Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air
20 comments
·November 23, 2025id00
II2II
The real benefits come from eliminating fares.
While I have never lived in a place with free transit, I have lived in places where it was possible to board trains without passing through fare gates and certain busses through the rear exit. It is amazing how much faster boarding is. They probably face some lost fares, but the benefit of faster travel times outweigh the cost.
I also think that those criticizing free fares are disingenuous. None of those cities had problems with (insert stereotypical undesirable group) using public transit. If anything, there were fewer issues because everyone was more inclined to behave since there were more eyes on the trains and busses.
nine_zeros
[dead]
touwer
Paris, Amsterdam, Kopenhagen, Utrecht did it with bikes https://www.ethicalmarkets.com/paris-air-pollution-is-down-5...
Animats
Do they clear out each bus at some end point of the route, so homeless people can't live on the bus?
smelendez
Having a fare wouldn’t affect this much. It’s not too hard to get someone to spot you a couple of bucks at a bus stop.
Honestly it’s not that big a deal if someone sleeps on the bus. Homeless, drunk, tired from work, whatever.
idle_zealot
Are you having fun concern trolling about your made-up problem?
themafia
There's nothing "made up" about it. It actually happens. There are areas of this country with endemic homelessness and absolutely no strategy to address it. So, you get the obvious:
LosingFaith1
What do you mean made-up problem? This is an extremely common problem in many areas. Sketchy characters will definitely stay on the bus and create unsafe environments for the bus driver and the customer unless there are systems in place.
PeterHolzwarth
Do daily commutes by bus in a major west coast city. You'll quickly find this is no made up problem.
defrost
Particular to the US in many ways.
Not an issue for cheap / free public transport in many other countries mentioned.
Perhaps the manner in which the US deals with the distribution of income and basic human needs could use a few tweaks.
b3ing
I guess once the car companies find out about this, they’ll start lobbying the local government and put an end to this
boothby
That's how we lost public transit the first time. Here's hoping local government knows their history.
Tadpole9181
Now the car companies have way more money and governance is even more disconnected from the people. I mean, look at how the national GOP just nuked legal hemp-derived THC for the booze industry.
bediger4000
United States vs National City Lines, Inc. 1947.
Is it cheaper to lobby or to create an incompetent monopoly to ruin things?
RicoElectrico
I am impressed there was no report of conservative backlash.
PopePompus
Iowa City is the bluest of Iowa cities. It's a university town.
3eb7988a1663
That is a particularly fine line to walk for the modern conservative. Government should not be picking winners, except for the very targeted tariffs that just happen to benefit company X or Y.
blitzar
Government should not be picking winners ... the company with the biggest bribe wins.
In Brisbane, Australia they run a 6-month trial to make all public transport trips to be 50c (that includes buses, metro, ferries). It was so successful and widely loved that it was a no-brainier for it to be extended indefinitely