A right to mobility – for everyone

The motto governing public transport policy in the city of Hasselt in the east of Belgium is: "The city guarantees the right of mobility for everyone."

Hasselt has embarked on a bold experiment, now entering its second decade, which is a model to other cities in Europe: free public transport for everyone in the city.

In the mid-1990s Hasselt sought to persuade De Lijn, the Flemish transit company, to upgrade an inadequate bus system. De Lijn resisted at first, describing Hasselt’s plan as "too ambitious", according to Daniel Lambrechts, a civil servant for mobility in the city. By the time De Lijn eventually agreed to upgrade Hasselt’s bus system, the city had become even more ambitious. Local buses would be free for everyone to use and regional buses would be free for local residents with an identity card.

According to Lambrechts, in the decade since the free bus service was unveiled: "If we hadn’t done anything, we would have had 3 million passengers. Instead we’ve had 35 million." Before the upgraded system, Hasselt had nine buses and 18 drivers, now it has 40 buses and 70 drivers. According to a local survey in the first year of free service, student use of public transport went from 9.3% to 23.35%. Car use was cut from 26% to 21%.

"It makes it a lot easier to convince people to use collective transport modes when they are free," says Jan Christiaens, who manages a project aimed at getting residents of Hasselt’s Ekkelgarden apartments to use sustainable means of transport. But Christiaens is quick to point out that "taxes have to be paid to make those transport modes free" and Hasselt’s citizens are hardly getting something for nothing. Since transport in Belgium’s Flemish region is not the responsibility of individual communes, the city must pay De Lijn for revenue lost through unpaid fares. When Hasselt began offering free bus tickets, De Lijn sought to make up 9% of costs through fares, which meant Hasselt paid about €280,000 for the first half-year of free service in 1997, according to Lambrechts. By last year, De Lijn sought to make up 26% of costs through ticket revenue, meaning Hasselt owed about €1.4 million.

According to José Gómez-Ibáñez, professor of urban planning at Harvard’s Kennedy school of government, schemes such as Hasselt’s might be a good way of getting more people to use the bus, but they are an imperfect way of combating the pollution and congestion inflicted on a city by cars. A better way to combat problems associated with excess driving is through a direct charge aimed at those who cause them. Gómez-Ibáñez uses London’s infamous ‘congestion charge’ for driving into the city-centre as an example. But such solutions are politically unpopular and "it’s easier to offer carrots than sticks", he points out.

Still, cutting down on car-related problems was only one aim in Hasselt’s plan. Another was "to get people out of their houses to go shopping, meet each other, etc…". At least that part of the strategy can be deemed a success, says Lambrechts.

The motto governing public transport policy in the city of Hasselt in the east of Belgium is: "The city guarantees the right of mobility for everyone."