• The Socialist Lavatory League (LondonReviewOfBooks)
• Network to monitor Thames cruise ship air pollution (AirQualityNews)
• Grand Paris Express tunnelling video (FranceTVInfo)
• Lyft fights to avoid Disabilities Act (Politico)
• Why free public transport doesn’t work (Atlantic)
• 80 year old fallow L station rebuild breaks ground (Curbed)
Whilst you wait for the next installment, check out our most popular articles:
- How Uber operates in London and why it is being banned
- On Our Line Podcast #8: Talking Uber, Lyft and Mobility disruption
- You Hacked – Cyber-security and the railways
And some of our other sections:
Feel we should read something or include in a future list? Email us at [email protected].
Reconnections is funded largely by its community. Like what we do? Buy us a cup of coffee or visit our shop.
“The socialist Lavatory League” left an impression, I can tell you.
Like the writer, even with a “Radar” key, one can get very badly caught out if something goes wrong.
Incidentally this ties back in to our article on the hidden (gender) gap doesn’t it?
Air pollution from (cruise) ships – about time too. I’ve previously remarked on the revolting filth being spewed out close to the stern of some”Thames Clippers”.
It appears that Lyft ( like uber) is trying to avoid statutory regulation. Why am I not suprised?
Who says free public transport doesnt work? Perth in WA has had entirely free bus services in its central zone for more than 25 years. Its aim is to keep motorists out of the city centre and obviously its successful. People do have to pay to travel beyond the central zone of course so maybe the answer is a mix of free and paid services.
This article suffers from a poor headline (headlines are often written by someone other than the author of the article, and they often fail to accurately summarise the article – some would say they do not even try).
The article inside makes no such claim. It does highlight several difficulties arising from the concept, which need to be taken into account. But certainly free public transport does, quite often, succeed in cetain limited objectives.
The problem with most experiments and studies of free public transport is that they look only at the short term impacts. And broadly speaking I think the article is right in saying implying that cost is often less important than comfort, convenience and journey times. However the longer term impacts shouldn’t be ignored. Phil Goodwin’s study of the longer term impacts of the South Yorkshire fares freeze of the 1980s showed that this really made a difference when people were faced with other major changes, such as moving home or the car failing its MOT. Some of these changes are positive in that those where the car failed its MOT were more likely just to give up car ownership. Others less so, in that it encouraged longer commutes, leading to more urban sprawl which, in turn, is harder for public transport to serve effectively. On balance, I suspect the longer term impacts reinforces the view that free public transport across a city is not a sensible idea. This doesn’t exclude targeted free public transport – Perth’s free fares downtown has been tried in a number of other cites, such as Portland’s ‘Fareless Square’ (though that was as much for the convenience of fares collection than anything else).
“Perth’s free fares downtown has been tried in a number of other cites such as Portland’s ‘Fareless Square’ ”
Not to mention, rather closer to home, the Heathrow Freezone