Zurich to decide on 1-franc-a-day public transport ticket

It would really not surprise me when they voted no for this. THere is a placard on the street advising people to vote no because 1 frank is too little for the rich people to pay. But for these people paying any amount is too little!!! Dumb!!

Why should rich people pay more for the same service?

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It’s one way of making that service someway affordable for people on the “Existenzminimum”

I really doubt reducing the price, or even making it free, would affect the behaviour of rich people. It would more likely affect the behaviour of the very poor (encouraging them to pay a little and not cheat and/or giving them opportunities for jobs further from home) and the middle classes (realising that money can be saved bu leaving the car at home).

In 2014 GE knocked 20% off the price of monthly, day and single use tickets which resulted in a slightly higher than 10% increase in demand.

Report in English with Executive summary also in French.

A 20% reduction in price needs a 25% increase in demand to remain revenue neutral.

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They should learn the lessons for other cities that made transport free. It just ended up with people abusing it.

I believe there should always be a marginal cost of usage.

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How does a free ride get abused?

How can one abuse free public transport??

Sounds like a cool idea to me. Seems one has to get a yearly ticket.

It’s a great thing for poor people and pensionaries. It’s great for people who go to Zurich often but not on daily basis, no thinking about getting a ticket/how much is it for my trip/where do I get it, will I miss a tram while finding out about that (for those who are not into handy apps). It’s very convenient.

People who come into town for work daily will not get it because city transport is already included in their regular tickets, which ever type they use.
The mentioned people who come often but not daily will not use it every day, so their transport cost will end up a bit higher than Fr. 1.00 - which is still fine to them and a “gain” to VBZ. VBZ will also save money on dealing with fare dodgers (there will be less) and all the paperwork that comes with it (send fine, send reminder(s), file reports to police, put it all through court, file for dept collection as the money still doesn’t get paid).

If I still went to Zurich often as I used to, I’d buy this.

Why do they think “rich” people would use public transport to start with? They’ll be driving around in their expensive overrated cars. And how are they defining “rich”?

Zuruch voters are very left oriented. I won’t be surprised if they vote yes.

Is this actually on the ballot for September or November or just based on a 16 month old article?

As far as I know, for September.

You seem to be defining it by how expensive their cars are - which is why those sorts of people buy those sorts of cars - they need to let everyone know how jolly wealthy they are.

Other rich people (but maybe not so much here), consider that sort of thing vulgar and really don’t care much for what they drive and are quite happy taking trains and trams or driving in their ten year old car.

OMG - that’s so me (although the crate-on-wheels is now 13 years old).

Had no idea I was so wealthy… :joy:

I can see all the guys drinking on the train station now could ride in a warm tram during winter. Make a stop to piss, take next tram.

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There are those sort of problems.

Free public transports seems to work best in small, rich cities and towns without a vagrancy problem - such as Luxembourg, where it has been policy since 2020.

There are studies which does show that car usage does decrease improving air quality, noise reduction and generally making cities a more pleasant place to be.

You dont get it. Its simply a stupid placard.

LOL, of course I immediately thought about the age of my car too - it beats yours, it’s 17 years old! This is crazy, it looks like new and purrs like a kitten. I will drive it for ever :smiley:

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How many KMs?

That’s the trick: 143K :rofl:
Not sure if nobody cheated on that once as I didn’t buy it new (never do).

But actually I once bought a 10yo MiniMetro that had 50K km. Some fan must have kept it in a garage somewhere, I bought it for Fr. 800.00. Them were the days. It then had to do the trip to England endless times for several years - where everybody gave me funny looks for that rough looking MiniMetro with Swiss plates. You could literally see them think “the Swiss are not as well off as we thought”. Great fun.

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