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Estonia To Become the World's First Free Public Transport Nation (citylab.com)
On July 1st, the country of Estonia will create the largest 24/7 free public transit zone in the world, making it feasibly possible to travel by bus from one end of the 1.3 million-strong Baltic nation to the other without paying a cent. CityLab reports: Estonia is already a world leader in free public transit: In 2013, all public transit in its capital, Tallinn, became free to local residents (but not tourists or other visitors, even those from other parts of the country). The new national free-ride scheme with extend this model even further, making all state-run bus travel in rural municipalities free and extending cost-free transit out from the capital into other regions. The plan will not, however, extend Tallinn's existing free public transit policies to other Estonian cities, and it also won't make riding Tallinn transit free to visitors (at least, not initially). So while most of the country's land area and population -- which is overwhelmingly concentrated around Tallinn -- should get fare-free daily lives, it's not precisely the case that no Estonian will ever buy a bus ticket in their own country again. Further reading: Pop-Up City
Free & comfortable shelters for the homeless.
There is no such thing as free.
(This is not to say that it is not cost-effective to bother with collecting a user fee.)
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
- drugs and crime on every transport
- roving homeless and illegal immigrants shelters
- unionization and high cost of operations
- dilapidation caused by lack of funding
- a political hot potato with no solutions
A Leftist's dream!
You remember the name of the town, don't you?
Though I think that many social programs are overblown and too much tax money goes to them, this is actually a thing I support spending tax money on.
There is the societal reason of allowing more people to be able to do things like travel to work opening more opportunities while still not clogging up the roads more. I am all for equality of opportunity, what I detest is the attempt to force equality of outcome.
Then there is the selfish reason too, if there is even bigger difference between public transport and private cars in cost, more people will chose public transportation and a buss takes a lot less road than the equivalent number of people in cars, leaving the roads less clogged for the rest of us.
This turns the bus rider from customer to mere recipient. Service quality will plummet, and eventually decisions will become political football, with better 'connected' areas getting better connections.
Worse, it doesn't provide funds for the transit system - the interviewee argues their revenue has doubled, but the only source of funds mentioned was raising parking fees, which could have been done without this scheme.
if having unlimited access to transport without having to pay for it and clean air as a result of more efficient transport pays for the cost of the transportation in increased productivity and health outcomes (all that smog from personal cars is a big impact on heart health) then yes, in a sense it's "free".
Yes, everything has a cost. We're not Gods and we can't make matter and energy from nothing. But you need to consider the costs of the alternatives and that in many cases the alternatives are inevitable. It's like the American Healthcare system. We're gonna spend an extra $17 trillion on our private employer funded healthcare vs single payer in the next 10 years (much of that profits for Pharmaceuticals & health insurance companies). We could pay off the national _debt_ with that kind of dough...
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free (selected definitions):
Generous; liberal.
Thrown open, or made accessible, to all; to be enjoyed without limitations; unrestricted; not obstructed, engrossed, or appropriated; open; said of a thing to be possessed or enjoyed.
Obtainable without any payment.
Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; followed by of.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
RIP Estonia. They thought they were doing the right thing, but really they were dooming their entire country by implementing SOCIALIST policies, instead of letting privately run companies exploit citizens. I think this calls for a helping hand from good ol' Uncle Sam (if they have oil reserves that is).
No more haunted houses for them. Take the bus! Train! Airplane!
the avbove is far
For some reason, this made me think that it would be like the whole nation was conveyor belts, just step on and go anywhere. Obviously, this is is true of any nation with roads, but the "free" thing makes a psychological difference: you spend money to go places you have a need to go, but if it's free, you might wander anywhere aimlessly, like a man out for a walk.
The conveyor belt image sent me over to my Heinlein collection to carefully re-read the start of "The Roads Must Roll", confirming what I'd suspected: Heinlein never mentions payment. The entrance to the Road lacks all toll-booths or other mentions of payment. Indeed, how could there be when he describes that you can get on anywhere, just step on the outer 5MPH strip going by, and work your way inward to faster strips if you aren't travelling locally. There are, however, many paragraphs expended clarifying that the whole economy is dependent on them, and they re-designed all their cities around them.
I think Mr. TANSTAAFL actually proposed that moving mechanical roads would be like the asphalt roads they replaced: just free for all to use. The same concept of "public road" that every government ever had to maintain (at great public expense, your city streets department is likely more expensive than either water or sewer) just had the cost of maintaining mechanism tacked on. They already had to up the roads budget 500% to install and maintain asphalt instead of dirt decades ago, this is just the same increase again as society became another 500% richer from the "Douglas-Martin Sunpower screens" and so forth.
Pigeonholing Heinlein as a libertarian, or militarist, or whatever, was never wise; the guy had his opinions, but his imagination that roamed over all sorts of ideas always ruled over that when he had an idea he couldn't resist.
Homeless shelters on wheels, decreasing quality, running out of money... all things that were expected when this was implemented in Tallinn. None of that actually happened, it worked out great. Buses are on time, go pretty much everywhere and are as clean as ever, it totally works. Mind you, this scheme was cooked up by a political party I otherwise despise, I guess even a blind man hits a bulls-eye every now and then. Of course, its not free as air, its just payed out of your taxes, but as far as use of your taxes go - it's a pretty good one.
You need to keep in mind that setting aside who pays for it, public transportation is just cheaper than a car in every way. You need less infrastructure and roads are expensive, a bus just takes less room than equivalent amount of cars, on roads and on parking lots. A bus itself is cheaper than equivalent number of cars, as Estonia has to import both, public transport is good for import/export balance. Buses use less fuel per passenger than cars, again something you don't need to import as much. And the improved air quality is worth something too.
From state perspective, more public transport is a very good thing and if done right its pretty convenient for a citizen too. You can look at it as extra tax on car owners, not a very big tax at that.
I'm an estonian and this news to me. Yes, general free public transport has made the news few times, but thats about it. There are no plans and there is certainly no set date. Where does 1st July come from?
Just another word that has been redefined within a generation.
Free public bus transport was the initial idea. Now nobody is sure because there is so much hurry and miscommunication involved. There was and idea that counties can choose: to open new bus routes, lower the ticket price or to set the ticket price to zero. Many counties would prefer to use the money to open new routes so that is will help more people.But now the central government declared that the counties that will not give free rides to everyone cannot give free rides to anyone. There is a long-standing tradition that pensioners and students are driving either free of charge or have heavily discounted tickets.
Knowing the minister involved, all this will change the next week. It already has changed so many times.
Btw, it is all for intra-county bus transport only. And counties in Estonia are max 150km from one end to another. When you want to drive from Tartu to Tallinn then that plan is for no use.
it's the dues you pay for civilization.
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We have zones which are concentric rings from the centre of our cities. Travelling across zones incurs a fee, however, within zones are free. Generally going to the shop costs nothing because of this.
[SOURCE]
What the hell do you think you are doing? Economics for the rich and infamous 101: Continue to collect more and more tax while selling off the services, that the tax is supposed to pay for, to corporations. We do not want citizens from other states to realize that their governments are shafting them. Get your act together.
Are they just guessing based on people's appearance? Is it on the honour system? How do they know who is a local and who is a visitor? Or do they make even locals use some kind of card to identify themselves?
and the American fleet is aging since people can't afford new cars. What matters is what the allowed spec is and what the spec is "in the field", not the theoreticals we extrapolate from a car's spec when it came off the line. And that's before we start talking about stuff like the many, many cheating emissions scandals going on right now.
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Their ENTIRE NATION is just a little smaller than the state of OHIO. They geographically have LITTLE area. Try doing that in the ENTIRE United States! More fake news, so to speak.
It's interesting how different cities take different approaches to free public transit. In Tallinn, public transit is free for locals but not for visitors, whereas in the Swiss city of Basel, it's free for visitors but not for locals. (The city government supplies transit passes to hotels, which then distribute them to their registered guests. Conveniently, visitors can still avail themselves of free travel while travelling to the hotel to check in: all they need to do is show the ticket inspector their reservation.)
I'm so sick of other places that charge taxes to subsidize or sometimes fully fund state-run transportation networks. As someone that has serious problems with the fundamentally barbaric nature of taxation, this comes as a very welcome alternative.
Helps the poor get to jobs and helps the environment
i'm currently sitting on a bench of the second biggest city of Estonia (Tartu).
It's my first time in the country and i crossed it (from Tallinn) by train.
While the public transportation in Tallinn are OK (not more) the rest of the country is far from having that chance and will still highly rely on individual means of transportation (especially in the rural areas where villages/houses are very distant from each others or transportation network).
Two days ago i discussed the changes in traffic planning with a young mother and she was not really happy about them (the streets of Tallinn are congested at rush hours and riding bicycle is almost suicidal). In a way, it's like putting frightening pictures on tobacco to discourage unhealthy habits (without forbidding them).
I should have asked her which future she wishes for her child...
Estonia is a country of long term thinking, bold and courageous moves. I believe that makes it a great country.
You would think, but that is also a very narrow view, especially after actually visiting Tallinn.
Train is not as important as light rail(actual rail, and busses with power wires on top), combined with flexible bus routes.
A quick summary would read something like:
As a former communist nation, Estonia has a spread out infrastructure, with a lot of smaller towns surrounding Tallinn, and a lot of space between the populated areas and the industrial areas. A Soviet war insurance one could call it, but not centralizing the population centers, but rather rely in infrastructure for the expansions. This results in that even in a expanding city as Tallinn, there is a lot of space left to expand upon, and a lot of existing infrastructure that already is capable of some massive expansions.
The entire point of the free public infrastructure is for "borgers", or "Citizens" or "Headhunted foreign IT workers". Which means the company can acquire a space that do not need a lot of parking, and settle the workers around the cities tram lines. Which means that even with massive expansion, there is not a insane housing inflation, and Tallinn can freely expand, and even have entire enclaves of Scandinavs, Balts, Finns and Icelanders who want to experience a new world of IT, working abroad, for a few years. And they would move there, because quality of living combined with wages and housing cost is competitive with hellholes like Oslo or Stockholm, even more so with free city wide transportation.
And it has another great benefit: You now have a massive infrastructure that can also be used for tourism.
You go to Estonian, and basically pay a symbolic sum free usage of all transportation inside of Tallinn. It was amazing, even if you needed a phone app to avoid dealing with the horrible maps at each station.
And this has been tested since 2013, so either they want to puff up other areas of Estonian for off shoring, or they realized the costs are worth it for the convenience & commerce it brings its citizens.
But then the corrupt politicians decided to do away with that because - well they never did give a good reason. So now there are fewer buses, costing more, and the subsidy is still greater than the amount brought in by ticket sales.
Must have been that someone wasn't getting their cut somewhere - or was it that they wanted to use the money to build a new toy train that few use, costs more per rider, and still has massive subsidies.
Take a look at Estonia; 17,000-and-change square miles, 1.3 million people -- IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. California has enough budget surplus that they could buy Estonia, I'm pretty sure, and there are cities in the U.S. that have more people in it than Estonia has in it total. 'Free public transit for everyone' would not scale up.
Libertarians such as myself believe in limited government. They are therefore assumed to be in total opposition to transit. But that's not always the case. While in a perfect world, markets would evolve to address transportation and most if not all other human needs, the world in which we actually do live is one in which cars, roads, oil, and other car-related infrastructure has been heavily subsidized in many places, for decades. Particularly in the U.S. where I live. This has created unsustainable and costly patterns of development, including sprawl, that almost everyone acknowledges but almost no one knows how to fix. And since it's kind of essential to understand what's going on, I'll point out that public sector unions have been heavily subsidized as well. This has grossly distorted transportation markets, resulting in entire countries such as the U.S., Canada, and probably many others, developing unsustainable levels of suburban sprawl that cannot be adequately served by transit as it is currently imagined.
I would propose a re-imagining of transit as we know it here today. States and the federal government already devote substantial resources to transportation in general. But most of it has been to benefit cars, not transit. This has created patterns of development that require cars, which require continuing investment in roads, etc., ad nauseam. I propose they shift a portion of these resources away from cars, particularly inside established cities, and toward transit. This represents a very small, baby step toward shifting back to what transportation looked like before all of this massive market distortion. Where transit dominated at least in and near cities, with most private car usage being found elsewhere.
And I also would either negotiate with transit unions for more sustainable wage structures, or - and, yes, most will consider this drastic, but remember I'm a libertarian so this is a concession for me as well: fire them all and replace them. There is nothing about operating a subway train that should cost $100k a year. Technology is going to replace most unskilled labor sooner than most folks realize. It's high time to serve notice to those who make very high wages for unskilled work that they need to retrain NOW, while they still have their current jobs, so that, when those jobs go away - which they will - they will be ready for other and better ones that are currently going unfilled for lack of properly trained workers.
And as I already touched on, automation can and should solve a lot of the cost issues. With proper signaling and safety technology, train operation can be largely if not completely automated. Driving huge buses on busy and chaotic city streets is a far greater challenge, but it is being worked on. Since buses are as big and as infrequent as they are now as a result of the need to minimize labor costs, automation over time should result in smaller, but more, buses, probably operating more frequently and in more places than they can now.
Last but not least, the one cost faced by both cars and transit, making both more expensive than they need to be, is energy. Technology is trying desperately to solve this problem. And politics is trying desperately to get in the way of that solution. We need to find genuinely better alternatives to fossil fuels, an we need to do that ASAP, preferably now while we still have them. We know how to produce energy cheaply in places with a lot of sun, or wind, or waterfalls. If we ever get nuclear fission right (thorium fuel cycle?) or even fusion, we can produce it even more cheaply. But how do we get it to where and when most of it is used, including either public or private transit vehicles? That's the biggest challenge right now. If we solve that problem, the cost of transportation, whether public or private, reverts to somewhere near the cost of infrastructure. No huge labor costs because automation; no huge fuel costs because of fusion + fuel cells or whatever. When these costs become low enough, we
Nonaggression works!
The original article is somewhat misleading and so is the summary, and by extension, also the discussion.
Yes, the Central Party wanted to push free overall *local* public transport, the kind that does not cross county borders. That did not come to pass. Instead, they instated a programme that encourages local transport operators to set up such free lines, only that it is not mandatory. Those operators that decide to enrol in the programme will get subsidies, those that don't, well, won't. But there will be some operators that won't, because there'll be various strings attached.
There never was a plan to extend the free local public transport initiative to country-wide public transport, so city to city bus lines were never meant to be free for all. Rail transport was never included in the plan.
This initiative is basically an opportunity for transport companies to get state subsidies in return for operating free local lines, if they choose to participate. This is no 24/7 free public transport zone, with unicorns. I love it how our PR people can spin stuff, but this is too much.
The country's population is most emphatically not overwhelmingly concentrated around the capital city Tallinn. The city's population is ~400,000, the surrounding county (size ~4300 sq km) adds about 200,000, which means that out of the 1.3 million inhabitants, most live elsewhere.