Silly AA, don’t they know the luas is free already?
Are the AA going to pay for it?
Or… now hear me out… As this is literally an article posted on their own website…. The AA are just looking for some free advertising?
I don’t think cost is an issue with the uptake of public transport.
People don’t use public transport to commute because
– their area doesn’t have transit
– their journey isn’t served
– their journey isn’t served regularly/frequently/reliably
– their journey is too slow by public transport it might be overly indirect
– they’re simply too ingrained in their ways of driving
– it’s too convenient to drive
If we want to move people to use transit we need to simply provide more options with regular reliable transit and at the same time discourage car usage by making it more inconvenient in order to facilitate more public transport, that means car lanes converted to bus or cycle lanes.
Making transit free is no use if I can’t get a route somewhere, it’s already cheap within Dublin for example, and if we simply put more people on our existing network we’ll overwhelm it so we need more options to both accommodate and entice new riders
I would suggest a general ticket. Where you might pay something €150-200 a month and have unlimited travel on public transport. Also a half fare charge. Where you pay €100 a year and all transport is charged at 50%.
My wife’s hometown in Poland made all their bus routes completely free of charge. They’re paid for by the town council using a fund all the businesses pay into. It really does get used a lot and the town center would be fairly busy because of it as a lot of older folk as well as younger ones and students etc can get in and out of the town very easily.
So yea, it’s a really good idea but someone does need to pay for it.
Finally adding other modes of public transport to the free Luas scheme I see
This is a nice idea and I feel like it’s almost going to be the done thing at some point in the future, but as it stands right now I can’t even use the public transport for things even if you made it free.
Rural Ireland will always need cars to work and measures to remove cars from the road simply penalises them anyone else living in a rural area.This is lovely if you live in a city with good public transport (seriously though, we live in Ireland) but that’s not the case for lots of people.
For it to be free is has to exist across the nation not just in the capital
No point in it being free if it’s unusable.
I’m sure everyone would jump at the chance to share a bus or Luas with scumbags who terrorise and annoy other passengers every day.
LUAS 2.0 It’s free! For real this time. We promise.
I think a govt just needs to pull trigger on aggressive bus lanes and maybe for rural areas a hub based system where regular broad services leave from a hub town/stop..at least that way you could have long distance park and rides or focus on shorter smaller services serving transport hubs rather than hoping to get direct services in the middle.of nowhere.
I live 7km away from my job. As soon as I get my licence I will be driving. It’s a 10-15 min drive or 30 min bus journey.
I’m 30 mins early every day because the next bus would make me late for work. It can take 45 mins to get home with waiting for a bus and traffic.
I’d love to cycle more to work but even with bike lanes I feel so unsafe, I’ve seen drivers casually driving on them and a lot of cars brush against me as if it’s impossible to fall of a bike.
I think cheap is better than free. No tickets would mean a lot more people abusing the service. It just needs to be cheaper than the alternatives
When I first read the headline, I thought it was referring to Alcoholics Anonymous and their attempt to reduce road traffic accidents due to drink driving.
But the Luas is free already?
I think they should be working on making biking actually safe and viable, where free public transport would benefit, biking would benefit equally and without half the costs, once Dublin has become a biking city, then we can start working on the public transport
Needs to be better that is all
The idea behind free public transport is to encourage people to use it. Assumption is that there is spare capacity for people to use. There is limited capacity available in public transport in Dublin these days. Particularly so at peak times.
So I can’t see free transport making a significant difference to usage unless more capacity is added… especially at peak times.
I’m in the process of looking for a new job, one I interviewed for is a 20 minutes drive away but I don’t have a car right now. Two exits up the M50 in a major industrial estate. A hour and 20 minutes on the bus and I live in the city centre. I’d love to take public transport but it’s just not an option for so many people.
Here’s a test: if you are sitting in traffic, and the bus next to you (in the bus lane) out-paces you — consider switching to public transport for your commute.
That just make sense
This would make very little difference to me as my area does not have much in the way of public transport anyway.
It costs 1.50 for me using leap for a 19k journey into the city it’s reliable and I’m pretty happy with it to be honest about 3 euro if decide to use the train
I don’t want free public transport, I just want one that works !!
lol for how bad it is it should absolutely be fukin free or cost almost to nothing, at least In rural Ireland and smaller cities it shouldn’t cost anything to people
27 comments
Silly AA, don’t they know the luas is free already?
Are the AA going to pay for it?
Or… now hear me out… As this is literally an article posted on their own website…. The AA are just looking for some free advertising?
I don’t think cost is an issue with the uptake of public transport.
People don’t use public transport to commute because
– their area doesn’t have transit
– their journey isn’t served
– their journey isn’t served regularly/frequently/reliably
– their journey is too slow by public transport it might be overly indirect
– they’re simply too ingrained in their ways of driving
– it’s too convenient to drive
Edit
– safety concerns regarding antisocial behaviour
If we want to move people to use transit we need to simply provide more options with regular reliable transit and at the same time discourage car usage by making it more inconvenient in order to facilitate more public transport, that means car lanes converted to bus or cycle lanes.
Making transit free is no use if I can’t get a route somewhere, it’s already cheap within Dublin for example, and if we simply put more people on our existing network we’ll overwhelm it so we need more options to both accommodate and entice new riders
I would suggest a general ticket. Where you might pay something €150-200 a month and have unlimited travel on public transport. Also a half fare charge. Where you pay €100 a year and all transport is charged at 50%.
My wife’s hometown in Poland made all their bus routes completely free of charge. They’re paid for by the town council using a fund all the businesses pay into. It really does get used a lot and the town center would be fairly busy because of it as a lot of older folk as well as younger ones and students etc can get in and out of the town very easily.
So yea, it’s a really good idea but someone does need to pay for it.
Finally adding other modes of public transport to the free Luas scheme I see
This is a nice idea and I feel like it’s almost going to be the done thing at some point in the future, but as it stands right now I can’t even use the public transport for things even if you made it free.
Rural Ireland will always need cars to work and measures to remove cars from the road simply penalises them anyone else living in a rural area.This is lovely if you live in a city with good public transport (seriously though, we live in Ireland) but that’s not the case for lots of people.
For it to be free is has to exist across the nation not just in the capital
No point in it being free if it’s unusable.
I’m sure everyone would jump at the chance to share a bus or Luas with scumbags who terrorise and annoy other passengers every day.
LUAS 2.0 It’s free! For real this time. We promise.
I think a govt just needs to pull trigger on aggressive bus lanes and maybe for rural areas a hub based system where regular broad services leave from a hub town/stop..at least that way you could have long distance park and rides or focus on shorter smaller services serving transport hubs rather than hoping to get direct services in the middle.of nowhere.
I live 7km away from my job. As soon as I get my licence I will be driving. It’s a 10-15 min drive or 30 min bus journey.
I’m 30 mins early every day because the next bus would make me late for work. It can take 45 mins to get home with waiting for a bus and traffic.
I’d love to cycle more to work but even with bike lanes I feel so unsafe, I’ve seen drivers casually driving on them and a lot of cars brush against me as if it’s impossible to fall of a bike.
I think cheap is better than free. No tickets would mean a lot more people abusing the service. It just needs to be cheaper than the alternatives
When I first read the headline, I thought it was referring to Alcoholics Anonymous and their attempt to reduce road traffic accidents due to drink driving.
But the Luas is free already?
I think they should be working on making biking actually safe and viable, where free public transport would benefit, biking would benefit equally and without half the costs, once Dublin has become a biking city, then we can start working on the public transport
Needs to be better that is all
The idea behind free public transport is to encourage people to use it. Assumption is that there is spare capacity for people to use. There is limited capacity available in public transport in Dublin these days. Particularly so at peak times.
So I can’t see free transport making a significant difference to usage unless more capacity is added… especially at peak times.
I’m in the process of looking for a new job, one I interviewed for is a 20 minutes drive away but I don’t have a car right now. Two exits up the M50 in a major industrial estate. A hour and 20 minutes on the bus and I live in the city centre. I’d love to take public transport but it’s just not an option for so many people.
Here’s a test: if you are sitting in traffic, and the bus next to you (in the bus lane) out-paces you — consider switching to public transport for your commute.
That just make sense
This would make very little difference to me as my area does not have much in the way of public transport anyway.
It costs 1.50 for me using leap for a 19k journey into the city it’s reliable and I’m pretty happy with it to be honest about 3 euro if decide to use the train
I don’t want free public transport, I just want one that works !!
lol for how bad it is it should absolutely be fukin free or cost almost to nothing, at least In rural Ireland and smaller cities it shouldn’t cost anything to people