5 ms·

German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution

15 points by f_allwein 9y ago

Tomte 9y ago
And my small hometown is among them! But so far, nobody knows what that really means. The municipal government hasn't, either.
- f_allwein 9y ago
  Will be interesting since public transport is almost at full capacity in many places. Will they increase capacity then?
  - eesmith 9y ago
    It's not really mentioned in the article except for the last paragraph, quoting Die Welt: “The conclusion would be clear: more carriages, more personnel, and maybe even more tracks and lines would be needed. Where would the billions for that come from?”
    - tonyedgecombe 9y ago
      It wouldn't hurt Germany to spend more on infrastructure.
    - detaro 9y ago
      If it is enough to avoid the EU fines, that's a potentially few hundred million saved that could be spent on this (or other emission-reducing measures).
  - simplesleeper 9y ago
    A large problem with capacity in most cities is due to people NOT taking public transport - i.e. if you replace cars with buses, you can increase the load by quite a few magnitudes
kioleanu 9y ago
I live in Bonn and I can tell you that the price is 110% the reason why I'm using my car inside the city. Small calculation: I take my wife to have dinner in the city center on Saturday evening. The city center is 3km from where I live. If I take the tram, that's 2.8EUR for each of us, one way, so 11.4EUR just for transportation. Whilst, taking the car will cost me less than a liter of gas (1.3EUR) and the parking will be 2 or 3EUR. Plus, I feel that the quality of the public transport services really does not reflect in the huge price: constantly being late or not coming at all, poor communication, dirty trams or buses.
- tom_mellior 9y ago
  You forgot to factor in the price of your car, yearly insurance costs, and various maintenance costs.
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
In the UK bus travel is free for anybody over retirement age with a few exceptions. This has been quite successful, it helps people who might otherwise be feeling isolated and keeps marginal public transport routes open.
xchip 9y ago
This is something I don't mind paying taxes for.

15 points by f_allwein 9y ago

And my small hometown is among them! But so far, nobody knows what that really means. The municipal government hasn't, either.

f_allwein 9y ago
Will be interesting since public transport is almost at full capacity in many places. Will they increase capacity then?
- eesmith 9y ago
  It's not really mentioned in the article except for the last paragraph, quoting Die Welt: “The conclusion would be clear: more carriages, more personnel, and maybe even more tracks and lines would be needed. Where would the billions for that come from?”
  - tonyedgecombe 9y ago
    It wouldn't hurt Germany to spend more on infrastructure.
  - detaro 9y ago
    If it is enough to avoid the EU fines, that's a potentially few hundred million saved that could be spent on this (or other emission-reducing measures).
- simplesleeper 9y ago
  A large problem with capacity in most cities is due to people NOT taking public transport - i.e. if you replace cars with buses, you can increase the load by quite a few magnitudes

kioleanu 9y ago

I live in Bonn and I can tell you that the price is 110% the reason why I'm using my car inside the city. Small calculation: I take my wife to have dinner in the city center on Saturday evening. The city center is 3km from where I live. If I take the tram, that's 2.8EUR for each of us, one way, so 11.4EUR just for transportation. Whilst, taking the car will cost me less than a liter of gas (1.3EUR) and the parking will be 2 or 3EUR. Plus, I feel that the quality of the public transport services really does not reflect in the huge price: constantly being late or not coming at all, poor communication, dirty trams or buses.

tom_mellior 9y ago
You forgot to factor in the price of your car, yearly insurance costs, and various maintenance costs.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago

In the UK bus travel is free for anybody over retirement age with a few exceptions. This has been quite successful, it helps people who might otherwise be feeling isolated and keeps marginal public transport routes open.

xchip 9y ago

This is something I don't mind paying taxes for.