I think most of the cause of roadway deterioration is heavy commercial traffic.

Portland has a fare-free zone downtown. San Francisco is considering providing free Muni passes to youth.

"Free" is a great inducement for those who might not otherwise consider mass transit.

I got the idea from a recent trip to Nashville where they have 3-4 lines around the downtown area,, nice feeling to just get on the bus and go anywhere around the downtown core for free.

At least for routes that are well-served by public transit.

Chapel Hil Transit is probably the largest fare-free transit system in the world. The buses within Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and UNC are free to everyone.

We raised local property taxes and student fees to support the system. The only exceptions with fares are special shuttles to sporting events and such and regional routes to other towns.

Ridership rose dramatically the first few years. Is now sustainably high. Nit having to collect fares makes the system run more quickly loading and unloading.

Biggest savings are not in maintenance, but in the cost of building more parking and roads, roads that would threaten the very nature of our community. It changes how we do little things (hop on the bus for a series of short trips) and big things (zone for high density near transport). We recently passed local transportation taxes for buses and light rail.