The impact of ‘‘free’’ public transport: The case of Brussels Astrid De Witte a , Cathy Macharis a, * , Pierre Lannoy b , Ce ´line Polain b , The ´re `se Steenberghen c , Stefaan Van de Walle c a Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium b Universite ´ Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium c Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, Leuven, Belgium Received 23 June 2005; accepted 13 December 2005 Abstract Public transport subsidies play an important role in the present Belgian mobility policy. The introduction of ‘‘free’’ bus transport in Hasselt in 1997 was an important event. Later, the Flemish government in cooperation with the regional pub- lic transport company elaborated the so-called ‘‘third-payer system’’ for target groups. The price of public transport is not paid by the user or the provider, but partly or completely by a ‘‘third party’’. In how far these measures contribute to a more sustainable mobility system has caused much debate. In the academic year 2003–2004, a ‘‘free public transport’’ initiative was introduced for the students of Flemish colleges and universities in Brussels. These students had the opportunity to obtain a refunded annual season ticket on Brussels pub- lic transport. Brussels was selected for the case study, because in the same city there is a group of students that benefits from the measure, and another group (students from French speaking universities and colleges) that does not. In order to examine the effects of this measure, we conducted a survey among the students to examine their present travel behaviour (number of trips, motives, modal choice ...) and the changes with the travel behaviour of the previous year. In addition we compare the current travel behaviour between the students benefiting from the measure, and those who do not. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Public transport; Pricing; Mobility; Mental map 1. Introduction: Free public transport Since the 2003–2004 academic year, a part of the student population from higher institutions in Brussels can apply for a refunded annual season ticket to urban public transport. We use quotation marks because—as is clarified later in the paper—this ticket is, in fact, not entirely free. The measure was introduced by the Flemish (Flemish speaking) Community for students from Flemish speaking colleges and universities. 0965-8564/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tra.2005.12.008 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: adewitte@vub.ac.be (A. De Witte), Cathy.Macharis@vub.ac.be (C. Macharis), lannoy@anso.ucl.ac.be (P. Lannoy), polain@anso.ucl.ac.be (C. Polain), therese.steenberghen@sadl.kuleuven.be (T. Steenberghen), stefaan.vandewalle@sadl.kuleuven.be (S. Van de Walle) Transportation Research Part A 40 (2006) 671–689 www.elsevier.com/locate/tra