Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

Post by skywhopper » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:07 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6

Shivetya wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

previous studies done showed that making it free did not result in significant uptick in usage[1]. It really comes down to, does it go where you want from where you want when you want and all this on a timely basis. Hence the big reason buses always win over rail as they can adapt to changing needs. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/why-can...

> A 2002 report released by the National Center for Transportation Research indicated that the lack of fares attracted hordes of young people, who brought with them a culture of vandalism, graffiti, and bad behavior—which all necessitated costly maintenance Interesting. So making it free actually increased costs.

Post by r32a_ » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:10 PM UTC

zhoujianfu wrote: post #2

Why not make it just free for everybody? Public transportation typically has profit margins of -50% to -90% anyway... just take it to -100% and get a huge boost in ridership! (And probably save some expenses relating to collecting payment/enforcement.)

Post by baq » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

zhoujianfu wrote: post #2

Why not make it just free for everybody? Public transportation typically has profit margins of -50% to -90% anyway... just take it to -100% and get a huge boost in ridership! (And probably save some expenses relating to collecting payment/enforcement.)

Post by watwut » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

skywhopper wrote: post #11

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A 2002 report released by the National Center for Transportation Research indicated that the lack of fares attracted hordes of young people, who brought with them a culture of vandalism, graffiti, and bad behavior—which all necessitated costly maintenance Interesting. So making it free actually increased costs.

The wording here, "hordes" of young people is pretty telling of the bias of the writer. Young people are one of the most important target audiences of public transportation, since they aren't able to drive.

Post by efrafa » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:33 PM UTC