
German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution - f_allwein
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/german-cities-to-trial-free-public-transport-to-cut-pollution
======
kioleanu
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
You forgot to factor in the price of your car, yearly insurance costs, and
various maintenance costs.

------
tonyedgecombe
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.

------
Tomte
And my small hometown is among them!

But so far, nobody knows what that really means. The municipal government
hasn't, either.

~~~
f_allwein
Will be interesting since public transport is almost at full capacity in many
places. Will they increase capacity then?

~~~
eesmith
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?”

~~~
detaro
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).

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

