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Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

citylab.com

141–150 of 236 posts

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#141
post #84

Seattle does this for kids in middle school and high school. Each kid gets an Orca card for free (transit card that we use in the Seattle area). Lots of kids use them, even the kids who travel ~10 miles to get to their school. I know it's saved me a lot of money in gas and bus fare over the years with my kids getting this benefit. The only down side is that the cards are only good for during the school year.

Odd that they name a card for kids after a vicious predator.

It’s not for kids. Grownups use Orca cards to get around Seattle’s transit too, we just have to pay for them.

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#142
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that depriving people of places to sleep makes the city more livable.

It only takes one person reeking of urine to make a whole train car a vile place to spend any time. So yes.

if there are so many people with problems that this happens often, your city has much more important problems to solve(helping those people) than "nice transit" (my city & most cities have to do this as well tho .. i am probably hypocritical in this)

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#144
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a boost in ridership is absolutely not what you’d want in an overpopulated city like Paris. Subway is so bad i’ve already witnessed people waiting for trains from outside the station itself. in the peak hours you often have to skip two or three trains because they’re packed.

The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes. You want that even less in a city like Paris.

Only 30% of people have cars within Paris and public transport is cheap.

There is little point in making public transport free there. This is still money to be paid one way or another.

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#145
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a boost in ridership is absolutely not what you’d want in an overpopulated city like Paris. Subway is so bad i’ve already witnessed people waiting for trains from outside the station itself. in the peak hours you often have to skip two or three trains because they’re packed.

The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes. You want that even less in a city like Paris.

at this point, Paris needs to either massively transform itself ( higher buildings, larger roads, etc), which means destroying buildings in the center, like haussman did in the 19th century, or motivate people to just go live elsewhere.

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#146
post #50
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the peak hours you often have to skip two or three trains because they’re packed What's the interval between trains at peak hours?

I used to take the metro line 3 from station saint-lazare. At peak hours there was a train practically every minute. As soon as one train leaves another one enters the station a few seconds after. So I often did what parent said. skipping two or three trains isn't that bad when there that many trains.

try line 13

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#147
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a boost in ridership is absolutely not what you’d want in an overpopulated city like Paris. Subway is so bad i’ve already witnessed people waiting for trains from outside the station itself. in the peak hours you often have to skip two or three trains because they’re packed.

The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes. You want that even less in a city like Paris.

> The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes.

Or walking... Do you walk a quarter mile or do you ride the bus? If the bus is free the number of able bodied people using the bus for trivial distances could increase.

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#148
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes. You want that even less in a city like Paris.

at this point, Paris needs to either massively transform itself ( higher buildings, larger roads, etc), which means destroying buildings in the center, like haussman did in the 19th century, or motivate people to just go live elsewhere.

Anne Hidalgo is actively working on the second point.

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes. You want that even less in a city like Paris.

> The alternative to a boost in ridership is a boost in car commutes. Or walking... Do you walk a quarter mile or do you ride the bus? If the bus is free the number of able bodied people using the bus for trivial distances could increase.

The metro is full because people commute to their workplace. I don't think a significant fraction lives within walking distance of their job.

Re: Paris Will Make Public Transportation Free for Kids

#150

Currently it's free under 4 and half price under 10. Considering that it's not expensive to begin with this is really PR more than anything else.

Yup and I've not seen many children that would use tickets and not go through with their parents. Or they have passes of their own if needed for school commute.
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