[sustran] Info on Free Public Transport or Transit

[EcoPlan, Paris]

(Cross posted from the New Mobility Cafe at http://newmobility.org)
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Tramsol at aol.com [mailto:Tramsol at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 12:02 PM
To: WorldTransport at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [New Mobility/WorldTransport Forum] Info on Free Public
Transport or Tran...
 
Many US Cities have RFZ (Ride Free Zones) in the CBD (Central Business
District) and you pay the fare as you leave the bus after it has left
the RFZ.  THis is a useful tool for keeping MVR (Minimum Vehicle
Requirement) down, as the biggest burden on any cross-city route is
where the bus is delayed by drivers collecting or even just processing
fares, on the vehicle and other vehicles in the traffic queue.  By
simply allowing walk-on travel during the business day, there is
considerably less delay to and caused by buses picking up passengers,
and the cost of this is calculated to be greater than that for
collecting the fares .  
That essentially is the guiding principle on providing free public
transport.  The Belgian town with the free buses, is hasselt
(www.hasselt.be), which put in the free bus service because it was
cheaper than building a third ring road, and it allowed them to rip up
the tarmac on the original Green Boulevard, constructed in the mid
1800's and eroded from a tree lined circular carriage drive to a 4-lane
dual carriageway with a few scraggy remnants of the original trees.  The
conversion of the city into a pleasant place with reborn public squares,
and retail turnover 4 times higher per sq m than in mjor shopping
districts in Brussels has attracted business to the town, so that the
local taxation has, in real terms gone down, whilst still paying for the
free bus service, and reducing the city debt, as the city was no longer
burdened by the draining and downward spiral of building ever more roads
for the relentless supply of cars to fill them.  We keep trying to tell
this to cities like Glasgow where roads are on a par with New York in
their dominance on the public doimain, and lack of maintenance - yet
they still think a 6-10 lane motorway carving across the south side,
with predicted cost of £1bn will be an economic benefit....I wish I had
their debt manager's skills in convincing my bank manager I need money
to spend.  

It did take courage - as driven by Steve Steavert the then mayor, who
went on to become the transport minister for Flanders, and the funding
from the Flanders Regional sustainability initiative, and equally one
should remember that 80% of the operating costs for all bus services in
Flanders is paid by the regional government.

A book on the Green Boulevard Project was published, describing the
project, and Jan Vanderputte the city transport manager (IIRC) has done
a number of presentations on this.

Fundamentally like all Green and 'free' transport there is a prime green
policy document, one which promises to pay the value printed on it, and
folds neatly to go into your wallet.  

Dave Holladay
Transportation Management Solutions 
Glasgow
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