photo by: Mike Yoder

A Lawrence Transit System bus stops just south of Seventh and Vermont streets, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.

The city’s public transit system is a lot like my idea to sell commemorative egg cartons (the dozen variety) to celebrate the Jayhawks’ dozen league championships: They’re both great ideas, but apparently they are never going to break even.

The transit system should be no surprise. Transit systems all over the country routinely spend more than they bring in through ridership fares — usually a lot more. That certainly has been the case in Lawrence, which has caused a question to linger: Why not make the T free to ride and try to get as many people using the bus system as possible?

Well, it looks like the city is going to spend some time studying that idea. City commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday are being asked to spend $200,000 for a new transit study that will examine several issues, including the idea of a fare-free system.

If for some reason you don’t study the city’s transit budget, here are the basic numbers: The city expects to collect about $400,000 in fares in 2016. It expects to spend about $3 million to $4 million in operating expenses and quite a bit more in capital expenses.

So, the argument from proponents of a fare free system is that $400,000 is not doing much to offset the expenses of the transit system, but the fares — they are $1 for a standard one-way trip — may be serving as a deterrent for some people to ride the system. Plus, some people likely think it is an equity issue. The city doesn’t charge user fees for lots of services its provides, so why do so for something like public transit? There is not a single toll road that the city operates, some would point out.

The argument from people who support charging a fare is that $400,000 is still a substantial amount of money, and the city does charge user fees for some services. People who want to get a building permit, for example, pay a fee to have their projects inspected, even though the entire public benefits from having structures that aren’t built to unsafe standards.

It will be interesting to watch whether this issue gets much traction at City Hall. The most recent information I found is that there are only about 40 U.S. cities that have entire fare-free transit systems, although others make certain parts of their system free. This article last year in The Atlantic was negative on the idea of fare-free transit systems, although it primarily was looking at it from the standpoint of a big-city metro transit system.

The article does note a 2012 federal report that found university communities were one of the community types that has had some success implementing fare-free systems. In fact, Chapel Hill, N.C. — home to the University of North Carolina — is generally considered to be the largest fare-free transit system in the country, according to the federal report.

Whether it makes financial sense for a community to eliminate its fares isn’t clear from the report’s findings. But one issue that seems clear cut is that ridership will increase significantly if you eliminate a bus fare. “Providing fare-free public transit service is virtually certain to result in significant ridership increases no matter where it is implemented,” the report reads. It found that ridership usually increased 20 percent to 60 percent in a matter of just a few months.

The report, though, also notes that the increased ridership doesn’t often result in fewer vehicles being on the streets, which is the aim of some supporters of fare-free transit service. The report estimated that many times the increased ridership was coming from bicyclists or pedestrians or from people who already ride the bus but now are doing so more frequently. A big question is whether eliminating a relatively modest fare is enough of an incentive for people to give up the convenience of their car?

This $200,000 upcoming city study will look at that issue. But fear not, the city will get more than that for its $200,000. The study also will “include extensive data collection and analysis that will paint a picture of commuting patterns, latent demand, financial planning needs, operational deficiencies, how best to close those deficiencies given existing resources” and other issues, according to a city memo on the pending report.

The city has received a $150,000 grant to cover a portion of the report’s costs. General city tax dollars will fund the remaining costs.

City commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The issue to move forward with the report is on the commission’s consent agenda, which means it is scheduled to be routinely approved without comment, unless a member of the public asks for it to be moved to the regular agenda.

In other news and notes from around town:

• I’ve been writing for awhile now about how Lawrence has become a magnet for new chicken places. It was easy to see that this pending chicken battle was going to get messy, and I mean beyond the crispy breading in my whiskers.

Well, it looks like the first bit of pain will be for west Lawrence fans of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There is a sign on the KFC restaurant at 701 Wakarusa Drive stating that Feb. 29 will be the last day that the restaurant is open. The sign states the company’s other restaurant at 658 W. 23rd St. will remain open.

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In case you have forgotten, we recently reported that Zaxby’s chicken restaurant — a chain that focus on chicken wings and fingers — is slated to open in the Bauer Farm development near Sixth and Wakarusa. We’ve also reported on the Popeye’s that is under construction along south Iowa Street and several other chicken happenings crowding the poultry market in Lawrence.

No word yet on what may take the place of the KFC. Its building is part of the shopping center that includes Johnny’s West, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and several other establishments at the southwest corner of Sixth and Wakarusa. I’ll let you know if I hear of anything.