A spectacular year?

Public Transport – a spectacular year?

http://transportblog.co.nz/2011/03/25/2010-pt-patronage-–-a-spectacular-year/

It is good that there is an overall percentage increase of public transport use of 8%.
But is it enough?

In a world where private transport is one of the leading causes of CO2 pollution and resulting climate change, to really make a difference we need percentage changes of hundreds and thousands of percent increase in public transport usage.

The present profit driven free market public transport model will never cut it.
Fare Free New Zealand points out that the way to achieve the sort of increase we need is to make all public transport fare free.

According to Wikipedia Public transport in Hasselt This Belgium city saw an increase in public transport usage by 100% in it’s first year of introducing fare free city wide public transport. Since then increases in public transport have topped 1300% ridership increase.
Apart from this phenomenal increase in public transport patronage Wikipedia lists a range of other benefits.

Wikipedia
Operational benefits
Transport operators can benefit from faster boarding and shorter dwell times, allowing faster timetabling of services. Although some of these benefits can be achieved in other ways, such as off-vehicle ticket sales and modern types of electronic fare collection, zero-fare transport avoids equipment and personnel costs.

Passenger aggression may be reduced. In 2008 bus drivers of Société des Transports Automobiles (STA) in Essonne held strikes demanding zero-fare transport for this reason. They claim that 90% of the aggression is related to refusal to pay the fare.[2]

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Commercial benefits
Some zero-fare transport services are funded by private businesses (such as the merchants in a shopping mall) in the hope that doing so will increase sales or other revenue from increased foot traffic or ease of travel. Employers often operate free shuttles as a benefit to their employees, or as part of a congestion mitigation agreement with a local government.

Community benefits
Zero-fare transport can make the system more accessible and fair for low-income residents.[citation needed] Other benefits are the same as those attributed to public transport generally:

Road traffic can benefit from decreased congestion and faster average road speeds, fewer traffic accidents, easier parking, savings from reduced wear and tear on roads
Environmental and public health benefits including decreased air pollution and noise pollution from road traffic
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Global benefits
Global benefits of zero-fare transport are also the same as those attributed to public transport generally. If use of personal cars is discouraged, zero-fare public transport could mitigate the problems of global warming and oil depletion.

Interestingly one of the other major benefits of a fare free public transport system is that it actually may work out as cheaper.
Are free buses the answer to Bristol City’s transport problems

A spokesman for Free Bus said: “Bristol City Council subsidises the bus network for £4.7 million per year, whilst entirely free public transport in Hasselt, Belgium, costs £4.2 million per year. The cost of a fully loaded short-hop bus journey is 23p per passenger.”
When you think about the £2 or £3 fares you currently pay for a bus journey in the city and the profits they must be making you wonder why we haven’t aleady pursued this Free Bus initiative.

Jenny

27 March 2011 - a response to posting on NZ blog: the Standard entitled: 'Steven Joyce [Transport Minister] still living in the 20th century.'