From Free Public Transport

Free public transport

There are many good reasons for having a free public transport. But as we see it, three reasons stand out as being most important for the organizations that are a part of this movement.

• The first one is that of social and economic justice; why should an unemployed person pay as much as a millionaire to ride with the public transport? Instead of having a system where everyone pays the same to ride the public transport, we want a fully tax-financed system where everyone contributes according to his or her ability. In a city like Stockholm (capital of Sweden) all commuters who earn less than 5000 euros a month would benefit from a tax-financed public transport system.

• The second, and at the moment the most urgent, reason is of course the climate change. The whole academia, nearly all politicians as well as an exploding climate movement are all in agreement of the human impact on the planets climate. But instead of focusing on concrete measures to stop the heating we think there has been spent an unfortunate amount of energy on debating numbers and percents. We believe that the only way to combat climate change is to fight for a changeover to a climate smart and social just way of organizing our world, and that fight must start in our own cities. Therefore we think that fighting for free public transport is a good way to start the task of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions we so badly need to get rid of.

• The third reason to fight for a free public transport is that of taking control of, and changing, the development of our cities. Instead of having streets jam-packed with cars, air filled with exhaust fumes and subway stations blocked by barriers, as gigantic and ugly as they're expensive, we want cities that are built according to our needs and wants. Cities that are friendly to the people living, visiting and working in them as well as to the environment. Cities where trams, bicyclists and pedestrians have forced the cars back to where they belong - the graveyard for 20th century modes of transport.