RE: Should public transportation be free?
May 30, 2022 at 1:48 am
(This post was last modified: May 30, 2022 at 2:00 am by Anomalocaris.)
2 problems:
1. By paying for free public transportation from general tax revenue it creates common cause for both people who don’t need and those prefer not to use public transportation. This broadens and solidifies opposition against public transportation policy.
2. Making it completely free means that part of the incremental cost of largely or totally unnecessary trips is also zero, so it incentivizes low value added travels.
If the goal is to reduce polluting ICE car usage, I think directly penalizing the use of ICE cars via tolls and fuel surcharges makes much more economic and policy sense then reducing the ticke of public trans portion much below incremental cost of carrying the passengers.
In principle, penalizing undesirable behavior directly work better than Penalizing everyone to create incentive to lure wrong doers away from wrong doing.
1. By paying for free public transportation from general tax revenue it creates common cause for both people who don’t need and those prefer not to use public transportation. This broadens and solidifies opposition against public transportation policy.
2. Making it completely free means that part of the incremental cost of largely or totally unnecessary trips is also zero, so it incentivizes low value added travels.
If the goal is to reduce polluting ICE car usage, I think directly penalizing the use of ICE cars via tolls and fuel surcharges makes much more economic and policy sense then reducing the ticke of public trans portion much below incremental cost of carrying the passengers.
In principle, penalizing undesirable behavior directly work better than Penalizing everyone to create incentive to lure wrong doers away from wrong doing.
