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Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
Tue Nov 13, 2012, 05:23 AM Nov 2012

What Really Happens When a City Makes Its Transit System Free?

When Jean-Francois Mayet became mayor of Châteauroux in 2001, the town’s transit system was descending into irrelevance. Each of Châteauroux’s 49,000 inhabitants took the bus, on average, 21 times per year, well below the 38 per annum average for small French cities.

Mayet, a member of France’s socialist party, did what few mayors confronted with a struggling mass transit system would do: he made the whole thing free.


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The motivations for making a transit system free are obvious. Increased ridership can relieve traffic, improve the environment, boost the system’s efficiency, give residents more spending money, help the poor, and rejuvenate central business districts. Unfortunately, the Châteauroux report contains little large-scale analysis of the effects of the system.



snip

And while it might revitalize a struggling small-town transit network, big cities don’t need to incentivize mass transit the same way, where a larger proportion of residents have no other options. To help lower-income residents, Cordier favors a "social tariff" system, developed in Dunkerque in the 1990s, in which discounts on transport passes basically correspond to a passenger’s tax bracket. In Grenoble, for example, the poorest residents can get 95 percent off a transport pass, while the rich pay full price. This allows cities to keep investing in improving the system.



Snip


The concept is about to meet its biggest test. At the end of this year, Tallinn, Estonia (pop. 406,000) will eliminate fares on its transit system for residents, making it the world’s biggest city with free mass transit.



http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/10/what-really-happens-when-city-makes-its-transit-system-free/3708/



Damn Socialists!!!

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What Really Happens When a City Makes Its Transit System Free? (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Nov 2012 OP
Chapel Hill, NC teenagebambam Nov 2012 #1
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