Public transport use soars in Montpellier a year after becoming free
Public transport use soars in Montpellier a year after becoming free
Montpellier introduced free public transport to combat the climate crisis and to ease the cost of living for its residents.
ItS Not FreE, YoU StIlL HaVe tO pAy fOR iT sOmeHOw.
Yeah no shit, that's exactly what taxes are for. Providing services to the masses, not giving handouts to the richest.
I wonder who do they think that pays for car infrastructure (gas stations, roads, road patches, gas subsidies, etc.)
They think gasoline taxes pay for it. Reality is that's a drop in the bucket because no politician wants to index it to inflation.
Gas Stations pay for themselves. Otherwise its also tax based.
Still completely free public transport is not a good idea instead of investing in a high quality offering. (Higher Frequencies, Better Vehicles, more dense network). Because People usually take the car because it is more convenient, its always more expensive than public transport.
And in the past, free offerings have just diminished people walking or taking the bicycle, but no shift Car>Public Transit
I think the criticism is valid, not in favour of cars but in terms of future sustainability. Public transport infrastructure needs investment to keep it growing and improving. There is a risk with a free system that the focus in each budget is the battle around just covering the day to day costs, and the future investment gets put aside constantly as a problem for another day. This is typical behaviour of politicians, and makes the public transport organisations entirely dependent on politicians for their budget.
However that problem applies to a lesser extent with systems that do get revenue from users, it's just that they are less completely reliant on politicians and their yearly budgets. It's ultimately all about political will and a willingness to prioritise transport investment over other public spending.
I do think the scheme is a good thing, I'm just dubious that the political will to sustain it will persist long term. However hopefully this will spread to other European cities and whole countries and so become a normal idea alongside investment for future expansion and upgrades.
What does the battle between investing in the future v. just keeping the day-to-day running have to do with whether the system is (part-)financed through tickets?
I don't see any connection, maybe even the inverse of what you say: Infrastructure needs long-term planning, and having a stable financial framework rather than fickle ticket sales is great for long-term planning.
Good take. Agree completely.
In more general terms, in a market-based society we tend to equate cost with value. For people who buy expensive watches the high price tag is a bonus. Artists seek sponsorship in the form of a Patreon subscription with supposed "perks" that give the buyer an impression of getting better value.
The risk with "free stuff" will always be that it is perceived as having no value and treated accordingly.
That's a good take, it's obviously not perfect and could easily be derailed by shitty planning and politics. But it needs to be done and built upon to secure it in the long run.
No way, people actually use public transport if it's cheaper than using a car (if you already have one anyway)!?
*surprised Pikachu*
This is only part of the equation, unfortunately - free transit that is of significantly worse in terms of travel time/reliability/accessibility/comfort won't get used at significantly higher rates.
This is why some transit advocates consider free transit to be an inferior use of funds when compared to investments in the system as a whole, which I think is a fair point.
I'd of course like to see both, as ticketing systems contribute negatively to the overall quality of the system (paying for tickets/passing through ticket gates slows down the system, ticket checkers represent an unpleasant ritual in the system).
Free in Luxemburg for 4 years. Admittedly not all countries have fiscal havens revenues to fund this
https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/living/mobility/public-transport.htmlI just had a brainwave that I would like to see data on...
It is obvious that use of public transport will soar when it is free, but how much does car use decline at the same time?
If it is enough to significantly reduce road ware, then you can take money from that budget and use to finance public transport.
I wonder however if the reduced car use will also result in lower income from taxes from petrol sales and road tax...
I believe some studies from Tallinn indicated that the primary effect was increased utilization from existing transit riders, unfortunately.
In any case, due to the Fourth power law, practically all road wear is caused by freight vehicles.
Induced (and latent) demand still holds. So if someone is enticed out of a car by this, they'll likely be replaced by another driver.
And in the case of enticing walkers and bikers into transit, nothing is really gained, and it might actually have a negative public health effect.
If you want to reduce car traffic, restricting it is the way to go—price signals on driving and parking work well, as do restrictions on where you can drive and park.
And to get people to use transit, it has to be efficient—not stuck in car traffic, frequent enough, reliable and reasonably direct. And of course, pricing is important as well.
So correct policy will vary by location and situation. E.g. if transit is already jam-packed, reducing the price will be the wrong way to budget; capacity increases should be the top priority. But if the other metrics are good but ridership kind of lacking, dropping the price should improve the ridership. It ain't exactly rocket science, but there's also no silver bullet.
I lived there to go to university at the beginning of the year. It was crazy to have my free card, the administration was so nice.
Montpellier is not perfect but they are trying and are in the process of succeeding. Urbanization is top notch with many green public spaces, libraries, and everything is cyclable.
They also cracked down on cars in the city center. No wonder why Montpellier is one of the best city to live in / study.