Comment 14973

By beancounter (registered) | Posted December 02, 2007 at 00:47:56

JoeJoe, if Hamilton would offer free transit, it would not be the first to do so.

Surprisingly enough there are quite a few municipalities that now provide or have provided cost-free transit service to their residents.

Here are a few examples:

Hasselt, Belgium’s free transit is funded by 1% of their municipal budget, which provides 26 % of the operating cost, with the balance paid for by the national government.

Island County, Washington, gives citizens free bus rides through an additional 0.6% added to the state sales tax making the total 8.3%.

Sound Transit, Puget Sound’s regional transit agency, operates its 1.6-mile Tacoma, Wash., light-rail line fare-free.

Milton, Ontario recently started fare-free bus service during off-peak hours, that is, from 9:00 A. M. until 3:00 P. M.

San Francisco is currently studying a transit-free system, but other larger cities (Austin, Texas and Denver, Colorado) have tried free transit and abandoned it, citing problems with overcrowding, hooliganism and vandalism.

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