Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
12/07/2013
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Credit: Mobilize.orgPara who imagines that free public transport, called Zero Tariff or, more recently due to protests by the country, the Free Pass, is extremely utopian or fully applicable, must seek the world's most famous seeker about Free shipping in other countries, or cut the path and access this link. Yes, this kind of public transportation is already a reality in many places around the globe, including in districts of Brazil. But will the zero tariff is possible and practicable in large and medium cities, or megacities like Sao Paulo? Would not only be an unattainable dream?
The trigger for the protests that began in the state capital, fostered by Movement Passe Livre (MPL), was an increase of twenty cents on the subway and bus fare. But what most people do not know this in march, because many were not even born or were very young, is that in 1990, the then mayor of the capital Luiza Erundina (PT) tried to score the zero tariff. The idea was to fund the system with money removed from the property tax, which would be called "Transportation Fund". Thus, the cost would be proportional to the wage gain citizen. The project did not go ahead due to the expected increase in property tax, as they suffered a lot of resistance.
Demonstrations against increased passage in São Paulo / Credit: Daily S.PauloMas, why in some places was successful in implementing the free pass and other task seems impossible? You need to examine initially the social, demographic and economic characteristics of successful places.
Places that succeed
In the list of cities that guarantee free transportation, the most common is to observe small towns with tiny road network and a modest number of inhabitants. In Blagnac, France, for example, the 33,000 residents do not pay anything to walk the few bus lines of the city since the 1970s. Over the years, another twelve French areas copied the template. This is possible because of the small number of lines that these cities have, that hardly compensates for the expense of maintaining a collection of tariffs.
In the United States, shipping is also free in small towns like Bozeman, Montana, and Commerce, California. "All systems free shipping in the United States or are in small urban and rural areas or in university communities.'s Very easy for a small urban area with buses carrying only one-third of its maximum capacity to accommodate a 100% increase in services transportation, "says Joel Volinski, director of the National Center for Transit Research at the U.S. University of South Florida, told the website of SEE.
In Brazil, the city Treble, with 34,000 inhabitants, in the interior, does not charge for use of their buses since 2003. In Ivaiporã (400 km from Curitiba), with 31 800 inhabitants, shipping is free for 12 years. According to Mayor Luiz Carlos Gil (PMDB), the "free pass" cost $ 520,000 in 2012 to the public coffers. In Pitanga (at 338 km from Curitiba), with 32 600 inhabitants, the free service began in February 2012, with more modest numbers. Two buses take about 400 users daily, at a cost of U.S. $ 12 000 monthly.
Already far from here, in the city of Tallinn, Estonia, public transport tariffs were abolished just before the protests began here in Brazil. But Tallinn is not a small town: with more than 420,000 inhabitants, the capital brought up the debate on the possibility of large cities make room for the free pass. The reasons for this type of initiative are many, from making transport more accessible to all by reducing car use, reducing pollution and traffic. The question is whether the project is financially sustainable because the money stops coming in tariffs have to leave the city budget or another instance of the government.
The city of Tallinn, Estonia, is the largest city with zero rate, with more than 420 000 inhabitants
Infeasibility
Three medium-sized American cities tried to keep systems free pass on public transport. What took longer was to Austin in 1990, which ran for 15 months. According to experts, the 39 free public transport systems that operate in the country have been implemented in cities with less than 200,000 inhabitants in neighborhoods or university.
For Joel Volinski, director of the National Center for Research on Transportation, University of South Florida, author of study on the gratuity in tariffs, offering free bus can triple the number of passengers. "Many people begin to use the system for short trips, so the buses are much fuller than usual," says Volinski.
Free Pass Movement
Last month, after a meeting of the MPL with President Dilma Rousseff, the leader of the Movement Free Pass Mayara Vivian said Rousseff said zero tariff for public transport would be "unworkable". For movement, the rationale is unconvincing. "She understood that the agenda of the zero tariff is a need of the people and said the infeasibility. But for us it is a political and not technical. If you have money to stadium and have money for the World Cup, has money for zero tariff" said.
Currently, the zero tariff, at least in very large cities, such as São Paulo, seems a distant view. The result of the demonstrations was the repeal of the passage to the previous value of £ 3, which also happened in other cities of Brazil. It also served to raise issues of great importance, as the role of government in order to implement improvements in transportation and improve the lives of citizens, since an increase or not, each year is harder to get around the capital.
With information on Galileo, Folha de S. Paulo, See, G1, Free Public Transports
Source: UOL - Modern Consumer
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.