Free Downtown Bus Transit - Community Asset or Yuppie Shuttle?

Free downtown transit shuttles are popular across America. Denver has its electric mall bus, Seattle provided a fare free zone on its regular bus transit and DC runs a five line "Circulator" for which they now charge a buck. Free downtown shuttles are also run in Oakland, Nashville, Columbus, Raleigh and even lower Manhattan, mushrooming across the nation far beyond the 40 systems counted in 2013. More are aspiring to them, such as Baltimore's suburban center Towson which likes to model itself after Bethesda, Maryland.

Do these systems make sense? Do they serve a purpose or are they gimmicks?

Providing public transit on a fare-free basis for all passengers has tantalized public policymakers for decades. Proponents claim that if other public services such as schools, libraries, and parks (as well as most roads) are considered important enough to provide at no charge to the user, then providing everyone in the community with at least a basic means of mobility should also be a public good.(TRB paper)

Original Baltimore Capstone "microturbine" bus

Baltimore's winning circulator formula

Baltimore, too, had a nearly free (fare: a quarter) downtown trolley in the eighties and then later a free "DASH" bus. Both attempts folded after a short time and a lackadaisical response from the public. But then Baltimore struck gold with a formula that seemed to be destined for success: A free circulator bus as part of a system that is fueled by a special surcharge on the parking tax.

The thinking was this: Charge a bit more for parking but give people who park their car in cheaper, outlying and usually underutilized facilities a free bus ride to cover the distance to their final destination (solving "the last mile problem"). Plus encourage folks to not bring their car altogether by providing a easy to use bus that connects to traditional transit. Either way, a win-win in which valuable downtown space could be saved for better purposes than ever more parking. (See my article: Parking the Bane of Cities). Some six years ago the Charm City Circulator was born with its first line and turned into an instant hit. The system has been expanded several times, last in 2012 with a "Banner Route" going to Fort McHenry, funded by a $1.6 million grant from the federal Department of Transportation on occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the War of 1812. Even though this route had a one time funding source it was not introduced as an only temporary line. This is the system description from a 2011 press release on the occasion of it's first birthday:

The Circulator buses operate on several routes. The Orange Route travels along Lombard and Pratt Streets between Hollins Market and Harbor East. The Purple Route, which began operations in June, 2010 links Federal Hill to Penn Station via Charles and St. Paul Streets. The Green Route will provide free service to fringe parking areas along Fallsway and Guilford, through Harbor East and Fells Point to the Johns Hopkins Hospital and should be deployed later this year. A fourth route, which will extend from the Baltimore Visitor’s Center to Fort McHenry, is planned for deployment to coincide with the bicentennial celebration of the War of 1812.
The Charm City Circulator provides citizens with the opportunity to connect between other forms of public transportation such as the light rail, MARC trains, the subway and even the Water Taxi Harbor Connector. The shuttle service also ties together growing communities in the busy downtown district and allows for downtown employees to connect with less expensive parking areas on the outskirts of town.
Washington DC Circulator

In 2014 the systems routes had about 11,500 riders a day. It is hard to pinpoint what exactly made the Circulator so popular and well liked, chief contenders are:

This bus is NOT the MTA,
It is free, not only saving riders money but reducing the stress of figuring out fares and vending machines thus making the bus faster because of shorter times spent at the stops
It had a real-time bus arrival app allowing to live essentially without a bus schedule
It serves all those enclaves of gentrification such as Federal Hill, Harbor East and Fells Point.
Its first fleet were innovative hybrid buses with fully electric propulsion
There is a fledgling compendium mode in the shape of city run water commuter service that adds a substantial "cool factor".
It finally connects the various fragments of Baltimore transit and solves the last mile problem for many.

The system exceeding the original expectations invited many to think bigger. Kirby Fowler of the Downtown Partnership, a strong supporter of the system, recently referred to it jokingly as "the gateway drug for transit", expressing the notion that free and easy transit will make people consider other bus transit as well. The MTA tolerated it well, noting that its lines with overlapping routes had seen no decrease in users. There was talk about further extensions.

Baltimore's Circulator system map

From a "last mile" solution the system had evolved into a "cool factor" in Baltimore, another piece in the puzzle of the sharing society that had supposedly begun all across the country, fueled by "millenials", the generation that is said to want to own less and share more. The Charm City Circulator together with Uber, ZipCar, AirBnB and bike lanes had become a status symbol of the "new Baltimore", the one that wasn't a wallflower anymore but struts its assets proudly.

But this status brought with it detractors. Those who had the suspicion that the Charm Bus was just a yuppie toy, not really meant to serve the community in need. It were the millenials, after all, who had boosted downtown's population more than any other demographic segment and that seemed to benefit the most. The SUN reported this already in 2011, one year after the service began:

The city's venture into transit service — an arena in which it had previously failed — remains a subject of disagreement in Baltimore. Some citizens question whether the cash-strapped city has any business offering free rides to anyone who wants to jump on a bus.
"Baltimore is cutting services left and right, so how does the city have the money to operate a free bus service for mostly affluent neighborhoods?" said Ricarra Jones of Baltimore.

One can see why the bus can become an easy target in the class and race tensions that took a heated turn in Baltimore lately. Others still want streetcars instead of buses, seeing the buses only as a stepping stone towards a streetcar rail system above and beyond the light rail and metro system already in place. The streetcar promoters look to Portland and DC for guidance.

Troubles

The shiny image of the DOT operated bus system got bruised for the first time when it turned out that its super "green", experimental buses did not hold up. According to Transdev (formerly Veolia Transportation, the operator of the service on behalf of the city) the fleet of gas powered "micro turbine" buses with that turbine designed to recharge the batteries of the otherwise electrically propelled bus was too weak and broke often. With its only model in trouble, the US maker of the buses, Design Line went belly up and the Charm City system was left with a dozen of now orphaned buses and hastliy ordered regular diesel buses to complement the original and innovative but fragile bus.

The next blow came when Barry Robinson the man in charge of the bus at DOT was suspected of having stolen from city coffers including not properly accounting for Circulator proceeds from advertising. Robinson was fired.

The much loved Baltimore Charm City Circulator was again in the headlines when it became clear that it was bleeding red ink and that it had not accounted for depreciation and replacement of its bus fleet. Had it been extended too fast? Had it lost its original focus on serving parking garages and being funded by them? Or did DOT learn that operating buses isn't so easy after all, even if the actual operations are performed by Veolia/Transdev). In November of last year the SUN reported:

Baltimore's popular Charm City Circulator is operating at a $11.6 million deficit, according to an analysis released Tuesday by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
The free bus service's deficit is projected to expand to $73.2 million over the next 10 years unless city officials figure out how to pay for it, according to the internal study. More than 4 million people use the Circulator each year.

The mayor said her administration is evaluating whether to eliminate routes or increase wait times, charge a fare or raise the tax on parking in city garages.
Rawlings-Blake said officials plan to first study ridership trends and that she wants to exhaust all options before considering a fare or parking-tax increase.

Cutting back?

Now the city seems to be pulling the emergency brake as reported by the SUN in a recent article. A consultant had analyzed the current Charm City system and proposed a number of drastic changes which in spite of some mayoral modifications, represent a major reduction in the popular service with a $3.1 million or near 30% reduction. These are the relevant $ figures for 2016 according to the SUN:

With the $3.1 million in proposed savings, the system is expected to cost $11.3 million in 2016, with $2.9 million coming from the general fund and $8.4 million coming from a tax on parking in city garages, state and other grant funding, and earned revenue. Among the grant funding is a $2 million annual state grant that ends in 2019.
Of the $2.9 million from the general fund, $2.2 million will fund a bus replacement reserve while $700,000 will reduce the deficit. Kleine said he is optimistic the system can become self-sustaining.

The $3.1. million of savings are to come from deletion of the Banner Route and reduced and shortened service on the green and orange lines. The general funds are largely used to account to stash away bus replacement resources but open the system to criticism in light of the many requirements that general funds have to meet.

How valuable is the Circulator?

To answer if the free downtown circulator really serves a transit purpose and serves a valuable role in Baltimore's future, one needs to see how this type of service fits into a larger context within several major national trends and issues:

The conservative agenda of questioning the cost of transit in general and the promotion of the idea that transit has to achieve a higher percentage of "fare-box recovery"
The progressive agenda of low environmental impacts and alternative (active) transportation
The urban renaissance fueled by two key demographics, the empty nester baby boomer generation and their offspring, the echo boomers or millenials, both strong in numbers and both interested in good transit, even though for different reasons.
A general interest in alternative funding methods stemming from public poverty and lack of traditional funding for public service
An increasing multitude of solutions for urban mobility including demand based systems like Uber and bike-share.
The heightened awareness of urban equity or rather the inequity.

Let's take a bigger look, then, to see what role urban circulators can and should play.

Economy:
Good transit makes a really strong economic development argument. In other words, if free dowtown transit attracts the two cohorts that can fuel city growth, whatever its typically moderate cost should easily be offset by gains in property and sales taxes from those new residents. Additionally, freeing up valuable downtown real estate by not using it for parking should also yield higher returns. A good example of this argument is Boulder, Colorado even though a careful balance needs to be struck where parking revenues are used to fund the free transit, in summary, there is value added from a well run added layer of transit that more than pays off what it costs to operate.

Social Justice

A vibrant downtown is supposed to be the place where all classes and races of the entire region meet for sports events, art and culture, festivals, shopping and work. It is clear that this ideal is not fully met in Baltimore with certain areas even in downtown resembling ethnic or class enclaves. Yet, there is no better area to pursue such the vision of integration.

Dubbed the 401, this downtown census tract experienced significant growth

The Charm City Circulator, however, needs to feed into the downtown adjacent communities not only to the south (Federal Hill), the North (Mount Vernon and Station North)) and the East (Fells Point) but also to the West where it currently ends at Hollins Market in the Poppleton Community and the North East (Currently Hopkins Hospital). Unfortunately, the proposed change adds access to better off communities such as Charles North and reduces service in the poorer communities. This is a wrong and hazardous move. If the green line doesn't have enough riders, it is due to a a very tortured alignment that isn't clear to anybody.

Protection of Oriole Park at recent Baltimore uprising

Innovation:
The Baltimore Circulator is an example of a creative alternative to the standard local transit model in that it has a principally sustainable funding source, creates public and private partnerships (via sponsors) and solves last miles problems and issues with the disjointed public transit system run my MTA. Free access clearly pays off as shorter boarding times bring increased efficiency, better fleet utilization and saves the significant cost for fare collection infrastructure and fare management. In their early phases alternative transit systems like circulators are exempted from many of the rules and regulations that often stifle traditional transit, allowing them to experiment and be nimble, which is adding to their allure.

Baltimore water taxi and commuter Connector" service
operate side by side in Fells Point

As in Baltimore, together with other city operated mobility solutions such as Baltimore's free water taxi commuter lines, circulators can be the seed for a potentially multi-modal last mile connector system that could include bike share, cable cars and demand based line taxis.

Conclusion

Specifically in Baltimore's where the largest planned traditional transit investment, the $3 billion Red

Bethesda, MD circulator

Line, is likely to become the victim of Republican transit austerity, cutting the Circulator back would shake the trust of investors and downtown residents that the city is really poised for better transit. Worse, the planned cuts are concentrated in the poorer sections of town while the one extension is planned towards a more affluent area, a mix that sends a disastrous signal.

Urban circulator transit service can be an important element in the multimodal tapestry of urban mobility. They add to what standard commuter oriented bus service can provide. If run fare free, in frequent schedule-free head ways, on predictable routes, if serving attractions destinations, jobs and dense residential areas and if based on a fair, equitable and sustainable funding stream circulators serve an important purpose for the vitality of American cities.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

External Links:
Implementation and Outcomes of Fare Free Transit

Private transit starting up in DC:http://www.bridj.com/dc-metro-service-area
Paying for Free Transit
A discussion about the DC Circulator

Related Articles on this Blog:
Water Taxi, Transportation between Uber and Bus
What it Takes to Provide a Bus Ride for 250,000 a Day

Are there easy Fixes to Make Transit Cool?