This article makes it sound like free public transportation is a new idea. It pops up in Toronto every so often as if it was the first time it was every thought up(1).

In fact this has been tried numerous (perhaps hundreds) of times, both in the past and ongoing(2,3). You would think that the pluses and minuses would be well understood by now. Why is it so hard for transportation systems to learn from each other?

(1) - http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-transformation-of-urban-lif...

(2) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport#List_of_t...

(3) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_public_transport_r...