Local opinion: Fare-free transit helps drivers too

As Mayor & Council discuss whether to keep transit fare-free this week, The Transit for All Coalition and many others have wonderfully laid out why keeping transit fare free is a commitment that city leadership must keep. Due to decreased burden on Tucsonans with low income, fare-free transit is a policy that removes just one daily cost stress for people who do not drive. Housing is a higher cost, but the ability to move through Tucson without worrying about the tradeoff for food or hygiene essentials should not be understated as a health benefit.

I want to speak directly to the daily drivers here who have never been transportation insecure. I am one of the young people who have taken the bus more in the past few years than ever before, simply because I did not have to pay to get on. I have a car. I take the bus when I can because I understand that when I take the bus, that is one less vehicle on our roads. I do this because I know traffic congestion in our city can be a nightmare, and we are a growing city — more people — with more transportation needs every year. Although I am just one person, I take the bus because every car trip that can be replaced with a bus trip decreases the traffic, stress, and subsequent danger of what road rage does to us. I call it car brain — who among us is not angriest when someone cuts us off in traffic?

I can afford a dollar and some cents for the fares. But when I have a car, much like you, I ask myself “Why would I ride the bus, which takes more time, when I have a car and could just drive?” The decision to do my part to decrease traffic congestion when it takes me 30 minutes longer to get to my destination on the bus is an actual worthwhile choice when I don’t have to pay more for the (currently) less-efficient tradeoff. Students of all ages rely on the bus to get to elementary, middle, and high school. I have seen so many fellow U of A students on the bus since it is fare free. Yes, we are the young adults most likely to be able to afford to pay a fare. It should not be ignored that transit is also safer for all vulnerable people when young women like me are visible on it.

When fare free transit really does mean possibly taking 30 cars off the road, the costs of wear and tear on our roads starts to decrease. How bad Tucson roads are is already the most popular city policy conversation that I have regularly. Fare free transit is not just a policy to ease the inequality built into the cost of moving through our city — it is a catalyst for behavior and social change that must happen to decrease the costs of maintaining our road infrastructure. If you live within a 15-minute walk from a bus route, taking the bus even once a day also makes it so much easier to get those coveted 10,000 steps.

Fares only ever paid for about 10% of the total cost of transit in Tucson. Reinstating fares will decrease ridership, and our collective goal to improve roads in Tucson must center on decreasing solo trips in cars. Keeping transit fare free keeps ridership growing, and any plan to improve transit must factor in that bus riders are a lower cost to our road system then everyone driving alone.