Embedded Files
Public transportation is something which isn’t prioritised enough when it comes to finding solutions to a lot of the issues which we face on a day to day basis. Transport is something which the majority of people require to get to work, school or wherever else they have to go throughout their day. In the greater Dublin area public transport is readily available to people for their use yet people still opt to use cars rather than tram systems, trains or buses. The CSO indicates that around half of people 18 and over in Ireland have never used a bus in their lives. This is a significant problem environmentally and for a whole host of other reasons which we have the infrastructure to fix if we made public transport more appealing.
The obvious initial point which I will make here is the environmental cost of cars. We are all aware that cars contribute significantly to a country's national emissions. In Ireland private car emissions make up 42% of emissions in the transport sector. As you can see in this graph it is significantly higher than any other category in Ireland and public transport and rail is significantly lower.
We must figure out a way to get people out of cars and onto public transport. I believe that making public transport free at the point of purchase is how we do that.
Cars are much like firearms in the sense that if you own one you are significantly more likely to kill someone, or kill yourself. By having private cars on the road we increase our yearly death toll globally by 1.35 million. It is estimated that fatal and nonfatal crashes cost the world approximately $1.8 trillion a year. In America specifically, a private car dystopia, there are only 24,000 injuries a year from buses in comparison to a 1 in 103 chance of dying as a result of a car. The facts clearly show that private car ownership creates an environment which is unsafe for everyone who interacts with it.
The other issue is socioeconomics. Many disadvantaged and low income individuals rely on public transport as means of getting to and from work and general transportation in Ireland and globally. Creating a barrier for entry for these people creates additional financial burden and thus an inequality of transport across society.
Free fare or zero fare public transport is something which has begun to sweep across Europe with Luxembourg being the first country in the world to have a fully free public transport system at the point of purchase. Other European countries have followed suit with Malta becoming the second country to take the leap with it transforming it’s already existing transport system into a zero fare service. Germany has also been looking at encouraging public transport as being a viable solution to curbing their heavily criticised carbon emission levels. This seems to be the way in which metropolitan areas are moving and Ireland is a country with a very similar GDP per capita to Luxembourg and Malta and most certainly can afford to make this step.
The main argument against expanding public transport globally or making them more widely available is that of financing. In budget 2022 the Irish government planned to spend €59.7 million on aviation and roads this year, and a further €1,417.2 million on road networks and road safety.
This is slightly more than the budget of the entire public transport sector of €1,474.3 million. With less people driving and more of an uptake in public transport, a significant portion of these funds could be reallocated to public services. Many people argue that public transport is not viable because it is a loss leader. You know what else is a loss leader? Roads! Yet we do not expect them to make back the millions of Euros a year that we spend on them because the government understands that they are a necessary sacrifice for the sake of commerce. They don’t have to make their money back because they are funded by the taxpayer, and obviously toll booths but they make up a very small proportion of the funding required to keep roads at a reasonable standard.
Obviously urban planning and the entire transport system must be improved in order to have the infrastructure to accommodate the new influx of commuters switching to public transport; however, getting people out of cars must be the priority when looking towards a more sustainable transport system.
11 June, 2022
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse