In recent decades, traffic congestion has worsened, deaths and injuries have skyrocketed, and life in cities has become increasingly difficult.
In my city, São Paulo, the situation is so dangerous that you can see the air. And believe me, you don’t want to see the air you’re breathing. We are facing drought and extreme heat.
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Contamination from automobiles smoke from a fireAs a result of the climate emergency during September. The air quality index, measured by sensors installed across the city, has been rated “very poor” for the first time since 1996.
At the same time as the number of cars increased, public transport lost passengers. This is not only a crisis for public transport networks in Brazil, but all over the world.
In the UK, a comparison of transport use between September 2023 and September 2024 with pre-COVID-19 levels shows that the only mode of transport that has fully recovered is the car. According to all, travel by bus, train and London Transport (mainly the Underground) remains below pre-2019 levels. Official government data.
Public transport networks in Brazil’s major cities were already shrinking before the coronavirus pandemic hit. In 10 years, public transport has lost a third of its passengers. In São Paulo, buses transported 3 billion passengers in 2013, but 10 years later that number has dropped to 2 billion.
The pandemic has exacerbated an already existing crisis. In most cities in Brazil, transportation costs are subsidized by ticket sales. The decline in passenger numbers triggered a cycle of decline. decreased ridership, decreased revenue, decreased number of buses, and/or increased fares; The model is no longer executable.
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The failure of this approach has paved the way for cities to explore other approaches to financing their systems, such as making public transit free.
The number of cities with free public transport has increased significantly in recent years, especially in the last year. Currently, 116 municipalities have completely free public transport, which is primarily financed from the city’s own budget. More than 5 million people will benefit.
Currently, most cities with completely free public transport are concentrated in the southeastern states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro. Many local governments are taking inspiration from neighboring cities, and there is a contagion effect.
Cities that have implemented this system have found great public support. The suspension of fees was also accompanied by system improvements. Some cities have successfully electrified their bus fleets. The ability to predict revenue regardless of passenger numbers allows for better investment and planning.
Researchers are trying to map the environmental impact of free public transport. In São Caetano do Sul (SP), the largest city in the São Paulo metropolitan area where transport is completely free, preliminary data show that the abolition of fares has contributed to reducing traffic and emissions. shown. The city has a population of 165,000 and is one of the first cities to electrify its bus fleet after fare abolition.
instability
A new partnership based on an ecologist’s perspective to strengthen public transportation is being discussedand one of the main references is movement. #Villefarenszamenbrought together young environmental and trade union activists in Germany. climate change.
Along with the environmental perspective, the social perspective may be one of the most important in this discussion.
The suspension of fares reveals pent-up demand. Thousands of people around the world simply don’t move because of the high cost of transportation. In Brazil, cities that introduced completely free public transport saw ridership double, triple, and even quadruple.
In other words, adopting this policy would require not only full government subsidies, but also funding to expand the system.
There is How to raise funds for sustainable travel improvements. This may not be so simple, but it is particularly interesting because it reverses the logic of austerity, which is directly linked to the deterioration and instability of many transport networks.
inequality
Who said public transport had to be profitable? The calculations need to take into account the environmental costs of having so many people traveling by car.
If governments are prioritizing resources and infrastructure for cars, why is no one asking about the cost? Here we consider not only the cost of building this infrastructure, but also the cost of maintaining it. There is a need.
From an environmental perspective, some say free public transport is not worth it because it forces people to abandon non-motorized transport in favor of public transport.
But do we want people to bike and walk because we have great infrastructure to do so, like bike lanes and walkable neighborhoods, or because we don’t have the money or the options?
Abolition of fares will increase the use of transportation mainly in poor areas. This measure has great potential to reduce social inequalities and guarantee the right to cities for the poorest. And this may be the key to making cities less unequal, less polluted and more livable for future generations.
this author
Daniel Santini is a journalist who holds a master’s degree in architecture and urban planning from the University of São Paulo and is pursuing his PhD researching free public transport policies. His book in September No turnstiles: From utopia to the reality of fare-free public transport (Sem Katlaka: Utopia and Verdade of Tarifa Zero) has been published. Not yet translated into English. He works as a project manager in the São Paulo office of the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation.
There is an international research network on free public transport. Data on the number of infections by country is part of the international data. investigation It was conducted by Wojciech Kembrowski of the Free University of Bruxelles in Belgium.
