Public transport – why it should be free at the point of use
What does it take to move the nation? From cart to coal, from pump to plug, how we power movement has changed monumentally over (compared to our history) a fraction of a moment. It seems accepted that a sign of a developed nation is the ownership of a car1. But what does it cost?
Road maintenance has been between £5 billion and £2 billion each year2. Meanwhile the nation spends around another £25 billion a year maintaining the private car fleet3. That’s a total of (using the later figures) £27 billion a year being spent on private transport – most of which is being shouldered privately. In the 2024/25 financial year, the total government borrowing figure was £150 billion4.
Over the next few posts I’d like to ask (and hopefully answer) the following questions:
- How much would we spend if we made public transport free at the point of use?
- How much would we need to invest to make public transport a viable option for more journeys? (A notably vague target)
- What would we get back in economic activity? (Or lose)
- What are the moral and social implications?
- What are the health implications?
- Can we make our cities and towns nicer to live in?
For now, I’m going to talk about my assumptions, and my gut feel about what the outcome will be. Fundamentally I think this will be the final result:
It will be extraordinarily expensive, but will bring improved public health, happiness, and equality. Towns and cities will be prettier, less congested, less polluted, and quieter. Journeys will be slightly harder and more cumbersome.
The size of cars
The average occupancy of a car is about 1.5 people5, and has a footprint of around 7.5 m2 or higher – (the Ford Puma, successor to the Fiesta, is 7.56). That’s around a minimum of 5 m2 per average person (who doesn’t exist).
That doesn’t account for the gap between cars driving, both ahead/behind and to the sides, nor does it account for the fact that space needs to be allocated for cars to park.
It is a phenomenal amount of space dedicated to cars in our current towns and cities. From wide roads, to car parks, to traffic infrastructure like roundabouts. There was a fantastically misguided advert for the Saturn Ion which bizarrely chose to show exactly how much space we take up per person – I highly recommend checking it out on YouTube here.
Think of the nearest two car parks in your town. I’m confident that it won’t take long. Now imagine what you would do with those spaces, if you could.
A utopia, by any other name
What would I do? I’d make those spaces alive.
Places to sit, eat, drink, play. Or community gardens, with herbs – fragrant and wafting. A summer weekend has local food stalls; independent makers of soaps, jewellery, and art; and fresh produce. In other words a market.
Maybe a space for local artists to paint. To bring vibrancy and colour to the community. Or a stage upon which the world is entertained.
Imagine the summer air, hot but clear of smoke and fumes. Hustle and bustle. Ice cream is scooped, coffees flow, and tills chirp as businesses heave. Wise adults shake angry fists at petulant youths daring to run, and scream, and play.
What space we could have if we choose not to pave it. If we choose not to smother the earth and fell the trees. What colour we could have if we only stop painting the world black.
What opportunities arise if we open areas for small businesses?
What damages do we limit if we provide ground area for rain to soak into?
The cost of idyll
What does it take to get to that point? We’d need to invest heavily in public transport – bus links to bring people in from outer edges, or small villages. Final-mile personal transport hire (bikes, scooters, or the next great idea) for ease of zipping around town. Trams and tubes for cities. Fast trains for commuting and moving around the country.
That last line almost definitely will make you think of HS2 and its associated costs. The fact we’ve reached this point is, frankly, a catastrophe. But it needn’t be that way. We already have space and infrastructure dedicated to an aging rail network. We already have space and infrastructure dedicated to bus links. We already have space to set aside for paths, cycleways, and scooter parking.
We have everything we need, except for someone with the power to rip up what we know and overhaul the system. We need to encourage systematic change to allow investment in public mobility. We need to force a change in metric to look at improving quality of life instead of economic output – to reduce economic inequality and increase community capability.
The actual cost is for another day. For now, it is sufficient only to sell the dream.
- https://www.planetizen.com/node/58169 ↩︎
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/440173/road-infrastructure-maintenance-expenditure-in-united-kingdom/ ↩︎
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/533163/annual-vehicle-operation-maintenance-and-repair-expenditure-trend-uk/#:~:text=This%20statistic%20shows%20the%20annual%20expenditure%20on,maintenance%20and%20repair%20of%20personal%20transport%20equipment. ↩︎
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/282796/uk-government-borrowing/ ↩︎
- https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts09-vehicle-mileage-and-occupancy ↩︎
Thoughts on a better Britain 
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