The Tallinn experiment: what happens when a city makes public transport free?
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The charge for public transportation is also quite regressive. Everyone who uses it pays the same regardless of income level (which means poor people pay a much higher share of their income), and poor people are more likely to use public transportation anyway.
Also, removing the charge also saves a lot of public transport infrastructure unnecessary. No more turnstiles, no more ticket-checking people! I guess additional security would have to be hired, but I think in the end it would probably lower costs and increase efficiency.
This is a good idea, more cities than just Tallinn should try it.
But for public transportation, that doesn't apply. You cannot overuse public transportation. People have jobs - they don't decide to ride the subway for ten hours per day just because its free of charge. At most, they can take the subway instead of biking or walking and there's no harm in that.
Public transportation should be seen as an extension of the sidewalk, free to access and traverse for anyone that has a place they need to be.
Moreover, hospitals really ought to be a perfect example of a thing that's harmless to offer in excess and hence can be made a free public good. All it takes is for the triage process to do a correct Bayesian evaluation of your medical history — that is, to take note of the fact that you are known to have shown up at hospital every week and nothing has ever been found to be wrong — and then treat you only for what you are likely to have.