Encouraging people to embrace alternatives to the car – still the dominant mode of travel in Switzerland – means factoring human decision-making into the equation.
Whether it’s free or not doesn’t impact that issue.
People have to travel, and if you’re referring to poor and/or unhoused folk. They can’t walk across city any easier than you can. When you’re in that situation you have to travel a lot to maintain access to government services. They’re going to use the cheapest transit either way.
Except they’re not using it for transportation. It’s just a place to be and do drugs. When I was living in a city a bit further south, the trains were out of control. People smoking and selling their drugs right at the station, sometimes on the train. Every woman I knew was scared to ride. The stations and trains were just filthy.
Once they started enforcing fares again it got so much better.
Whether it’s free or not doesn’t impact that issue.
People have to travel, and if you’re referring to poor and/or unhoused folk. They can’t walk across city any easier than you can. When you’re in that situation you have to travel a lot to maintain access to government services. They’re going to use the cheapest transit either way.
Except they’re not using it for transportation. It’s just a place to be and do drugs. When I was living in a city a bit further south, the trains were out of control. People smoking and selling their drugs right at the station, sometimes on the train. Every woman I knew was scared to ride. The stations and trains were just filthy.
Once they started enforcing fares again it got so much better.
I’ve lived in cities with free transit without those problems. They just also had strong social welfare systems.
It’s not a problem inherent to free transit, it’s a result of failures in governance.
Right. And what I’m saying is the public transportation departments can’t carry that burden.
Neither am I 😊