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In December of 2002, the California Urban Water Conservation Councilpublished a research report on "Free Riders in Ultra-Low Flow Toilet Programs." Thereport outlined the findings of a study that examined four different toilet replacementprograms conducted by California water utility agencies."Free riders" are defined as program participants who, without the water agency'sULFT program, would nonetheless still have replaced their toilets. Since wateragencies do not get the incremental conservation benefits from serving free riders, itbecame important to try to identify the bounds of the free ridership phenomenon. TheCalifornia Urban Water Conservation Council undertook this study with the partialsupport of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to try to put some perspective on theproblem.The study was conducted using telephone surveys, canvassing both single andmulti-family households that had participated in one of the four ULFT replacementprograms. The results that were compiled were surprising: in these four differentprograms, the rates varied tremendously - from 17% to a whopping 62%.The reasons for the spread are the subject of this paper. It is clear that ULFTprogram design is a driving factor in reducing free ridership. This paper explores thedifferent factors that led to the high and low free ridership rates, and offers specificadvice to water utilities designing conservation programs to help them minimize theimpact. Includes tables, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/11/2004 Number of Pages: 11File Size: 1 file , 260 KB