Free ride
The dream of free public transport in Estonia’s capital, by Daniela Stoycheva
indicated that cheaper public trans- port is considered by 59 per cent of Europeans as the most important measure that could improve travel within cities (in Denmark that figure was 75 per cent; in Germany and the Netherlands and 67 per cent in Austria). Some citizens, however, such as those in Bucharest, have looked at a political campaign pro- posal to make public transport in the city free, albeit with a sceptical eye. Many have claimed that such a meas- ure will make the quality of the fleets and the rides even worse. Across Europe, a number of smaller sized cities tried to intro- duce free public transport in the late 1990s: Templin in Germany; Châteauroux and Aubagne in France; and Hasselt, Belgium, to name a few. Ridership in all of those places increased substantially when fares were removed. Hasselt, one of the most closely analysed, made buses free in 1997 and ridership increased more than tenfold, but ultimatelyit was not sustainable. Facing budget problems, Hasselt had to reintroduce fares after 16 years, although young people, seniors and those receiving public benefits can still ride for free.
A 44 specially commissioned
Eurobarometer survey pub- lished in December 2013
Tallinn has bucked the trend for targeted free ridership and made it available to all of the city’s 440,000 residents
Targeted free ridership of the sort Hasselt has now is much more com- mon around the world. Many cities and college towns in the United States have free ‘circulator’ buses on down- town or campus routes. Singapore is experimenting with free train rides early in the morning to relieve crowd- ing during the morning rush hour. And Chengdu, China, has offered a mix of all these: free rides for seniors, free rides on 44 central bus lines and free rides from 5-7 am on all terres- trial public transport excluding the underground. What has made Tallinn the ‘capital
of free public transport’ is, however, that it is the largest city in the world
thinkingcities.com
to offer free public transport and that this right is universal in the city, being for all residents of Tallinn and not just for targeted groups. Since January 2013, Estonia’s capital made public transport on buses, trams, trolley- buses and commuter trains in the city free for residents. Started as a political idea, the ini-
tiative has been very popular with Tallinners ever since its introduction. A 2010 survey showed that 49 per cent of respondents expressed dissatis- faction with fares, more than twice the number who complained about crowding and frequency of service. In a recent opinion poll, nine out of 10 people said they were happy with how
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