Sigh… almost free German public transport
This is one that brings back more than a few memories of the bitter-sweet variety. In Germany, they are experimenting with a EUR 9 ($9.21 USD) monthly public transit ticket which allows one to use trams, trains etc. in the hopes of reducing auto usage and congestion. It seems to be working, too, as 23 of 26 cities surveyed report reduced congestion and increased ridership.
While it is still early to draw conclusions, data compiled by the navigation company TomTom for Reuters suggest the policy may be having an effect.
During the week of June 20, rush-hour traffic congestion was down in 23 of 26 cities compared with the week of May 16, before the new ticket was introduced, the data show. TomTom chose the two weeks because they were both free of holidays.
Other factors may also play a role in the reduction, such as high fuel prices and pandemic-related work from home trends.
But TomTom data for the full month of June also show lower congestion compared with both May this year and June 2019, before the pandemic: congestion was down in 24 of 26 cities in June from May, and in 21 of 26 cities versus June 2019.
The findings could interest policymakers weighing possible future measures for low-cost public transport beyond August.
The cheap ticket has also spurred train usage, which was up 42% in June from the same month in 2019, according to Germany’s statistics office
The rise has been most marked at weekends, leading to complaints from some passengers about overcrowding.
In 2020, Luxembourg became the first country to make public transport free. Officials there have reported increased tram usage, and TomTom data show congestion down in recent months from pre-pandemic levels.
I know that social norms play a part, and the trashing of anything public seems to be a game with some, just as the danger level of riding public transport is much higher in the US than in Europe. It does irk me that we are supposedly the richest country around yet we can’t seem to keep a decent public transit system running safe, and clean much past its first decade. I think it’s a great step to make transport next to free, I just can’t see how something like that would work here – and the billion$-per-mile it costs us to build any kind of high-speed rail doesn’t help. Mileage between cities is much higher, for one.
NOTHING in the US matches European public transport…hell, it barely matches Chinese buses (which weren’t that bad for short trips. ) And admittedly, I have not used any public transport in several years, too. But somehow I think we can do better.
Category: None
The reason that European transit systems are more efficient than American transit systems is because their systems are less than 75 years old, where in New York the subways are well over 100 years old, and it is hard to integrate newer technology into the relics we have. The infrastructure of Europe was destroyed during the war, and this allowed the countries to rebuild completely.
Of course, American urban transit systems are rife with incompetence and graft. If you need an example, take a look at the trolley line Washington DC installed from the Anacostia Metro to the Navy Gate of Joint Base Anacostia – Bolling. 1/4 mile of track costing hundreds of millions of dolars, and it has never been used. They also spent tons of taxpayer money purchasing trolley cars from Czechoslovakia back in the early 2000’s in anticipation of bringing a functioning trolley system to DC. Those trolley cars have been sorting in a storage yard since and have rotted away. No big deal, only taxpayer money.
Hack: please check the Weekend Open Thread for my recommendations re: your Smithsonian Air and Space museum visit.
You have Hack’s gratitude. Now he just needs to get those kids up and at ‘em.
Roger; good luck with that.
Recommend (blaring at maximum volume):
“REVEILLE, REVEILLE, REVEILLE!
ALL HANDS AT STATELY STONE MANOR HEAVE OUT AND TRICE UP!
NOW REVEILLE!”
Just getting vacant looks from our nautically challenged friends, Mick.
Ha!
More like “there they go again” eyerolls from those of us who don’t speak Squiddish… 🙄
Doesn’t the smoking lamp is lit in all berthing spaces come up after trice up. For all you non Swab Jockeys, trice up means lifting up the lower bunk for deck sweeping/swabbing/waxing.
There are plenty of US transit systems less than 75 years old; BART in SF, the METRO in DC, etc. Also, all rolling stock and just about everything except some tunnels and rights of way.
One reason European transit systems may be more efficient is that the customer base is more concentrated, and owning and using a car is a bigger pain in the ass.
Correct. But I think one major advantage of the European systems is you are less likely to be stabbed or beaten to death by a homeless insane person. Also, I bet they have fewer nutjobs pushing people off the platforms in front of the arriving trains.
Those were the good old days, before “cultural enrichment” by a million or more ambassadors of goodwill from various underdeveloped nations.
I always used public transportation when I lived in Germany in the 1990s; I rarely drove my car anywhere. German public transportation systems were cost-effective, convenient, clean, and safe. And they would take you virtually anywhere that you wanted to go.
I would gladly use public transportation here in the US if we could develop a system similar to what they have in Germany. (But I would also be equipped with all of my EDC gear whenever I did so.)
Same applied in the 1960s.
Same in the early ’70s. Not an option in this country. A 50 year long discussion of high speed rail from ATL-Macon-Sav has come to naught. Way back yonder the Nancy Hanks train made that run and did quite well. I-75 & I-16 killed it. As pointed out in this thread, we here are completely different from Europe. And since the Allies blasted hell out of the infrastructure during WWII, we, The American Taxpayer, rebuilt it all. And the Europeans have maintained and expanded it. Would take trillions of $s and decades for the US to duplicate that.
Ask certain demographics of people how that free train ride worked out for them back in the ’40s. Oh…wait…their ashes are gone with the wind.
Public transportation is for losers.
Detroit and big America killed a lot of public transportation post WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
Except for the coasts and a city here and there the US is too large to take advantage of cheap trains. Urban sprawl and the creation of low density suburbs due to cheap housing and cheap gas has also made it less economical.
Even when the population density, gas, traffic density and real estate are all high people still mostly don’t want it.
The West Coast is a nightmare of government regulation, sky high prices, traffic, crazy politics and seismic activity. They built Metrolink LA for billions and the LA system gets less usage daily than the Long Beach Airport, which is the smallest airport in LA County. In fact the whole SCCRA sees about the same number of passengers as John Wayne Airport, the 2nd largest and SCCRA sees a tiny fraction of LAX passengers.
Loved riding public transportation in Berlin (72-76). Military rode free in uniform on the busses and U-Bahn trains. 😷
One difference between Europe and the USA is population density, it’s much higher over there. How often would mass transit get used in someplace like say, Western Kansas? That and given the incompetence as well as the corruption in Government entities.
A classic example of this is the Rail Runner boondoggle in New Mexico. Former guv, Bill Richardson, Clinton/Obama crony and pedophile passenger on Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express, just had to have a commuter train to prove his coastal liberal bonafides, so he pushed through a program that cost about five times what he initially claimed it would (now about $400M and still going up, costing taxpayers over $30M per year in subsidized operating costs).
It attracted about 4000 riders per day initially when the state was offering free rides to generate interest, but that dropped dramatically when the free rides ended. It’s now down to 1400 or so, necessitating that annual contribution from New Mexico taxpayers. The primary core of riders is government types traveling between Albuquerque, the state’s largest city and Santa Fe, the state capital.
Total frickin’ boondoggle… 🙄
Starting out on the right track is key to a successful railroad
Please keep your comments on track with the relevant story.
Here is the absolute best analysis I have seen of why Americans don’t use mass transit (not a joke or a rickroll): https://stevedutch.net/pseudosc/masstransit.htm. The author is Professor Emeritus of Geosciences at UW-Green Bay. I urge all you dickweeds to give it a read.
I read it when you first posted it. The good professor makes a lot of excellent points. It is nice to read something that is written from the perspective of reality as opposed to wishful thinking. I have seen at least two videos that talk about how European countries are better laid out then the United States (One was made by some snot nosed twerp from Denmark who has probably only visited New York if that. Not to sure why he cares what we do.). Of course they ignore what makes the countries different, mainly geography.
I guess when another country or bloc finances your defense, you can afford to spend big on social projects.