The Irish Times has published two letters of mine on successive days, which is a record! I would be interested in your views on it.
Free public transport – could it work for Dublin?
A chara, – I read with interest Lara Marlowe’s article on the almost exponential growth of free urban public transport systems throughout the world (“Free public transport – could it work for Dublin?”, Weekend, January 26th).
The Irish Times published a letter of mine proposing such a system for Dublin in 1980. In it I argued that such a system could massively reduce traffic congestion, reduce car imports, reduce fuel imports, and increase employment in the city.
In the meantime, we have seen a massive increase in traffic congestion, urban sprawl, commuting times, population density, and proposed and actual new public transportation systems such as the Luas and Metro causing massive disruption during the building phase and costing many billions of euro.
Tripling the size of Dublin’s bus fleet would probably be required to meet the latent demand for an efficient and free public transport service, but the capital cost would be minuscule compared to the cost of the aforementioned projects.
Instead of requiring exorbitant new infrastructure, existing and underused bus lanes would be more fully utilised, and journey times improved as car traffic diminished. Valuable space currently required for car parking could be repurposed for social housing or public amenities.
Such an expansion of the public bus system would massively improve the convenience of the existing bus services by increasing the frequency, range, and scope of current routes.
Instead of wasting time, burning fuel, polluting the atmosphere, and contributing to global warming, commuters could work on the bus, engage with social media and, horror of horrors, actually talk to one another, thereby recreating a more convivial and socially egalitarian city.
If the buses were primarily electric, they could further reduce our carbon footprint, and reduce the fines we will soon become liable to pay for failing to reach our carbon reduction targets.
As we have little oil and no car manufacturing industries, such a system would also improve our balance of trade and employment levels.
As a nation, we think nothing of spending billions on (partially) free education, healthcare, roads and public facilities. But an efficient public transport system is every bit as vital to the functioning of a modern economy. How much time is wasted driving cars on congested roads which could otherwise be devoted to more productive work or social activities? How many lives could be saved by less tired (and sometimes intoxicated) driving?
It is an idea whose time has come. – Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Blessington,
Co. Wicklow.
You’re on a roll, so to speak.
I don’t know the ins and outs and what-have-yous about the financing of an essentially citizen funded public transport program. What you describe appears to me as very doable with much of the existing infrastructure in place already. Better public transport access is crucial not only for reducing or carbon footprint, but simply because a society requiring its citizens to purchase expensive hunks of metal is often not tenable for those who either don’t have the funds to do so, or who are not able to drive due to any of a number of physical conditions. Try driving while legally blind. It is not nearly as fun as it might sound. We’ll just say I know someone who lives that dream.
So yeah, from a matter of environment, social cohesion, individual and public safety it strikes me as sound. Beats continuing to add more ugly roads, freeways, etc. to accommodate an increase in individual vehicles. And if you are a net importer of petroleum products, yeah, moving toward public transport rather than away from public transport makes a great deal of long-term sense. Heck, even as the US is poised to be a net-exporter for the foreseeable future, we should still be expanding public transport rather than not.
A commentator on Eurotrib as noted that a free public transport system was discontinued in the Belgian city of Hasselt. I have responded as follows:
Dublin bus carried 140 Million passengers in 2017 compared to 1.5 Million passengers in Hasselt in 1997 prior to the introduction of free public transport. So we are talking about a city with almost 100 times more passenger journeys per annum.
The population of the greater Dublin area is estimated to rise to 2.1 Million in 2020, about 30 times Hasselt’s 70,000 population.
Add to that that Dublin is an ancient city not exactly designed or suited to mass car transportation and hemmed in my the sea, the Dublin/Wicklow mountains, the Phoenix park and Dublin airport. It is also a very rapidly growing city with a massive housing crisis.
Interestingly, the introduction of free public transport in Hasselt led to an increase in public transport passenger journeys to 4.6 Million P.A.in the 10 years to 2006 – exactly matching my “finger in the air” guesstimate that introducing free transport would triple numbers in Dublin.
However even in 2006, after a tripling of bus passengers, Hasselt only had 46 Buses, compared to Dublin Bus’ current total of over 1,000 – which by my guesstimate would have to rise to over 3,000. So we are really not comparing like with like.
One lesson we could, perhaps, learn from the Hasselt experience is that the financing of a free public transport system would have to be put on a sound and durable footing, as else it could become the first victim of public sector spending cuts at a time of recession and austerity.
However the overwhelming global trend is in favour of more not less free public transport systems, as noted in the Lara Marlowe article I linked to in my letter:
I think free public transport would be a great option for Dublin and would love to see some result data.
Is there any interest in electified personal transportation devices (scooters and e-bikes)? Those are sparking a lot of interest in some American cities and the economics/logistics look very good (e.g. the recent Portland study). Dublin, with its comparatively mild climate, would seem a particularly good place for that kind of thing.