How can a city promote the use of public transportation?

How can a city promote the use of public transportation?

Introduction

Most of the cities around the globe have developed because of the transport system. Resulting from mass motorization, cities have experienced increased commuter traffic, which led to higher rates of pollution. The public on the other hand responded by moving far from the polluted areas in the suburbs. Moreover, as the limit values of the fine dust increases beyond the acceptable levels, the public turned to public transportation to remedy pollution problems. There are many benefits that come with the use of public transportation system in cities. This includes the creation of more spaces in the urban areas, the reduction of emissions of gases from traffics that lead to air and environmental pollution. According to research performed on the effects of emissions on the environment, the result has it that emission from public transport is less than that from cars altogether. There has been the invention of public electrically powered train, trolleybuses, and trams which release no emissions at all. Public transport powered by renewable energy releases no carbon dioxide. The earth’s atmosphere contains gases that are not harmful and are natural compared to the gases that are released by the public cars, such as carbon dioxide, which remains for a long time in the atmosphere. These gases cause a slight increase in the global temperatures. This paper, therefore, focusses on discussing how public transport can be promoted in the cities through the collaboration of various agencies.

There are many ways that the city municipalities, in collaboration with various agencies, can promote public transportation. However, many cities fail to see the importance of improving their public transportation systems. This is mainly because to them, public transportation is not a priority and therefore they put the options on the back burner. They also assume that people use public transport only when they want and therefore there are no need to promote the system. His is not the truth because many people are not aware of the bout the transportation system and therefore do not realize the benefits of these options in their transport options. Many people across the world perceive public transport as dirty and smelly based on the fact that all kinds of people use public transport. As a matter of fact, in many major cities in America, several people do not own cars, and they don’t need them more because they can get wherever they want through the use of the available public transportation system available.

Many people not using public transport systems is a significant problem. This is because failure to use public transport system leads to people using private vehicles/cars that clog on the roadways in many of the cities across the world. It is not only an issue when it comes to commute times, but it also puts the general public at risk of occurrence of accidents that may result in severe injuries and even death.   This being a concern from numerous people, an effective public transportation system might be the answer to these problems. One of the significant or significant issue when considering public transportation and having people to use public it comes from the threat of pollution caused by the increased number of cars on the roads making it a global issue.  Effective public transportation system can make peoples live in the cities easier and less complicated more because they can eliminate the expenses that come with owning a car. For the cities that want to improve their public system, marketing campaign is needed. However, cities must be sure to use the campaign in a proper way. This is mainly because if the campaign is not use correctly, it would be very expensive to fund the same and might not actually work to provide the desired outcomes. Cites that want to promote the use of public transport system has to improve the system in such a way that people who would normally drive their car would feel that using public transport system is beneficial to them in some ways.

Public transportation system has benefited almost every city in the world. However, most of the cities have not invested or rather focused in providing a fully functioning public transport system. This is mainly because local government and municipal councils do not have required resources to enable them stabilize the public transport system. Some of the cities like London have as a result started charging congestion fees with a goal or aim of investing in public transport. This problem can be solved by integrating international programmers and planners with an aim of offering incentives towards the system. Other cities like Copenhagen charges a parking fee and use the revenue generate to stabilize it transport system. It is important that all the stakeholders including the government work collaboratively in improving the public transport system instead of leaving all the burden to the municipality to fund the system. Because of such problems that the public system faces, the public therefore does not fully depend or rely on the public transport system. Therefore, the governments should consider investing in cost effective methods that can lure the public to trust public transportation system fully. Problems such as emission of gases as well as the noise cause by the vehicles should be reduced to make the system look more appealing. Otherwise, the pollution might reach unmanageable levels that would be costlier than it is expected.

To encourage many people to use public transportation system in the city, the city’s municipalities can consider constructing a separate lane servicing only the public transport. This is basically a strategy that was implemented in Wiesbaden city in Germany with the enactment of the Road Traffic Act. Public transport vehicles such as the buses are given priorities at the traffic signals in bid to make public transport easy and make it more attractive to the public. Separate public transportation lines will ensure that there is no traffic as it is currently experienced in many cities. Moreover, the city authority can consider introducing congesting charges from which the revenue generated is used to improve public transport. However, the public tends to get scared away by the fare charges made by the public transport they find it being more expensive than the other modes of transport. Therefore, the authority can consider placing a strategy for charging the public fair and affordable charges so as to attract more people to use public transport. For example, this strategy has been effective in Vienna where the government reduced the annual subscriptions for the public transportation system. This subscription system became the cheapest mode of transport in the cities. There is as well an introduction of e-ticketing system which is used to eliminate all the complicated machines that act as barriers to the appreciation of the transport system be the general public. However, to effective the system is expensive to install and is often time intensive and hence might not be much suitable for people who are in hurry and wants things done within a short span of time.

Mobile technology has as well been an effective strategy to promote public transport system. Mobile phone applications provide information on public transportation to the general public on time. Implementation or integration of the phone application systems in the public transport system will basically allow the public to order tickets at the comfort of their home and allow them to get information about transport system through their phone. Such applications will therefore allow the commuters to get valuable information and thus allow them to make informed decisions on the most valuable and comfortable public transport model. Currently the public is very much willing to ride the public transport vehicle such as a bus or a train if they have tools that would enable them to manage their commutes effectively. Therefore, the city authority should consider use of mobile applications to provide enough information that could put the riders in control of their experiences thus have greater choice in where a when to ride. People are not willing to feel that they are living at the mercies of paper schedules. This is mainly because to them there is nothing worse than waiting for buses and may or may not come on time.

To expand public transport system in the city funding is important majorly to improve public transportation station areas planning to ensure that it is integrated with an active transportation mode as well as infrastructure. Moreover, to encourage public transportation, provision of incentives could be a great way to lure the public into using public transport system. For example, an incentive may be offered to reduce the transport cost to the user such as discounted fares or public transportation passes. Such incentives have been found to increase the public transportation use as well as an alternative to use of other active transportation options such as walking or bicycling especially among the college students in the cities. It is important to understand that any investment in public transformation have increased potentials of traffic safety, quality of air as well as an active transportation that is accessible. With an effective public transportation system in the city, there will be lower transportation cost compared to other forms of transportation.

Solving problems posed by ineffective public transportation system does not have to be complicated. However, the process of promoting public transport in the cities will take some time. For the city authority to convince their people to use public transportation system has to consider the peoples’ want and need and adopt these strategies that seem attractive. This is mainly because the public need to be convinced on the reason as to why they should change their habits and adopt a different mode of transport. Therefore, there should be a compelling reason as to why the public should choose to transport within the cities differently. Otherwise, any effort to change their attitude without a compelling reason will crumble ant the public will not make any change to their current transport routine.  Therefore, cites should carefully consider coming up with the most attractive changes in the transport system that will eventually encourage people to use public transport mode rather than driving their own vehicles.

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