Free Public Transport

An advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather its
where even the rich use public transportation
Enrique Penalosa

Public transportation is a public service as it name tells us, available for the entire
population, distinct from the taximeter system, car or bus renting. Public transportation of
persons includes transport by vehicles with a big capacity, for instances in the interior of a
locality it is made by: buses, trolleybuses, suburban train, urban trains, or small boats.
Because it is made to be used by any person it has a fixed timetable for circulation. First, in
our discussion we must mention that the subject refers only to the public transportation inside
a locality. It is said that the vehicles from the public service of a city are actually a mirror of
that place, for instance a well-developed community, economically and behaviourally, uses
modern technology, kept in clean and functional condition by the population together with the
authorities. In general, public transport is founded by the local authorities which are also a
public service and they should find a solution to make it economically speaking more
accessible or actually free, method that could paradoxically lead to a better development of
the infrastructure.

One could also say that this action could bring into a decline the economic power of the
locality because, the money paid for a ticket is an important source of earning for the public
budget and this could also cause a poor condition of the community. But we must remember
how many taxes we pay for the state anyway, off course, there are countries with a really poor
budget and where this facility couldn.t be totally applied, but a statistic made by some
students of Transport Faculty of Germany said that around 65% of the European countries
have capitals which are able to provide free public transport, especially that there are many
methods of improving the budget by other ways than ticketing, for example there are a lot of
big companies who would like to pay a generous sum of money in exchange for a commercial
posted in public stations or on public transportation vehicles.

A recent issue of the entire world is that cars are more and more fashionable and they are not
used for strictly purposes as it should, that is why,(we know very well) the atmosphere is
more and more polluted from day to day, the cities are more noisy and the streets crowded
with congested traffic. A clear solution for this is to introduce free the public transportation
for everyone. A strong argument for this solution to be taken in consideration is the example
of the Estonian capital, Tallinn which is the first European city with free public
transportation. This is true, the experiment costed the government 12 millions of euro
annually, but the result was over the expectations; the number of cars from traffic was
decreased with more than 15%. In numbers may seem not too much, but in reality the result is
amazing. Another big advantage for the community consist in the fact that if a person wants to
make use of this facility, he must have all his taxes paid, this brought the decreasing number
of those who didn.t paid their taxes.

As we earlier discussed and observed, the number of personal vehicles is in a radical
ascension, this inconvenient balances the economic power in the favour of fuel companies. In
consequence, governments not only that arent glad to make available free transportation, but
worst, they periodically boost up the prices, this error encourages people to buy personal cars
and again we have highly crowded traffics. Another great example of solutioning this issue is
given by the German city Leipzig, where the authorities gave free public transportation for
those who can prove they are owners of a vehicle, to convince citizens to let home their cars
and clear off the traffic (this opportunity was also available for their families). Each of us
surely has in his mind a image of some angry drivers, honking, signalling and swearing, fact
that instigate also other to be like them and rapidly make the chain to be larger and larger
disturbing the medium, as a result, this is also a stress problem.

Ultimately ,we must not generalise and understand that cities are in different condition, some
are poor, other are wealthier, so government could adapt the gratuitousness according to the
possibilities of that certain city. For instance, to make possible the good operationally of a
society, poor people who can.t afford to go to work could use this gratuity; in the same time
this could happen with scholars, students and persons with disabilities. I personally believe
that it is moral, ethical and it is about human rights that every citizen should be able to reach
different points of his city for different needs, without paying or paying too much, because his
city is also his home. We understand very well how important is the transport in our lifes .
Personally I see the society as a human body where traffic is like the heart, if the heart is sick
then all the society will be affected because all this system functions according to only one
principle, cause and effect, because a little disease can ruin a massive entire.




Dragomir Eduward Alexandru