce.ca.us/index. aspx?NID=90

14. Community Transportation of Cape May County, New Jersey http://www.capemaycountygov.net/Cit-e-Access/ webpage.cfm?TID=5&TPID=8504

15. Corvallis Transit System—Corvallis, Oregon http://www. ci.corvallis.or.us/index.php?option=com_content&task= view&id=469&Itemid=412

16. Deerfield Valley Transit Association http://www.moover. com/index.php

17. East Chicago Transit, Indiana http://www.eastchicago.com/ departments/bus_transit/

18. Estes Park Shuttle—Estes, Colorado http://www.allrocky mountain.com/transportation/shuttles_transit.php

19. Free Ride Glenwood Springs, Colorado http://www.ci. glenwood-springs.co.us/transpo/1a.htm

20. GoLine Transit—Indian River County, Florida http://www. golineirt.com/

21. Go West Transit—Macomb, Illinois http://www.wiu.edu/ student_services/go_west/

22. Hele-On Bus—Hawai’i County Mass Transit Agency, Hawai’i County, Hawai’i http://www.heleonbus.org/ 23. Island Transit—Whidbey Island, Washington info@island-

transit.org http://islandtransit.org/

24. Link Transit—Chelan–Douglas County, WA (formerly fare- free, now charges) http://www.linktransit.com/

25. Marion City Bus Transportation Department http://marion indiana.us/transportation.cfm

26. Mason Transit—Mason County, WA http://www.mason transit.org/

27. McCall Transit—McCall, Idaho http://www.mccall.id.us/ community/transit.html

28. Mountain Express—Crested Butte, Colorado http://www. crestedbutte-co.gov/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC& SEC=%7B2C4811E8-15A0-4F0F-976C-E8236C6 DAC57%7D

29. Mountain Rides—Ketchum, Idaho http://www.mountain- rides.org/

30. Mountain Village Transportation, Colorado www.mountain- village.co.us/index.aspx?nid=196

31. Niles Free Bus—Niles, Illinois http://www.vniles.com/ Content/templates/?a=76

32. North Central Regional Transit District—parts of Rio Arriba, Taos, and Santa Fe counties, NM http://www.ncrtd.org/ 33. Park City Transit, Utah http://www.parkcity.org/index.aspx?

page=422

34. SPOT (Selkirk–Pend Oreille Transit), Idaho

35. Steamboat Springs, Colorado http://steamboatsprings.net/ departments/transportation_services/bus_service

36. Streamline—Bozeman, Montana http://www.streamline- bus.com/about-streamline-bus/

37. Summit Stage—Summit County, Colorado http://www. summitstage.com/

38. Telluride Galloping Goose Transit—Town of Telluride, Colorado http://www.telluride-co.gov/index.aspx?page=56 39. Treasure Valley Transit—Nampa, Idaho http://www.

treasurevalleytransit.com/

40. UMASS Transit—Amherst, Massachusetts http://www. umass.edu/transit/buses.html

41. Vail Transit Department, Colorado http://www.vailgov. com/subpage.asp?dept_id=46

Appendix B

Contact information for public Transit Systems That Have implemented

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