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Laurent Ye
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[Poll] What if public transports were free?
April 7, 2009 - 10:24 PM
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As published in the Weekly Green issue of March 29
The access to public transportation means differs from a region of the planet to another. For instance, the metropolitan area benefits from a better service in a certain place while in another, the costs of public transportations are lower. The bus is the most common mean of transport but it is also possible to find subways, trains, monorails and even trolleys. However, even with all of these differences, one common aspect remains when we talk about public transports: it costs money.
Now, imagine if public transportations were free! We could just walk in a bus without having to show anything. Imagine if we would never have to pay for monthly passes ever again! Wouldn’t that be great? Yes it would. The present article will aim at analyzing the impact of a free collective transport system. To be honest, I have never heard, nor imagined that public transport could be free until I dug up some information to write this article. I discovered that in certain places, people can indeed use public transport for no charge!
First of all, in order for the system to be free, it should be completely managed by the government or the municipal authorities. Private firms must be nationalized so that the management expenses can be paid by taxes. All of this is very nice, but this could considerably augment public expenditures. Well, the increase of the expenses would be a small sacrifice. Otherwise, it would be a win-win situation. Indeed, if the government provides free public transport, traffic jams, the number one enemy of the car drivers, will be eliminated. When people are going to realize that there is nothing to lose by taking the public transport (it is free after all) but that it is rather favorable for them (they won’t need to buy a car and pay the gasoline…), they will rush into buses and subways, deserting the streets. Noise and atmospheric pollution (GES and other chemical pollutants), will also disappear. Furthermore, parents will less worry when their children play on the street. Also, given that there is less circulation on roads, their expense of maintenance will also diminish. Parking lots, which are useless (from an environmental point of view), could be transformed into other things, such as residential blocks or green areas.
[...]
For more information, please visit weeklygreen.ca
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Laurent Ye
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
April 7, 2009 - 10:31 PM
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The sequel
The ecological advantages of a free public transport system do not stop there. The declining requests of cars will discourage the big constructors to erect anything. And so, they will build less but better, wasting fewer natural resources which can be used in other contexts. Speaking about wasting, there will also be fewer cars in the dumps, with which the authorities have no clue what to do with. Fewer cars mean less consumption of energy such as hydrocarbon. Therefore the contribution to counter climatic warming will increase significantly. Moreover, the gratuitous nature in public transport will eliminate the use of tickets and correspondences, generating less litter. This will save trees and diminish the quantity of waste created by these tickets. Besides, the bus drivers won’t need to check if everybody pays the precise sum to use the bus. This will take a good amount of their stress away so they could concentrate more on their driving. There will also be no more fraud, because there are still people who want to use the public transport without paying (now, they CAN use it without paying).
In addition, the increase of the users of the collective transport will augment the number of buses, which will diminish the waiting time considerably (imagine a bus every minute!). However, there is another effect in which I have a lot of hope: the unwarranted nature of transport together will push authorities to search for other ecological transport means to lower their emission of GES, but especially to lower their expenses of maintenance. For instance, the establishment of a trolley system to replace partly the bus system will have a huge impact because trolleys are fueled by electricity and their expenses of maintenance cost much less compared to the expenses for buses.
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Laurent Ye
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
April 7, 2009 - 10:31 PM
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The end
To conclude, I would like to cite an example of a Belgian municipality which took this initiative. The results are very desirable. Hasselt is the first city which established the system of zero-fare bus services (on July 1st, 1997). Less than ten years later, in 2006, the use of public transit increased 13 times and park bikes began to appear in Hasselt, according to the statements of the city. Even though the implantation of a free public transport system is becoming more and more popular, not many municipalities are ready to adopt it. More and more political parties begin to include free public transport in their plan but it remains that the citizens’ pressure is the most efficient way to get it.
Article by Laurent Ye
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Yashoda
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
April 8, 2009 - 03:13 PM
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Its nice to imagine that the transports be free and all the people using the means of transport...but what about the energy consumption and the environmental pollution that it will bring~!!!!!!!!
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Shweta
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
April 10, 2009 - 03:13 AM
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Free public transport will save a lot of my money if the services match the population. However, I wonder if I will have to pay more taxes for this to happen.
I think this can be a good step to shift people from cars to public transport but then its important to see not just that serivces match population but also the comfort that it can provide. And I think that everyone getting a comfortable ride to home and office is a difficult thing to Imagine right now in India. I hope for it to happen in next decade at least in Delhi.
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Laurent Ye
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
April 14, 2009 - 08:01 PM
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If the free public transport system succeeds, which means that people will use it massively, then the energy consumption will drop and this will generate a positive environmental balance. In fact, there are more buses on the road, then there will be less individual car, because those who will take the buses are former drivers.
I agree with the fact that this system will save a lot of money EVEN THOUGH taxes will go up. This rise of the taxe rates is the only major way to finance it (there're adds and others things too). What I disagree with you, Shweta, is that you consider the fact of paying more taxes as negative. Personally, I would take in consideration that I'll save money not using personal vehicle while paying more taxes. Moreover, if we look at this in a more general way, we would see more positive things than negative ones. However, I can't deny the fact that the comfort will drop a lot. For this, the only solution I have in mind (right now) is that people who choose comfort over a cleaner way of transport will have to pay for this "luxury". In this case, we have to make sure that the money generated by this "luxury taxes" will be invested in environment.
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Stephen Ojeremen
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
June 11, 2009 - 04:39 PM
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If governments introduce free transportation system in our society,there would be relief of environmental pollution,of course less fear of global warming.
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Tom
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
June 12, 2009 - 06:10 AM
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if public transport was free i'd probably cycle, as the roads would be less busy. right now theres too many cars and i dont feel safe cycling. so that wud be an added positive impact at least with me.
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Stephen Ojeremen
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
June 12, 2009 - 09:33 AM
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tommeh wrote:
if public transport was free i'd probably cycle, as the roads would be less busy. right now theres too many cars and i dont feel safe cycling. so that wud be an added positive impact at least with me.This matter is very serious.We might choose to take it lightly,but it's a serious issue.What could be the experience to find our environment is free from pollution generated by vehicles day in day out,365-6 days a year etc.? Creating free transportation in the first place would threaten the monster called GLOBAL-WARMING.
My 1cent opinion!
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Laurent Ye
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Re: [Poll] What if public transports were free?
June 13, 2009 - 11:26 AM
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tommeh wrote:
if public transport was free i'd probably cycle, as the roads would be less busy. right now theres too many cars and i dont feel safe cycling. so that wud be an added positive impact at least with me.
As cycling is more and more popular, building bike-only road is also to be considered, especially in the establishment of new roads.
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