Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The social, climate and health reasons for making public transportation free

From the perspective of creating sustainable, liveable cities, the dominance of private, motorised cars using the internal combustion engine (ICE) based on burning oil or diesel is a significant obstacle to be overcome. A city dominated by fossil fuel based private car-based transport is a net negative in terms of:
  • congestion (remember you are not ‘stuck in traffic, you are traffic’);
  • the large amounts urban space its requires (more roads and car parking, less shared spaces, parks, urban lakes etc.);
  • damaging impacts on the quality of life in the urban environment and the private enclosure of public space (urban space being viewed as a commons – see my previous post on this);
  • health impacts of air and noise pollution, and car accidents;
  • burdens our health care system with substantial medical costs;
  • inequality, working class areas being used as quick routes around the city, in areas where fewer people have cars;

http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/the-social-climate-and-health-reasons-for-making-public-transportation-free/