Wilmer Israel Yaripoma Tzetza

English 6/23

Public transportation should be free for everyone

Did you know that on average the cost of public transportation in Latin

America for a low-income person corresponds to 30% of their salary? That is, on

average a person spends a third of his income just to and from work. Transportation

planning is based on four objectives: to be efficient, environmentally friendly, safe and

accessible to all people. All this within an analysis in which the quality of service

offered and the available resources are contemplated.

Free public transport focuses on the pillar of giving access to all people,

without limiting by the purchasing power of the user. But as the old saying goes "there

is no free lunch", that is, although the user of the system perceives it as free, the reality

is that someone is paying for that service. The sponsor of the service may vary

depending on the system used, it may be national, regional or local governments, which

finance it through taxes; another modality is that it is financed by private entities in

some agreement with the city. For this reason, it is also called fare-free public transport

in order to prevent the user from forgetting that someone is paying.

There are two main types of free public transport: systems financed by public

funds that may be made up of one or more lines of the city's public transport network,

and systems financed by private entities, either for their own interests or for some

agreement they have reached with the city, this second type offer the service in an

internal circuit of the city, usually consisting of routes that link a mass transport system

with hospitals, universities, shopping centers, etc.

 The conclusions can be several, you can be totally for or against the strategy

of offering free public transport. Based on the information, it can be said that the

strategy of making public transport free of charge must be linked to a comprehensive

mobility strategy in which users are offered a quality service that meets their needs. In

addition, the reasons why the strategy is to be applied (reduce the number of private

vehicles on the road, reduce air pollution rates, etc.) must be clear, because this will be

the public policies that accompany providing public transport free of tariffs.