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Subject:

Public transport should be "free"

From:

"eric.britton" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

[log in to unmask]

Date:

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 15:35:03 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (180 lines)

And I generally, not quite like the reaction of this date (see below) from
my respected friend and colleague Todd Litman (and surely just about all of
you here), do in fact generally recommend "free" public transit?

 

Why? Because it puts everything into question.  My point of departure is
that given the stakes (see http://www.invent.newmobility.org) we cannot
simply continue to band-aid. We have a sick patient (planet) and we have to
operate. And since discussions around free pt break all the rules and
shibboleths, and that's a great start. 

 

As to getting down to it, you can find some first clues at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-fare_public_transport (though the title
zero-fare public transport) is far from optimal and misses what I believe to
be the point.

 

More to the point in my view is an earlier note (below)  which I wrote some
months ago on this and which I still think looks pretty fair as a ground
breaker on this important subject.

 

Also 

.         A good Free Public Transport bilbio can be had here:
C:\Work\www\ecoplan.org\briefs\general\free-biblio.htm

.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewMobilityCafe/msearch?query=%22free+public%2
2
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewMobilityCafe/msearch?query=%22free+public%
22&submit=Search&charset=UTF-8> &submit=Search&charset=UTF-8 will take you
to a good discussion of FPT

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. Anyone who rejects the concept of free public transport out of hand
should be sentenced to reading Khalil Gibran's The Prophet. 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Britton [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: August 18, 2007 8:52 AM
To: [log in to unmask]; '
Subject: Public transport should be free 

Dear Colleagues, 

There are now going on two hundred New Mobility measures and actions that we
have thus far identified with your help for treatment under the New Mobility
Advisory/Briefs and while we are already committed to the Carsharing City
Strategies and BRT for the first two numbers, the topic of precisely "Public
transport should be free" has over these last days has moved up toward the
head of the list for the planned four first year editions. I mention this to
you this morning since it will, as with just about everything done here, be
very much a collaborative endeavor and is one that just possibly may
interest you.. 

However our approach in this particular case will be a bit different from
our usual starting point and method in this series, which is to provide an
informed expert view based on leading edge international experience and
knowledge to provide an informed but neutral appraisal of the measure, so as
to inform city government and local leaders so that they can make a wise
decision as to eventual next steps. And then to get them started in this
proves. 

A different approach
In "Public transport should be free" we intend to turn this around a bit. We
shall take the title and the concept of barrier-free public transport as a
positive statement, a challenge and our leading premise -- and then
investigate and analyze whether in fact this may or may not make any sense
for 21st century cities under duress. And if so, how. 

I might note that just about all the analyses of free local transit in the
past (see Barbara Post's biblio from the Transport Research Board of
yesterday by way of first example) have started out well in the box of the
existing institutional and financial situation as far as public transport
provision is concerned - and then variously to wiggle it a bit to see what,
within this quite constraining box, would be likely to happen if the city
tried to do just that. With the results that it should not be terribly
difficult to anticipate in advance. And since you are well installed in that
box, not surprising that the conclusion is inevitably either (a) it won't
work (here and then come the long list of reasons and justifications) or, at
times, (b) we might give it a try on this bit of the system (specific
routes, hours, user groups). 

But since we are dealing here with the politics of transportation and
problem-solving in a heavily charged and troublesome environment, it seems
that the least we can do is step beyond that traditional box and start by
setting out the fundamental considerations that in truth set the stage, a
bit along the lines that Dave Wetzel has done in his yesterday's email to
the group. What is it that we want behind all this? How important are those
objectives to the community? What are the (full) means at our disposal (and
we are not talking about fare boxes or balancing micro-budgets here)? Etc. 

So the goal of this future New Mobility Advisory will be to take it from the
top. And we very much hope that you will be interested to participate. With
your ideas, and perhaps even to have you join our little editorial group
that will be keeping an eye on all this to ensure its quality and
professionalism. 

The pressing need for a major paradigm change. And fast! 
Please don't lose sight of the fact that despite the outstanding work that
is being done in many cities around the world to render at least parts of
their local mobility systems more sustainable - and often with considerable
success in terms of the specific thing they set out to do - the overwhelming
trend when measured from the vantage of municipality as a whole is no less
than terrible. Or if you prefer and have your eyes open, terrifying. Because
there is not a metropolitan area ON THIS BENIGHTED PLANET where all the key
indicators are not moving explosively I exactly the wrong direction. Not one
dear friends! Not one! 

Abusing the new system:
Those who stand against this concept of barrier-free public transport for
all, suggest that its sheer openness would lead to abuses, joy riding, teen
partying, and homeless people hanging out among them. When we were working
on the first brainstorming piece for the Ministry of the Environment here in
Paris for what eventually became the excellent country-wide 'Carte Orange'
unified monthly fare card back in the middle seventies, these arguments were
also advanced at the time as reasons not to open up the system in this way.
But once the cards went into service with unlimited travel as art of the
package, the feared abuses did not occur in any significant amount -- though
there is a first period of what can only be described as public joy and
satisfaction as people of all ages start to play with and use the system.
And that is quite as it should be and can be easily planned for in advance. 

There is one important wrinkle in the "free" vector to which we gave a lot
of thought at the time and which is just as relevant today as it was back
then. And that concerns the underlying attitude of the public to what we
want them to consider "their transport system". For that a certain
indication of proprietorship is called for, I think. It is collective
proprietorship as we see in cases like public gardens and other public
spaces (the vehicle in this context suddenly becomes a public space). For
this, we suggest that what the people in that place (and yes, the visitors
too) need to have their own individual 'keys to the system'. Which in this
day and age probably translates to a readable card/pass, which has the
double advantage of also permitting feedback on vehicle use. 

Whether or not you charge for this or not, is a subject of study in each
place. But it is for sure that if the user charges become onerous - and even
more considered a source of revenue to the city or the transit agency (Get
Thee behind me Satan) - then the entire problematique begins to shift. 

Experience suggests that if people start to look at the public service as
"their system" they not only use it far more (and remember a substantial
portion of those who will in time start to use the public system will be
doing it in lieu of their own cars), but they also tend to take better care
of it than if their perception that it is one more example of Big Brother
who doesn't give a damn about them as a human being. In France, for example,
damage to vehicle seats and interiors went down after the system opened up
via the Orange Cards. 

There is a huge amount of area that can be played with and put to work under
this city transforming concept. 

Eric Britton 

PS. And if anyone wishes to drag in the tired finger-pointing language of
left or right, socialistic. communistic or whatever to simplify and
eventually ridicule these important considerations, they will I promise lose
a star. And you know how that can hurt. Measured mentions of sustainable
development and social justice, and better economics for all, will on the
other hand certainly have their place here. 

 

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