The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s fare-free pilot program increased ridership among new riders and those who don’t take the bus often, but RFTA leaders suggested exploring changing fare structures rather than expanding free fare options right now to increase ridership long term.
RFTA launched its fare-free pilot program on Oct. 1. It ran through Nov. 30.
The program was meant to test the feasibility of a larger reduced fare or fare-free ridership program. It also originated from RFTA’s climate action plan, which outlined strategies to offset regional greenhouse gas emissions, especially by boosting ridership.
A survey of over 800 RFTA passengers from Nov. 12-15 found that 19% of riders had never ridden a RFTA bus before and 17% of riders had ridden RFTA before, but would have used another mode of transportation had there been no fares to ride. About 31% of respondents said they rode the bus more often than they would have had they had to pay for it, Matt Bruce, principal and owner of Corona Insights, told the RFTA board during a Jan. 8 meeting. Corona Insights conducted the survey for RFTA.
While the origin of trips didn’t differ much between regular riders — riders who rode the bus regardless of the cost of fares — and those who rode only under the fare-free program, trip purposes differed between the two groups. Riders who decided to take the bus when fares were free were less likely than regular riders to use the bus to commute to work (about 64% of typical RFTA riders use the bus to commute, compared to 48% of new riders), but they were much more likely than regular riders to take the bus for recreation, shopping or dining.
According to the survey results, 14% of regular riders use the bus for recreation or shopping and dining, while 27% of new riders during the fare free program used the bus for recreation and 20% used it for shopping or dining.
Of all the riders surveyed, about 85% said they knew the buses were free. Riders who had ridden RFTA before but would not have taken the bus if fares weren’t free were most likely to be unsure if they would ride RFTA after the buses were no longer free.
About 76% of respondents said they still would have ridden the bus, but 16% said they would have made their trip by car instead if they had to pay. More than half of those riders would have driven alone, according to the survey results.
“Once that fare-free goes away, you expect that some of those people would be going back to their other modes [of transportation],” Bruce said.
While the program increased ridership, in the long term it could result in loss of fare revenues and potential increases in operating costs and capital investments, according to RFTA. Some RFTA member jurisdictions contributed a collective $510,000 — the fare RFTA anticipated it would lose in the two months rides were free — to make the program possible.
RFTA leaders suggested to the board not considering another fare-free pilot at this time, but instead looking at ways to update its current pass offerings.
“There could be some significant gains made with existing passengers and just … restructuring of our fares and pass programs,” RFTA CEO Kurt Ravenschlag said during the Jan. 8 meeting. “We have a zone-based system but we also don’t have a lot of various pass programs for low income or for anything beyond a season for somebody that would like to purchase a pass.”
“We do believe that there’s some significant improvement that could be made that could drive ridership in as similar fashion as fare-free, just through restructuring our passes and fare programs,” he added.
