On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 9:05 AM, . <[email protected]> wrote:[...] > This might not work out if you > consider the cost and time factor which makes the excellent transit > system less attractive and the temptation to buy a car for comfort and > convenience still remains. I dont remember the public transit system > in Singapore and London to compare it effectively at the moment, but > despite a less crowded mass transit system many folks prefer to buy > cars/bikes.
Switzerland is the best example I have come across so far of public transit being near perfect. First, public transport is ubiquitous, I've been able to go hiking in the remotest of mountains by taking a train all the way to the foot hills. In fact the farthest I believe you can ever be from a railway/bus station is about 20kms or so, and that's for example when you are on a hiking trail in the mountains. Second, the rates for public transit are not measured point-point, but in zones. That means if almost all your activity is within a couple of zones - home, school, shopping, you buy a daily/monthly/yearly pass for the zones you use and you can take any number of trips on any trains, buses, trams, cable car, boats that run in / through the area as long as you remain within the zone. Optionally, you can get a country wide pass for a year, which is about the cost of leasing a small car for about 10 months, and you can get on almost any form of public transport anywhere in the country. A surprisingly large number of Swiss have it. It gets cheaper per individual since each additional family member gets a discount. The key lesson here is that public transport does not have to be absurdly cheap in order to attract a wide user base - as long as it is done right. Third, the system is reliable - it is possible to routinely plan the most complicated of trips with train - bus - tram journeys with only a few minutes in between to make the connection and it all works. The Swiss track record for running their public transport on time is to be seen to be believed. Even if the impossible happens and you miss your train, the most you would ever wait for another cross country train is 1 hour. Try that in India between Chennai & Bangalore, possibly the best connected pair of cities. Getting a seat by walking up to the train at the last minute would be next to impossible, and a ticket reserved in advance would be only valid on a particular date and train, and if you miss the train, the next train would be hours or days later. It's not that the Swiss don't have their cars for fun or practical reasons, but they certainly use it a lot less than anywhere else. If you use a car only a few times a month there are many car share companies that will rent you a car for a few hours. In fact there's a discount if you already hold a valid train pass. Once you've registered, hiring the car only takes minutes, and doesn't require any human interaction. As a note on the general Swiss culture of trust, there are no turnstiles at train stations, nor are there conductors on local trains. You are expected to possess a ticket, and you only need to show it when the occasional ticket checker comes by. This actually quite liberating. I don't own a car now, and I hope I don't ever have to own one again. It means that there are the times when it is slightly more time consuming or annoying to take the train, but for the most part it is an overwhelming advantage. Cheeni
