How can cities make public transport more appealing?

DW (English)

Facing congestion, the city of Tallinn, Estonia made public transport free, hoping to increase ridership. But it didn’t work. It’s a problem cities around the world are struggling with. REV looks at their approaches.

Transcript

00:00In 2012, something remarkable happened in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

00:05Cars were congesting the city's streets, so the local government asked residents

00:10do you want free public transport?

00:12They said, ja.

00:14So Tallinn made it free.

00:16Since 2013, every resident can just hop on and off trams and buses

00:20without having to buy a ticket.

00:22Did this unclog the city?

00:24Well, buses were fuller than before.

00:26But at the same time, the share of public transit

00:29compared to other means of transport dropped.

00:33The ridership has fallen dramatically from 42% to now 30%.

00:40And in the same time, car use has risen about 5%.

00:46Despite free public transport, people use their cars more.

00:51If not money, what does it take to convince people to switch

00:54from cars to public transportation?

01:01Try to imagine what this country would be like without automobiles.

01:05This General Electric film is from 1948,

01:08but our sentiment towards cars hasn't changed much since.

01:12There's nothing like a car.

01:15When people look at the psychological aspects of car ownership,

01:19they typically look at areas of status and of pride.

01:23Pete Dyson is a behavioral scientist.

01:25He researches why people travel the way they do.

01:28The nature of the tool that it plays in our life

01:33provides some freedom to go places and to do things that have some unique aspects.

01:39Cars are about way more than just getting from A to B.

01:43They fulfill a lot of what we desire.

01:46Take a look at this pyramid of needs.

01:48It's a concept from the world of psychology

01:50that ranks what we need from basic things like food and safety

01:54to belonging and self-esteem up to self-actualization,

01:58so becoming the best version of yourself.

02:01A car covers a whole lot of those needs.

02:04Not only does it take you wherever you want to go, whenever you want to go,

02:08it's also relatively safe and comfortable,

02:11and friends and colleagues who see your car as a sign of success may admire you.

02:16Sure, a bus gets you from A to B as well,

02:18but forget about glamour or comfort

02:21once you get off a subway covered in sweat and super late for your business lunch.

02:27The thing is just, while driving might be great for those inside the car,

02:31it's actually pretty bad for everyone else.

02:34Cars, vans and motorbikes kill around 2 million people each year

02:38through air pollution or road accidents.

02:41Plus, they emit around 10% of global carbon emissions into the air

02:46because most of them still run on fossil fuels.

02:50Yes, public transport also emits carbon, but per person it's much less.

02:56Having many people share a vehicle makes the trip more efficient in this respect.

03:01That's why governments want people to switch.

03:03After Tallinn, other cities and countries have also tried to bait them with the simplest thing,

03:08money, and made public transport free.

03:11Like Luxembourg, the island of Malta, Kansas City and Albuquerque.

03:16Their experience was largely the same as in Tallinn.

03:19People who were using public transport anyways

03:24are now using it more often, taking more rides.

03:27Merlin Rehema is a sustainable city researcher based in Tallinn.

03:31To some extent also, like short walks and bicycle trips

03:35that were taken before became then bus trips.

03:39But just very few give up their car.

03:42The cost is 40 euros per resident per year to make public transport free in Tallinn.

03:47But if buses are packed and not well connected, residents are reluctant to switch.

03:52You also need to make the public transport system better.

03:55There are ways in which you can make journeys smoother, more punctual, more reliable

03:59by improving, say, signaling, giving bus priority to public transport.

04:08A safer environment, a more comfortable environment, the access to a seat or a table

04:14or the ability to do useful or meaningful things whilst traveling.

04:19Some cities have understood this and are working hard to improve their public transport system.

04:25Like Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

04:29There are almost 11 million people there, almost 4 million cars, 17 million motorbikes.

04:35People spend hours in traffic.

04:38Air pollution has gotten really unhealthy.

04:40But the city has also invested a lot in public transport.

04:44Here's what a trip can look like.

04:46Within 500 meters of your home you find a stop for a free minibus that's part of the

04:51Microtrans network.

04:53This takes you to a bus station.

04:55From there you catch a bus that drives on a separate lane past all the cars stuck in traffic.

05:01The whole trip costs 3,500 rupees, as much as a small bottle of water.

05:06That's affordable.

05:08The bus is air-conditioned, which is a nice relief.

05:12It has service staff on board and a separate, supposedly safe area for women.

05:17These pink buses are women only.

05:21BRT, short for Bus Rapid Transit, has become popular in big cities in Latin America and

05:27Asia.

05:28Jakarta has the largest network, with 14 of these corridors spanning over more than 250

05:34kilometers.

05:35They call it Transjakarta.

05:38The concept of BRT is to give more space to public buses.

05:42This way they are supposed to travel quickly and reliably without building much new infrastructure.

05:47It is attractive because it is integrated with the Microtrans.

05:52It is integrated with the minibuses or medium buses.

05:56So we call it first mile and last mile connectivity.

05:58Gongam Tuas Dangang is the Southeast Asia director of a non-profit transport institute.

06:04He lives in Jakarta and advises the transit operators.

06:08The first and last mile connectivity he just spoke about is important to let people access

06:13public transport in the first place.

06:15That can work with bikes or e-scooters.

06:18In Jakarta, it's these minibuses.

06:21They used to be informal and privately operated, but then got integrated into the public system.

06:2720 years after the first bus corridor was built, Jakarta's bus network now covers

06:32most of the city and is connected to the local train network.

06:38Overall, about 10% of trips are made by public transport.

06:42That might not sound like a lot yet, but the government is thinking big.

06:46It wants to increase that number sixfold by 2030.

06:50Seems like Jakarta is taking user needs seriously.

06:54But they also haven't found the secret formula yet.

06:58Because as public transit has been growing, so has car and motorcycle traffic.

07:03It seems that nudging people into public transport is one thing.

07:08The major challenge here or the major homework here is that to

07:13push people to use public transport.

07:17For decades, the solution to too much traffic has been to build more lanes,

07:22more roads, more flyovers, more free parking.

07:25And Jakarta has done just that.

07:28The thing is, that's not how you unclog your streets.

07:32Today we know, more space for cars only attracts more cars.

07:37And after a few years, roads are congested again, with more vehicles than before.

07:42This is called induced traffic.

07:46If you want fewer cars, you're better off doing the opposite.

07:50Make it harder and more inconvenient to drive a car.

07:54Again, the most obvious tool is money.

07:57From 2025, car owners in Estonia will have to pay two kinds of taxes.

08:03One when they buy a car and one when they use it.

08:06They aren't big fans of that new tax, of course.

08:10London has established a congestion charge zone.

08:14Everyone driving into it during the day has to pay 15 pounds.

08:19Car traffic dropped significantly while bus and metro use went up.

08:24But simply making it expensive to drive might hit poorer people particularly hard.

08:29There are other options too.

08:31There can also be non-monetary measures, like really redesigning your cities

08:39in order to favor public transport use and active modes.

08:44Paris, for example, has been removing tens of thousands of parking lots,

08:48closing entire roads to cars and tripling parking fees for big and polluting SUVs.

08:54Jakarta is starting to redesign as well, in an area with tens of thousands of parking spaces.

09:00Gongom Tuas Stangang is advising the pilot project.

09:05We start by improving the connectivity,

09:09the walled pedestrian facilities and also cycling facilities.

09:13And then we also develop a strategy of how to reduce the parking space within the area.

09:21What is important here is that the neighborhood sits at a major public transport hub

09:25with bus and rail connections.

09:27You can only put pressure on car drivers if you have good public transport alternatives ready.

09:34Just like with cars, people have very different needs and expectations

09:38when it comes to good public transport.

09:40It must be easy and enjoyable.

09:44In between affordable and accessible.

09:46Reliable and comfortable.

09:49And just like that, each city starts from a different point

09:53in terms of traffic, infrastructure, budget, mobility behavior

09:57and so on.

09:59There's no single formula for public transport that applies to everyone.

10:03Whether you're nudging or pushing residents into transit,

10:06it still looks different in each place.

10:09But the goal is the same.

10:10To reduce traffic, carbon emissions and air pollution.

10:15The challenge is that new public transit has to be built within existing cities.

10:20In between houses, cars and people.

10:22Unless you want chaos and frustrated citizens,

10:25room for private vehicles can only be reduced step by step as well.

10:30And we haven't even talked about rural areas yet where routes are longer and buses scarcer.

10:36But a few quick fixes could make public transport more convenient almost immediately.

10:41Like an app that shows in real time where the bus is and when it'll arrive.

10:46Or a uniform, maybe cheap fare system that works for different types of transit.

10:51Little things that reduce stress and give a sense of control.

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