China is switching to public transport

Free bus rides offered to ease road congestion

China Daily. 11 Oct 2012
 

Authorities are offering free bus rides in downtown areas of Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, in a bid to encourage the use of public transport and ease the city's traffic gridlock.

A man gets on a fare-free bus in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, Oct 10, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

From Wednesday, 33 bus routes operating on, and in-between, Chengdu's Second and Third Ring roads will be free of charge.
Another 11 free bus routes will start operation by the end of this month.
The move comes as local authorities introduced traffic restrictions in the same area the free buses will operate.
As of Monday, the last two numbers on a car's license plate will determine when it is permitted to drive in the downtown areas of Chengdu. Monday's numbers are 1 and 6, Tuesday is 2 and 7, Wednesday 3 and 8, Thursday 4 and 9, and Friday 5 and 0.
The traffic control measures will be in force between 7:30 am and 8 pm. There are no restrictions on weekends.
The free bus rides and traffic restrictions will be in force until June 30 next year.
Chengdu joins Beijing and a number of provincial capital cities in China by introducing strict traffic control measures.

Growing congestion
Local transport authorities said traffic control is easing road congestion in urban areas and reducing traffic pollution.
Chengdu has more than 2.1 million vehicles. Since 2006, the number of vehicles has increased at an annual rate of 20 percent, Chengdu Daily reported.
The construction of new subway lines, road expansion and the building of new road exchanges have further aggravated congestion.
"It looks like there are construction sites everywhere in Chengdu now," said Li Xiao-yong, a local taxi driver. "More often than not, I advise my passengers to get out of my car and take a motorbike taxi if they are in a hurry," he said.
The congestion has also cut his daily turnover from more than 600 yuan ($90) to 450 yuan.
The average road speed during rush hour in the city was only 13 km per hour as of August, Chengdu Daily reported.
Traffic has also been a major source of pollution in the city.
Tu Zhi, deputy director of the transport committee of Chengdu, told a news conference on Sept 12 that Chengdu will have another 2,000 buses on its streets by the end of this year and the city's seniors will be permitted to take a total of 900 free bus rides every year from October.
Along with the free bus rides, the local subway company will offer residents a 20 percent discount when they use subway payment cards.
Wang Yu, a manager of bus routes from Chengdu Public Transport Group Co, said the free bus service is aimed at encouraging more residents to refrain from using private vehicles and switch to using public transport.
Luo Chuyi, 63, was among the first group of local residents to ride on the free buses on Wednesday.
Luo's son runs a flower plantation in the western part of Chengdu, so she decided to help deliver the flowers from her son's plantation to suburban areas using the bus.
"Delivering the flowers by taking public transport is good exercise for me," she said.
Gao Bo, a bus driver whose bus route is in the city's First Ring road area, hopes the free bus rides will be extended to other areas of the city to ease congestion.

Contact the writers at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn and huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn

China makes bus travel free to encourage public transport

In a bid to encourage people to choose public transportation, the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, waived bus fares and offered discounts on metro fares from today.
According to a spokesman with the Chengdu Municipal Public Transport Group Corp, the free bus fare policy will remain in effect until June 30 next year.
Today, 33 bus routes went fare-free, and the number will increase to 44 by the end of the month.
The mega-city on Monday introduced a regulation ordering some vehicles off the streets on certain days depending on the license plate numbers, a system that has also been carried out in Beijing and some other Chinese cities to help ease traffic congestion.
However, the vehicle restriction and bus fare exemption policy brought new troubles this morning, drawing larger-than-ever crowds to bus and metro stations, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Many netizens vented on Sina Weibo, China's popular microblogging service, complaining that they could not catch a bus in the morning.
"Today, I was lost in Chengdu's chaotic public transport system," wrote netizen 'Hejin firefly'.
The company will continue to improve public transport services by adding bus shuttles and opening more bus routes, among other measures, to cope with increasing demand for public transport, the spokesman for the public transport company said.
Despite the complaints, citizens in other Chinese cities such as Nanjing, Ningbo and Shenzhen called for other cities to usher in such incentives.
Like all big cities in China, Chengdu sees heavy traffic jams, especially during weekday rush hours, with drivers complaining about slow movement of vehicles during peak traffic times in the city's downtown.
The three cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have restricted the purchase of new cars to ease traffic on the roads.

Indian Express. 10 Oct 2012. Beijing

 

Helsinki eyes Tallinn's free public transport plans

City officials in Helsinki are keeping a sharp eye on a trial of free public transport in the Estonian capital, Tallinn. Helsinki's city planning office may re-evaluate the impact of a similar move if the Estonian venture proves viable.

Helsinki may re-evaluate the benefits of free public transport. Image: YLE

As of the start of next year, residents of Tallinn will travel free of charge on the city's busses, trolleys and trams.
Up until now, officials in Helsinki have judged free public transport as not worth implementing for environmental purposes. A study on the issue indicated that such a move would reduce travel by foot and bicycle more than it would cut back the use of private cars in urban areas.
Additionally, the city would continue to have costs for operating public transport, without however, the revenues from ticket sales.
Planning officials are now, though, keeping an open mind and may re-evaluate the situation in light of the results of the upcoming trial in Tallinn.

Source: Uutiset News 26/9/2012

Free bus passes 'have health benefits', UK study suggests

 

Free bus passes encourage the over-60s to be more physically active, whether they are poor or wealthy, say UK researchers.

Free bus travel for over-60s in England was introduced in 2006 but there is pressure for the scheme to be scrapped.
In a study, in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers analysed data on the travel habits of 16,900 people over four years.
They say the scheme "may offer value for money" among older people.
The Imperial College London study examined data from the National Travel Survey from 2005, the year before free bus passes were introduced, until 2008. They looked at the travel diaries of 11,218 people with a free bus pass and 5,693 without a pass.
The percentage of respondents with a free bus pass increased from 56.8% to 74.7% between 2005 and 2008.
Over the same period there was an increase in the percentage of bus pass holders walking three or more times a week and the study found that these people were more likely to undertake any 'active travel' - which was defined as walking, cycling or using public transport.

"Although the costs of the scheme are considerable, it may offer value for money as it seems to promote physical activity among older people...”

Sophie Coronini-Cronberg Imperial College London.

 

After analysing different sub-groups of bus pass holders, the study found that women over the age of 70 and living in London or in urban areas were significantly more likely to use buses and walk three or more times a week than those without bus passes.

BBC report 12 Sept 2012.

You wont need a ticket - just climb on board

Tallinn City is preparing for free public transport

28.08.2012

Tallinn City Government has proposed a bill to City Council which regulates the use of free public transport. According to the draft regulation, all legitimate citizens of Tallinn (Estonia) will be allowed to use public transportation free of charge as of January 1st 2013.

In addition to Tallinners and groups that are already entitled to ride free regardless of their place of residence, the bill also enables free public transport to all students, whether they are registered citizens or not.

The act also ordains the implementation of an innovative ticket and free ride validation system. The system of paper tickets will expire from January 1st 2013 and the new means of purchasing and validating the right to ride in public transport wil be the innovative e-card.

The new e-ticket system will be implemented on September 21st 2012, and the paper tickets will expire on January 1st 2013. The use of e-card will thereof be mandatory for Tallinners and students who wish to ride free in public transport. The system of ID-tickets will remain unexpired until March 31st 2013.

In comparison to the current act, the new bill reduces the number of different types of tickets by nineteen. Among others, the possibility to purchase tickets with mobile phone will stay in effect.

Those users of the public transport who are not, according to the Population Register, residents of Tallinn, will have to buy e-tickets or electronic period cards as paper tickets will be abolished.

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Post-fossil Conversion & Free Public Transport

Extracts from a recent German analysis

By Michael Brie and Mario Candeias.

"A free public transport system is part of a process of transformations toward a Green Socialism ..and the earth would become a home."


Part I.
Private E-Car vs. Public Transport for free – Real Dystopia vs. Concrete Utopia
Michael Brie
Crises create opportunities to set long-range goals for the future. A key question is that of urban mobility in a world in which the great majority of the world’s population will soon live in cities of over a million inhabitants, many of them in metropolitan conurbations.
Broadly speaking, there are two possible alternatives: one, the US system of mobility centred on private, petrol-driven cars can be ecologically modernized and expanded to embrace the globe by switching to electric-powered cars; or, two, public transport can be ecologized and made more flexible.
For historical reasons the factors determining which of these alternatives will be chosen are very different and path-dependent. Whereas rapid transit systems have largely disappeared from many US metropolises, European metropolises are characterized by mixed systems. In many metropolises of the southern hemisphere the car-based mobility of the rising middle classes coexists with the exclusion of large sections of the city-dwelling poor from urban mobility. Long-term experiments with a free-of-charge public transport system could act as a global model.

Part II.
Conversion.
Towards a Eco-Socialist Economy of Reproduction
Mario Candeias
How to get from here to there? A Free Public Transport system is deeply connected to the conversion of the car industry and specific modes of dealing with contradictions of a transformative process. The car industry is facing strong challenges between crisis of overproduction, booming demand from «emerging markets’, spatial relocation and ecological necessities. Conversion and a just transition for the workers and communities affected face several strategic dilemma. The paper elaborates on union and (eco)movement strategies and short comings, trying to draw on a political method and projects, which create communalities out of different interests at the same time as appreciating differences. The protagonist of such a process of transformation towards a Green Socialism can only be a «mosaic left» oriented towards participation, which enables people to become «the drivers of their own history» (Eric Mann 2001)

International conference to discuss introduction of free public transport in Tallinn, Estonia, & other EU cities

"Free public transport in Tallinn – a brave step towards the green capital"

Smart and green growth forum
Tallinn 26 October 2012: International Conference Tallinn City.

The City of Tallinn/Estonia has a challenging project to start providing free public transport to its residents from January 1, 2013. With this step, Tallinn will safeguard social cohesion of local community granting equal mobility opportunities to all social strata. For many car drivers, free public transport will be a major incentive to switch to public transport thus reducing pollution and noise, and, in the long run, this will improve living standards of all citizens.

The conference in Tallinn on October 26, 2012 aims at bringing together representatives of local and regional governments, practitioners and stakeholders to discuss in an open forum the challenges, problems and opportunities of such initiative. We introduce the project of free public transport in Tallinn, share experiences of the cities that have already implemented free public transport (fully or partly) in urban areas, as well as generate discussion with other EU capitals and metropolis, partner cities of Tallinn and cities, active in international organizations and networks focusing on transport and environment issues.

Target groups of participants:
Capitals and metropolis, partner cities of Tallinn and cities, active in international organizations and networks focusing on transport and environment issues, representatives of local and regional governments, practitioners and stakeholders to share experiences of the cities that have already implemented free public transport (fully or partly) in urban areas.

More information:
www.tallinn.ee/freepublictransport

Electric cars will save us all: Yeah right!

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:09 am, June 1st, 2012 - 53 comments
Categories: sustainability, transport - Tags: 

You know how, whenever someone points out that spending $12 billion on highways that make no economic sense makes even less sense when you consider that people are driving less because of the price of petrol and will only reduce their driving more in the face of even higher petrol prices, some idiot says ‘we’ll just invent alternatives, drive electric!’. Yeah, it ain’t happening.

Leaving aside the problem that there’s not enough lithium producable for all the batteries we would need, there’s just no way that the take-up of electric cars is going to be sufficiently fast to make a big difference to the oil-intensity of driving in New Zealand.
There are 46 electric cars registered in New Zealand, out of 3.4 million. That’s up from 25 in 2007. At the current (let’s assume exponential) rate of increase, it will reach 350 by 2022.
By that time, petrol prices will be $5 a litre.
Even if every car registered from now on was electric (and that wouldn’t be possible even if New Zealand bought the world’s whole electric car production), over half the fleet in 2022 would be oil-driven because most cars that will be on the road in 2022 are already on the road. The average age of the car fleet is 13.59 years and that’s increased by 1.5 years in the past five years and 2 years in the past ten.
People aren’t responding to high oil prices by buying electric cars: they’re responding by keeping their old cars and driving them less (traffic volumes have been falling for nearly all of the past four years and vehicle kilometres travelled are down about 7% per capita from peak)
MoT projects that 85-90% of vehicles will still be conventional in 2030. Indeed, the likelihood of ongoing weak growth and high fuel prices leaves businesses and families with less capital for investment in new vehicles.
All of which makes the daydreams of people who say ‘yeah, we should spend $12 billion on uneconomic roads, because we’ll all drive on them in electric cars’ even more fanciful.

From 'the Standard' 1 June 2012

Smart Transport Network

- advocating for sustainable and integrated transport choices in New Zealand. Check out the website at: smarttransport.co.nz

The Network:

Cycling Advocates Network
WWF New Zealand
350 Aotearoa
Greenpeace
Rail and Maritime Union
Brake
Public Transport Voice
Cycling Auckland
SAVE OUR RAIL, Northland
Save Kapiti
TransAction
Generation Zero

Transport dominates every aspect of our lives, our health, the form of our communities, our environment, economy and our personal financial well-being.
Smart Transport means providing a full spectrum of appropriate, sustainable and integrated transport choices.
The Smart Transport Network has been formed following the Smart Transport Conference, held in parliament buildings in August 2011, to present a new collective national voice, with an international perspective on transport solutions.
The Smart Transport Network will advocate for smart, modern solutions and development that make more efficient use of transport spending and encourage infra structural priorities that will serve the community now and into the future.
Smart transport choices..

• are integrated, universally accessible, and not private car dependent,
• will be viable now and in the future, and less dependent on overseas resources,
• are affordable for governments and individuals,
• enable resilient communities and individual independence,
• support good public health, particularly in terms of obesity and air pollution,
• are environmentally sustainable, reducing our carbon footprint,
• include institutional goals for mode shift, with achievable medium term benefits.

The Network is already backed by: Cycling Advocates Network, WWF New Zealand, 350 Aotearoa, Greenpeace, Rail and Maritime Transport Union, Brake, Public Transport Voice, along with many local issue groups such as Save Kapiti, Cycling Auckland, TransAction, and Save Our Rail – Northland.

All electric, fare free bus fleet for South Carolina city:

Seneca city bus company honored at White House » Anderson Independent Mail: "Foothill Transit was the first to put the all-electric bus to work in its fleet about three years ago. In 2013, Seneca intends to switch its entire gas-powered buses to an electric fleet. Seneca city administrator Greg Dietterick attended the ceremony. He said it offered a chance to publicize the fact that in 2013, Seneca will become the first all electric, fare-free, public transit fleet in the nation. Dietterick said the city will soon be hosting visitors from across the globe, wanting to see an all-electric bus fleet in action."