Home » Content

Free Fare Period, 1989-90

Between October 1989 and December 1990, the transit riders of Austin, Texas saw the elimination of fares for all forms of public transit: buses, van pools, and Special Transit Services (STS).

The move was taken on early in the new transit authority's history: the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority had been approved on January 19, 1985, and the contract to service the University of Texas (later dubbed the "UT Shuttle" system) was signed the following year. Service for the UT Shuttle started in 1989 as well.

The move was also controversial from the start. Mayor Lee Cooke and Capital Metro Chairman Stephen Bayer pushed the issue, but there was certainly dissent on the board when the free fare period began. In the 1988 budget, the board told the staff to budget fare collection for the first 3 quarters (9 months, or January-September), saving only the last quarter (October-December) for free fares. That original vote was 4-3.

The program's success was immediate. Ridership for bus service outside of UT Shuttle and STS soared by 80 percent. More Austinites were riding the bus, but there was no proportionate increase in crime outside of drunk passengers, who, if not bothering anyone, is hardly a burden on the system. The Cost per Passenger plummeted, indicating much greater system efficiency, and costs only increased in line with other years when fares were collected. It was so successful that the entire following year, 1990, was scheduled for free fares.

The Capital Metro board and staff was busy during this time conducting research and interviews to investigate the performance and appearance of the new bus system, many of which are posted below (Note: We do not have access to all of the original documents since Capital Metro's Legal Department told us that they "no longer exist.") These documents back the claims supporting fare-free policy, and they also showed customer satisfaction general public approval of the program at 81%, even though 49% of respondents had never used Capital Metro services. Among riders, taken from on-board surveys, it was 97%.

During the fare-free program, there were newspaper stories hyping negative perceptions of a fare-free bus system. Media stories claimed that the system was overburdened by undesirable passengers that were causing buses to be unsafe. The motivations for writing such stories, outside of media hype, for some was to eliminate a perceived welfare subsidy for poor bus riders. Regardless, it had many Capital Metro Board members worrying about the general public's perception of the publicly-funded bus company. In 1990, the Capital Metro Board of Directors voted on whether to continue the fare-free program for another five years. The proposal failed by a vote of 3-4.

It is never too late to reverse that vote in order to increase ridership, alleviate traffic congestion, reduce pollution and improve air quality, increase overall productivity, expedite the transit system and transportation overall, maximize mobility for all residents of Austin, and provide overall net monetary and public health gains.



Documents of the Fare Fare Period in Austin, TX



Myth Busting: An Honest Review of the Free Fare Period

-from our report "A Proposal for Free Public Transit and Improved System Efficiency in Austin, Texas." April 2008. Pages 12-13.

Myths Facts
Costs skyrocketed 1988: $31,100,983 (with fares)
1989: $34,580,543 (with fares for 3 quarters)
1990: $37,437,627 (with no fares)
1991: $41,877,115 (with fares)

The amount of sales tax revenues used was actually decreased as well: it decreased to 3/4 of a percent from a full 1% of sales tax.
Buses were flooded with "punks, drunks, and skunks"

The idea that undesirable riders flooding the system prevailed: joyriding kids and aggressive drunks that threatened personal safety.

The daytime curfew was not in effect until after 1990. The problem of schoolchildren joyriding during the school day would not happen again.

Crime did not proportionately increase.[1] By the 4th quarter of 1990, security incidents per 1000 boarding were lower than 1988 numbers in every category but one: intoxicated passengers. Had Capital Metro continued free fares on a permanent basis, they would have created a special program to deal with this, as the city - in cooperation with the cab companies - eventually did.

Vagrants show up in the security incident statistics; then as now, vagrants are put off the bus. Capital Metro buses averaged about six per day; quite a bit lower than the Austin Public Library downtown, whose daily traffic was a fraction of the buses' 70-90,000 average weekday ridership.
Regular bus riders were driven away by the new riders, i.e., vagrants

On-board surveys found customer satisfaction at extraordinarily high levels, with 93% of passengers expressing approval for free fares.[2]

NSI Research, a market research firm that conducted telephone surveys, tallied the reasons former riders gave for leaving the system during the free fare period. It found: "Among those who have quit riding the bus since the free fare program began, little more than coincidence can be attributed to loss of riders due to the free fare program. The main reason for declining or stopped usage in bus service is the recent acquisition of a car. Other reasons such as a change in job or address also explain why some have quit riding the bus. In only a couple of isolated instances are on-board safety or less than desirable passengers or anything else negatively attributed to the free fare program cited as reasons for discontinued use of bus service." [3]
Buses were overcrowded There was an initial overcrowding, but Capital Metro spent $1.5 million on frequency improvements for deploying extra vehicles to handle the loads.[4]
On-time schedule performance will be negatively impacted

Schedule adherence actually increased during the fare-free period. In every month of the fare-free program, on-time performance was better than for the same month in the prior year.[5]

Complaints called in to Capital Metro regarding late buses decreased during the free fare period as compared to 1989 before the period began.[6]
Riders complained about service and didn't support the free-fare plan The NSI Market Research shows general public approval of the fare-free program at 81%, even though 49% of respondents had never used Capital Metro services. Among riders: 97%.[7]

[1] Despite the fact that a petition of 215 bus operators was presented at a Free Fare Public Hearing claiming that "an increase in attacks and incidents on all Capital Metro buses, causing undue stress and delays to both passengers and bus operators" resulted from free fares, it was unsupported by the facts.

[2] According to former Chairman Stephen Bayer.

[3] NSI Research. 1993. Page 1. Online at http://www.busatx.org/files/farefree_marketresearchstudy.pdf

[4] Figure from Bayer, et. al. 2000.

[5] Doolittle & Associates, Inc., et. al. March 1993.

[6] In April-June 1989, 14% of complaints dealt with late buses; in April-June 1990: 13.2%.In July-September 1989: 17% of complaints dealt with late buses; in July-September 1990: 12.2%. From the April-June 1990 and July-September 1990 Quarterly Reports. Online at http://www.busatx.org/archives/farefreequarterly_aprjune1990 and http://www.busatx.org/archives/farefreequarterly_julysept1990

[7] According to former Chairman Stephen Bayer.

News Archives