Fare-free Public Transport

Transcription

1 Fare-free Public Transport How do we proceed? A new approach of transport policy Avesta - Sweden Dr Michel van Hulten, Professor of Governance SAXION University of Applied Sciences, Deventer School of Governance, Law & Urban Development September 2015

2 Fare-free Public Transport What to do? A new approach of transport policy How do we proceed? No longer utopia Reality Tallinn, municipalities in Poland, Sweden, France, Chengdu in China, cities in the US, all seniors in UK-busses, all children under 4 years of age everywhere. Fare-free.

3 Ambition and will We have had similar meetings like this one in Avesta in 2015, in: Tallinn 2012 Tallinn 2013 Żory 2014 Is there a need for the same kind of meeting next year, in 2016? Posing the question, is answering. We need more progress on this subject. The effort should be enlarged. If it remains local initiatives, it is too easily destroyed again!

4 What to do next? What we need: After a full day of information about the fare-free public transport, we cannot go home without - At least some idea in answer to the question: what to do next? - And not without commitments to participate in the follow-up. Let us pick up the following

5 Information gathering about cities and regions with FFPT Needed: A Draft for a project text to be used as an outline for the work that will have to be done. In first instance we should collect much more information about what happens already, at least in Europe, with regard to the provision of citizens with FFPT.

6 What we know already Inventory of municipalities and regions with already existing FFPT in the Europe of the 28 EU-Member states (plus Norway and Switzerland). Is it wise to begin at the level of Europe and invite others to deliver what they know already? List of FFPT places: There is already a list for Sweden, in need of updating and supplementing? And a list plus map of Poland. There is also a list for France already prepared by Mobycom about a year ago. And a list (and map!) for Poland. What can be found from other countries? An already long list of municipalities with one or another form of FFPT is to be found at and at (chapter 4).

7 Approach? Lists need to be updated and upgraded, as too many cities (e.g. metro in Rotterdam for all 65+, London young and old) are missing as well as countries (Ireland, Belgium, UK) which have already FFPT for the elderly. Could the mayors of Tallinn and other cities that have introduced whatever form of FFPT (e.g. Rotterdam that has introduced different forms of FFPT for older citizens), approach the IULA (International Union of Local Authorities) with the request to collect these data from its member-organisations? Is there a possibility for more similar approaches?

8 Questions? What are questions for which we need to get clarifying answers? What in the public transport sector is fare-free? For what reasons/motivations? What are the results? What are the financial outcomes in the transportsector? What results in environment, health (care and cure), safety, education, climate, poverty?

9 FFPT network? Information gathering about persons/decision-makers that have been crucial for FFPT. Subsidiary, to make inventory of those persons that made FFPT politically possible: Who did it? Who were the persons that proposed to go for FFPT and who made it happen per municipality and region? Can we find any structure among those supporters? Differences between political parties? Age-groups? Parts of Europe? Establish a Network, who will be the Net-webmaster?

10 Learn from failures Information gathering about places that had FFPT and abolished it It would help for research in the near future if we could also list municipalities and or regions that had FFPT and abolished this again. - After how much time being in existence? - What triggered first the introduction and later the abolishment of the FFPT? - The political environment? - The costs? What reasons have been given? - Is information reliable or exist hidden reasons? 10

11 THE PROPOSALS What and how to do? The Website. WEBSITE A commitment is needed to establish a website in Tallinn that will actively promote FFPT, at minimum to show all material/documents that will come from all sources for mutual information of all cities/regions with FFPT.

12 THE PROPOSALS ffpt: LOCAL? REGIONAL? NATIONAL? INTERNATIONAL? FFPT: LOCAL? REGIONAL? NATIONAL? INTERNATIONAL? A study will be made of the extent of the area in which these FFPT-facilities will be valid: only in one s own municipality, region, province/state, national territory, all EU? Conditions, consequences? The Avesta-conference participants propose to make of this study the centerpiece of the conference in 2016.