Sustaining Zero-Fare Public Transit in a Post COVID-19 World: Conduct of Research Report (2024)
Chapter: SUMMARY
SUMMARY
The objective of NCHRP Project 19-19, “Sustaining Zero-Fare Public Transit in a Post COVID-19 World: A Guide for State DOTs,” is the development of a practitioners’ tool to support the decision to start, extend, or terminate fare-free transit operation.
The focus has been on long-term sustainability, providing a practitioner-ready tool for evaluating benefits and risks, and providing the background to effectively communicate this evaluation at all levels of government and stakeholders. The guiding principles have framed the development of a process and products to help state DOTs throughout the consideration of continuing or implementing zero fares. The goal of this project and the approaches undertaken for its completion is not to develop a process that ends with a decision regarding fare-free operation but to provide decision-makers with the information required to make an informed decision. While the perspective is primarily from a state DOT vantage point, the findings will also support the same decisions being made down to the transit agency level. This methodology can also be used for post-implementation analysis.
To achieve research objectives, this project involved four phases consisting of seven tasks. The research started with an extensive summary of the literature review, including a review of international academic literature, Cooperative Research Program reports and US-centric academic literature, and transit agency and/or state DOT reports and programs in the United States. Next, the research team conducted stakeholder interviews covering a range of small to large states, small to large transit authorities, and a variety of funding sources and methods. Insights obtained from this first exploratory phase, together with the discussions with the project panel, were then used to develop four scenarios (rural/tribal, small urban/rural with university support, regional and urban) that serve as examples of a transition to zero-fare transit. The scenarios developed reflected commonly encountered contexts and agency characteristics, including agency size, funding sources, modes/transit services operated fare-free, peak-hour capacity demands, fare recovery, regional services, and service agreements/fare dependence.
An Excel-based spreadsheet tool was then developed to provide a format and process for the analysis of fare-free operation in terms of both quantitative (cost/ridership) and qualitative (equity/security/etc.) aspects. The tool does not provide a decision recommendation. Rather, it provides information with which an informed decision can be made. The tool is agnostic so as to provide a full picture of the potential costs and benefits of fare-free operation. In addition to the tool, the research team developed a communication strategies document, which was designed to offer guidance to users in selecting the most cost-effective, high-leverage communications and outreach strategies, tactics, and activities to build a customized/localized communications plan that will successfully convey the fare-free evaluation knowledge base, assist in communicating the approach if the evaluation outcome for fare-free transit is negative, and maximize the implementation of fare-free transit if that is considered the best solution.
