India - The case for free public transport

....If governments can spend billions of dollars bailing out corporations, they can surely spend a few million dollars on taking steps to drastically reduce the number of private vehicles on the roads, as that would sharply reduce global warming which is pushing the world towards catastrophic conditions. In fact, the need of the hour is to make public transport entirely free. The benefits are huge. Leave aside the consequent drastic improvement in quality of life due to improved air quality, no congestion, huge open spaces even in cities which can then be converted into gardens, peace of mind due to drastic reduction in risk of accidents, all of which cannot be measured in monetary terms; for a country like India, this is also a very viable proposition commercially. For, the foreign exchange savings, savings in oil consumption, and savings in medical bills from improved air quality and reduced accidents will be far more than the cost of providing this free transport.... Lokayat

Oil price is the fly in the recovery ointment

In the U.S., government stimulus money is being used to bail out years of misguided investment in unsustainable autosprawl -- spread out buildings accessible only by motor vehicle. USD Billions in printed/borrowed money are being invested -- risking hyperinflation. But instead of investing in public transport and rail, most of the money is for autos, banks, and roads, propping up the same system that has failed. The plan is to have a recovery without inflation, but fossil-fuel prices stand in the way, and the dependence is being made worse. The U.S. government desperately wants to control the price of fossil-fuels, but even after massive military effort, it cannot.

Economist Abheek Barua lays it out:

...The upshot is that for most commodities there is a fundamental tendency for prices to rise. The fact that they tend to be traded as assets exaggerates this tendency and causes prices to flare up more than the simple arithmetic of demand and supply would suggest.
Thus the prospect of oil prices returning to $100 a barrel seems real. Could it derail the nascent recovery in the global economy that seems under way? Some (including Krugman perhaps) would argue that central banks should focus entirely on ‘core’ inflation and not try and fight price pressures in commodities by tightening money. A spurt in oil or other commodities would tend to be ephemeral and would not ‘embed’ itself into the economy unless real demand conditions picked up.
That, for any central bank, is a difficult call to take. It is certainly not one that the bond markets would buy into. They would tend to take cues more from headline inflation numbers rather than core inflation trends. Thus rising commodity price inflation is likely to translate into higher bond yields and higher interest rates in general...

--Abheek Barua chief economist, HDFC Bank, his "personal" views as published in the Business Standard

Auckland, NZ - Greens propose FPT for Students

Green Party Co-Leader Dr Russel Norman has today unveiled a bold plan to cut traffic congestion, reduce air pollution and help the economy.
“Our new Green Party policy will provide free public transport for all school students during school times and a 50 percent discount at other times. We would introduce the policy for a one-year trial, then review it.
“Our policy is particularly relevant to our biggest city Auckland. Any Aucklander will tell you that road congestion dramatically reduces during school holidays, when children aren’t being driven to school.” Scoop

"Build roads, drop bombs" policy - so stupid it's funny

The U.S. Government, enslaved to fossil-fuels and the autosprawl system, is ready to chop social services rather than give up its hopeless energy wars. With the annual federal deficit projected at $1.84 trillion, the U.S. Treasury secretary is laughed at by college students in China. The students can see how stupid is this chosen path. Now the chattering classes in the U.S. are ready to throw grandmothers on the street rather than give up their precious trips to the beef window in their gas guzzlers.

Simple solution - make all public transit free. Gradually eliminate all subsidy for oil, coal, and auto. Stop the energy wars. Gradually move back to walkable towns. Give the suburbs to the organic farmers.

Firefighters join free transport campaign

Manchester Campaign for Free Public Transport

FIREFIGHTERS JOIN SOCCER STARS, TEACHERS,
JOURNALISTS & HEALTH WORKERS IN CALLING
FOR FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR EVERYONE!

Caracas - oil subsidy a disaster

photo link

Caracas, Venezuela - government should spend oil money on free public transport, not cheap car travel. [el gobierno debería gastar el dinero del petróleo en el transporte público gratuito.]

Oil is bloody

On May 13, the Nigerian military launched an assault on villages in that nation's oil-rich Niger Delta. Hundreds of civilians are feared killed in the attack. According to Amnesty International, a celebration in the delta village of Oporoza was attacked. An eyewitness told the organization: "I heard the sound of aircraft; I saw two military helicopters, shooting at the houses, at the palace, shooting at us. We had to run for safety into the forest. In the bush, I heard adults crying, so many mothers could not find their children; everybody ran for their life." CommonDreams

CDH proposes free public transport in Brussels

We want to have a capital where people from many different origins can work together in a way that they respect each other and share the same values. And that they get education, get jobs.
Mobility is a big issue for Brussels – we need to accelerate the public transport network and what’s available. CDH proposes free public transport in Brussels. The Brussels government already subsidises transport tickets. We believe that there should be better choices in terms of public transport – in terms of quality, network, frequency, cleanliness. We are a capital where people use mostly their cars and we have to change that, initially by providing better public transport that’s free for users. MedicinsSansFrontieres

Free transit for EU seniors proposed... again

Nessa Childers, Labour's MEP candidate for Ireland East, today announced a major proposal to bring free public transport to senior citizens from across the EU in all 27 EU member states. Nessa was speaking at an Irish Senior Citizens Parliament public meeting in Dundalk, organised in the run up to the European and local elections. The meeting focused on the European Union and the upcoming European elections as well as a number of other issues. Ireland Labour Party

U.S. autosprawl chickens coming home to roost

One year of GM Stock (from Google Finance)

Auto companies in bankruptcy, soldiers bogged down in hopeless energy wars, unsustainable homes in foreclosure -- the U.S. policy of "build roads, drop bombs" is coming home.

It is intuitive that the autosprawl system is wasteful. The best way to cut that waste is to make public transit fare-free. Fares simply are a restraint-of-trade tariff which hurts all business in order to subsidize the auto/fossil-fuel/sprawl industry.

Simplify

...Public transit debates are often a confused mixture of technical information and value judgments. Sometimes, it serves someone's agenda to keep these things mixed up....
As an expert on public transit, let me warn you that the job of developing great transit must never be left entirely to experts. Once a community has expressed its transit goals, experts have a role in designing systems to meet them. But experts shouldn't be the source of the goals themselves. Citizens and their elected officials are entitled to a clear explanation of the underlying choices they face, and a chance to express their views on them. I believe every citizen has a right to debate about their public services in terms that they can understand... -- Jarret Walker, Human Transit

Cars stink

I support the New Urbanism but strongly prefer the pure car-free solution, as the advantages are even greater. Once the last car disappears from the street, it becomes a playground for people of all ages. This can be seen any day in Venice or Fes. Peace, safety and tranquility settle over the street, and a rich and vibrant social life takes the place of the stink, noise, and danger of cars. JHCrawford- NYTimes

Congress for New Urbanism

Who is next? Columbia Missouri?

Columbia explores offering free transit
Friday, May 8, 2009 12:01 a.m. CDT
BY Jessica Cherry
COLUMBIA — In September, the City of Columbia doubled bus fares. Now, City Council is exploring ideas to create free public transit...
columbiamissourian.com

Zagreb, Croatia - Free Public Transport

Free public transport in Zagreb as city bosses look to cut car numbers
Croatian Times

City bosses in Zagreb have introduced free public transport in a bid to cut car numbers in the capital.

Public city transport in the wider Zagreb downtown area became free of charge as of today (Tue) and Zagreb Municipal Transit System (ZET) head Ivan Tolic said: "This is designed to reduce car traffic in the centre and encourage residents to park their cars in public garages outside the centre."

Tolic said the city’s finances would not be hurt by the new measure.

Renewables all used up by growth

Increase in U.S. energy consumption 2003-2007
Total - 3.337 Renewables - .663 Fossil Fuels - 2.134

The above graph is derived from the EIA data linked below. It shows the growth in energy consumption in the U.S. from 2003 through 2007 in quadrillion BTUs. The first bar is the total increase over the 5 years. Also shown are (non-nuclear) renewable and fossil-fuel components of that total. Renewables increase was less than 1/3 that of fossil fuels.

The private-auto system consumes 25% of U.S. GDP. A sharp curtailment of the private-auto system of transport is the only the path that can significantly reduce fossil fuel usage.

Table 1.1 U.S. Energy Consumption by Energy Source, 2003 - 2007

(Quadrillion Btu)

Sprawl subsidies disguised as "job-creation"

At the same time, there is evidence that job subsidies encourage companies to move to areas that are inaccessible for many urban working families. In our study, Another Way Sprawl Happens, Good Jobs First examined the movement of companies to Anoka (an outer suburb of Minneapolis), which had offered them free land valued at more than $7.5 million. This resulted in the movement of 29 companies with 1,600 jobs to a 300-acre industrial park. The net result of the subsidized relocations was to move the jobs away from the region's largest concentrations of people of color, away from pockets of poverty and away from households receiving public assistance. Read more at: GoodJobsFirst

Conservatism, highway subsidy, and the Lexus lane

Maryland Traffic - Photo Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

In a thorough, well-researched, and prescient article, Ben Ross of Maryland's Action Committee for Transit clearly lays out the insidious nature of the "Lexus lane." The Lexus lane and road-pricing in general are an attempt by so-called "conservatives" to reconcile their alleged free-market philosophy with their unquestioning support of highway pork. This article is must reading if on first glance you think tolling and privatizing highways are a plausible market solution to traffic congestion.

....These survey results suggest that the "Lexus lanes" moniker is well deserved. Who uses pay lanes is mostly determined by income. For most of the people in the free lanes, consumer sovereignty is a fiction. They haven't made a voluntary decision that their time isn't worth the price of a quicker commute. They are sitting in traffic jams because the toll exceeds what they can afford to pay.
Even if this is true, toll lane supporters respond, the lanes still benefit lower-income drivers. Those who can't afford to use the new lanes benefit from the added road capacity tolls pay for. With the wealthy on the new lanes, fewer drivers are squeezed into the free lanes, and everyone has a faster commute. The argument is logical, but it does not fit the facts. It turns out, excepting rare circumstances, that express toll lanes added to existing highways cannot raise anywhere near enough revenue to pay for their construction cost....Dissent Magazine

Australia may be first nation with free public transport

The fare-free movement in Australia is gaining momentum. It is hard to keep up with all the changes. In the last several months there has been much debate and even more action. Free public transport has been established in cities and territories for students and seniors. But now, New South Wales is considering making it free for all riders. And in the latest news Northern Territory is also considering the same. Bus Industry Confederation Chairman Scott Grenda has suggested it be tried nationwide.

When public transport is free for all riders, a sudden jump in the benefits is realized. The costs of collecting, tracking, and enforcing fares all go away. Further, as usage increases, there will be demand for more frequency of service. Also, the public, with this common investment in the common good will demand expert and accountable management of transport.

This is a chance for Australia to leap ahead in economic and environmental success.

New Zealand Greens should join fare-free movement !

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand is making progress towards adopting free fares as one of its policies. There are still several hurdles to jump, but two have already been crossed successfully and the next stage is likely to start in June, when all members will be invited to join an ‘issue group’. The ‘IG’ will aim to develop a paper (put to conference in February) into a policy for member approval. If approved, the policy could be adopted by March 2010.

Success is by no means assured. It depends who joins the issue group and what influence they have. The more fpt supporters who get involved, the better the chances.

The essential case is that the Kiwi transport takes a much higher proportion of the oil supply than most countries, has an unusually low level of public transport use and that, to achieve Green climate change and peak oil policies, public transport has to take a much bigger share. Fares are a significant disincentive to that. Often it’s cheaper to drive. Furthermore, the hassle of buying a fare and the time taken to do the transaction create further disincentives. In terms of cost, abolishing fares would not greatly increase the current subsidy to public transport and savings would be made on road schemes from congestion relief and on the health costs of crashes.

The case against is that Wellington, the most successful public transport system in the country, also has amongst the highest proportion of costs met by fares. The few free services don’t attract many more passengers than the fare paying services. Several generations have been used to thinking of cars as the only form of transport and very few have heard of the concept of free fares, and even fewer given it much thought. Most still think of public transport as a social service, rather than an environmental necessity, and the quality of speed and frequency reflect that. The Auckland to Wellington train takes half an hour longer than the bus. Many large settlements have no bus.

Having free fares as a Green policy will bring the concept to many more people, but there will still be a long way to go to get the policy implemented. Any help would be welcome.

- J.L., New Zealand Greens

Philadelphia - Free public transit would be economic advantage

...How much would it cost? A lot less than the billions being thrown at Wall Street. In 2010, SEPTA expects to collect about $400 million in passenger revenue. Chump change in the new Washington, especially compared to the $1.1 billion it will spend. Not having to collect fares will certainly save a big chunk of change...

...Instead of spending billions to redo the South Street Bridge - scrap it. Build a walking and biking bridge. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the Schuylkill Expressway runs a lot better without a South Street exit and entrance - they were death traps anyway...

Philadelphia Daily News

Campaign for Free Public Transport

Campaign for Free Public Transport at G20 Meeting

Savannah, GA - new Fare-free service

Connect the dot !

Fare-free shuttles in downtown Savannah, GA.

Greens coming round to free public transport

Manchester Campaign for Free Public Transport

...Peter Cranie, the main Green Party candidate in the North West in the forthcoming Euro elections was the first to make a contribution and announced that he now supported the policy of free public transport on a local level as opposed to the one he and other Greens had previously supported which called for public transport to be simpy "cheap and affordable". ...

Green Party of France

• de diminuer le coût global des transports publics collectifs urbains pour la collectivité, par la suppression de tout le système d’émission et de contrôle des billets ;


• d’encourager l’utilisation par tous de ces moyens de transport au détriment de la voiture écologiquement beaucoup plus coûteuse ; de faciliter l’accès des poussettes, des handicapés et des cyclistes du fait de la suppression des tourniquets ;


• de développer le système vélo + rail et tout un maillage de circulations douces ;


• de cesser de mettre en situation de marginalité les plus faibles et de fabriquer des « délinquants pour rien » (les jeunes qui passent pardessus les tourniquets) ;


• de diminuer le climat de violence dû aux contrôles.
  

Free Public Transit for 2.8M or 1 intersection?

St. Louis County has decided to install a "Michigan Left" intersection at Manchester and Hanley Roads. The price tag? $50M.

What else could we do with $50M?

• Free mass transit for 2,800,000 people for one year...

St. Louis Urban Workshop

General Motors' Lies Exposed

Click Here to watch "Taken for a Ride" on Google Video

Cost of driving in the U.S.

While actual costs vary from place to place and depending on fuel prices, after some analysis I’ve arrived at some staggering conclusions. When multiplying the average cost per mile of $1.28 (by default assuming current prices of about $2.25/gal) by 240 trillion yearly vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which is a rough estimate of the current total, and America’s total yearly cost of driving is $3.7 trillion , or a whopping 25% of our GDP (the actual yearly figures are likely in the range of $3.25-4 trillion). Just pause and think about that for a second: one out of every four dollars in America is spent on driving. Should Americans have to spend that much on transportation? What does this mean for lower income Americans? Also, a 10% reduction in driving would save up to 400 billion per year, and a 25% reduction would save almost one trillion per year. Twenty-first Century Urban Solutions.