[sustran] No ticket to ride: Japanese bus drivers strike by giving free rides

[Vinay Baindur]

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/may/11/no-ticket-to-ride-japanese-bus-drivers-strike-by-giving-free-rides-okayama




No ticket to ride: Japanese bus drivers strike by giving free rides

A protest in the city of Okayama is the latest in a long line of fare-free
travel in response to privatisation and price hikes
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Fri 11 May 2018 07.30 BSTLast modified on Fri 11 May 2018 13.05 BST

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[image: Bus drivers working for the Ryobi bus company in Okayama refused to
take fares from passengers during a dispute with the company over job
security.]
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/may/11/no-ticket-to-ride-japanese-bus-drivers-strike-by-giving-free-rides-okayama#img-1>
 Bus drivers working for the Ryobi bus company in Okayama refused to take
fares from passengers during a dispute with the company over job security.
Photograph: Alamy

Instead of forming a picket line, protesting bus drivers in the Japanese
city of Okayama have been completing their routes – but not taking fares
from passengers.

The dispute between workers and the Ryobi bus company reportedly began
after a rival bus service launched in April, offering cheaper fares.
Worried drivers called for more job security, according to Japanese media
<https://japantoday.com/category/national/okayama-buses-strike-by-continuing-to-run-and-refusing-to-take-anyone%E2%80%99s-money>.
When that wasn’t agreed, they covered the ticket machines on buses and
refused to take fares from passengers.
<https://twitter.com/mipourako/status/989433198382743552/photo/1>
[image: View image on Twitter]
<https://twitter.com/mipourako/status/989433198382743552/photo/1>[image:
View image on Twitter]
<https://twitter.com/mipourako/status/989433198382743552/photo/1>

<https://twitter.com/mipourako>
mipo＠アフィリエイト&着物大家@mipourako
<https://twitter.com/mipourako>
<https://twitter.com/mipourako/status/989433198382743552>

岡山のバスのストライキは、お客様から料金を徴収しないで、経営側のみに影響を与えるという素晴らしいストです。#ストライキ
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AD?src=hash>
2:47 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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It’s not the first time transit workers have taken this kind of action.
Last year in Sydney, bus drivers from 12 depots conducted a “fare-free day
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-01/free-buses-in-sydney-as-drivers-turn-off-opal-card-machines/8579032>”,
turning off card machines as part of a dispute over government plans to
privatise services
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-16/nsw-government-announces-inner-west-buses-tender/8528494>
.

Brisbane bus drivers
<https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/farefree-buses-thursday-but-no-buses-friday-afternoon-as-drivers-strike-20170725-gxi8zz.html>
 tried a similar tactic last July, leading fare-free days
<https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/brisbane-city-council-reaches-pay-agreement-with-its-bus-drivers-20170914-p4yvwv.html>
 as part of action calling for increased wages, improved safety on buses
and better rosters.
View image on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/RuthMcCosker/status/890382114763321344/photo/1>
[image: View image on Twitter]
<https://twitter.com/RuthMcCosker/status/890382114763321344/photo/1>

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Ruth McCosker
*✔*@RuthMcCosker
<https://twitter.com/RuthMcCosker>
<https://twitter.com/RuthMcCosker/status/890382114763321344>

Have you had a free fare on a Brisbane City Council bus today? @RTBUQld
<https://twitter.com/RTBUQld> have service strikes planned for tomorrow.
6:53 AM - Jul 27, 2017
<https://twitter.com/RuthMcCosker/status/890382114763321344>

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But it’s far more common to have passengers pushing for free rides. The
most prominent protests have come from Brazil’s *Movimento Passe Livre *(Free
Fare Movement), which argues that paid-for public transport creates social
exclusion.

Starting in 2003 in the city of Salvador, when thousands of Brazilian
students and workers closed roads to protest against rising transport
fares, the movement climaxed in nationwide protests in 2013. The targets of
the demonstrations broadened from transport fees to corruption and poor
public services in general – and as many as a million people
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-protests/one-million-march-across-brazil-in-biggest-protests-yet-idUSBRE95J15020130621>
 took to the streets.
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On a much smaller scale, a group in Sweden has been advocating for free
transit across cities for almost two decades. Formed in 2001, Planka
<http://planka.nu/> encourages people to dodge fares, helping members pay
any penalty fees through a group fund.
Private companies want to replace public transport. Should we let them?

Read more
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/29/public-transport-transit-private-companies-citymapper-uber-whim-smart-buses>

They share videos offering guidance to citizens in Stockholm and Gothenburg
on how to jump barriers and keep watch for ticket inspectors
<http://planka.nu/eng/how-to-free-ride/>. “Mobility and class are tightly
linked,” the group writes in its book The Traffic Power Structure
<https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=The+Traffic+Power+Structure&oq=The+Traffic+Power+Structure&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64l2.406j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>.
“A society based on the current mobility paradigm … contributes directly to
the increase of economic and social injustice.”

And in New York, a group of activists
<https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2013/03/helping-strangers-free-subway-ride-good-way-protest-rising-transit-fares/4861/>
 reacted to a hike in subway fares in 2013 by using unlimited passes to
swipe in other commuters.

Back in Okayama, working while on strike might seem strange – but it
appears the bus drivers have got the public on their side.

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