Free Transit Zone for Brisbane?

[ozbob]

Perth has a Free Transit Zone (see here)

Free Transit Zone (FTZ)

The Free Transit Zone (FTZ) for buses and the SmartRider Free Transit Zone for trains operates within the Perth city boundaries. Passengers can travel within it on any bus or train* for free, as often as they want. Look for this logo on bus stops to identify the FTZ boundaries.

Brisbane City has the free loop buses.  Free travel within Zone one would be easily implemented via go card.

Any comments?  Good? Bad?  

[#Metro]

They are going to say "we can't do that, we'd lose the cash".

[dwb]

I personally think you'd need to bring the boundary of zone 1 in a bit, and you'd also need a FTZ in Ipswich, Logan, Gold Coast, Noosa, Maroochydore etc. (ie all the major urban centres)....

or perhaps you could just invent a "short free fare" ie any travel of less than 1km is free... but then you'd have to actually think about what you were trying to promote by doing this, if it were changing short trips to PT it may be worthwhile.

Something I canvassed in my research http://www.scribd.com/WhyDoINeedAUsername

[#Metro]

Free anything merely shifts money from one area to another, so it has to come from somewhere else to cover it.
However I think the following ideas have merit.

Free transport during:
* Any event that includes high alcohol consumption like raves, big day out, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Years, New Years Eve, Easter, Australia day.
* Where large numbers of people are in a small space (Suncorp Events etc). A small flat fee could be charged (i.e. $1 or $2) as the alternative (parking) would easily be $10. Slip that cost into the ticket price so everyone with a pass has already paid...
*On days when something new opens (i.e new Busway, new rail station)
* For anyone who endures more than 2 delays greater than 10 minutes on a train in a month under special circumstances.
* For rail or busway station direct feeder buses (This happens in Bogota).

[verbatim9]

The government initiative is not to make public transport a burden on Queensland tax payers so no go zone for free transit zone.

[Jon Bryant]

I think the free short trip idea has merit as we need to change people overall transport behaviours. With 50% of all trips local if they were free people start to see PT as a great and easy way to get around the whole city.  Whilst there is a cost of providing the extra capacity required the benefits from an overall shift of transport mode towards PT will outweigh the cost (i.e. environmental, health, safety, and reduced road building and reduced road trauma).