Ain’t There Such A Thing As Free Public Transport?

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Ain’t There Such A Thing As Free Public Transport?

Many cities around the world, and now few states in India as well, have some form of fare-free schemes, also known as Fare Free Public Transport (FFPT). Fare free means that the riders do not have to pay the tariff for the ride. The eligibility of the rider getting access to Fare Free has been different in various situations. Such policies have been in practice for decades though most of them are concentrated in Europe. In 2013, Tallinn, Estonia became the first capital city to introduce FFPT for its citizens. Last year Luxembourg became the first country to do so. While the intention for such policies has been to reduce the private vehicles on roads, recent developments show an inclination towards equitable distribution of infrastructure as the primary reason. Michelle Wu, the newly elected mayor of Boston, on her first day in the office proposed to make three city bus lines free for two years to ‘strengthen racial equity and eliminate barriers to opportunity’.

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Urban Mobility in the Times of COVID-19

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Urban Mobility in the Times of COVID-19

Public transportation services in India have been patchy and impaired with various inefficiencies (TERI, 2020) even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For a long time, developments in the public transportation sector were mainly oriented towards the major metropolitan cities. Various other factors such as women’s safety concerns, lack of last-mile connectivity and poor infrastructure have also deterred many from availing public transit.

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Small City Mobility: Windows for Policy Knowledge

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Small City Mobility: Windows for Policy Knowledge

We have reviewed more than 50 studies produced post-2010 to evaluate issues around urban mobility. Through our review, we identified multiple windows which can be built upon to create policy based solutions for sustainable mobility in small and mid-sized cities. Some of these windows include Knowledge on Mobility in Small Cities; Context Specific Knowledge on Mobility; Frequency and Timeliness of Knowledge and; Diversity of Knowledge Producing Institutions.

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Transport and Mobility in Small Towns: What do we know (and don’t)

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Transport and Mobility in Small Towns: What do we know (and don’t)

The Constitution of India provided for special powers to certain regions to decide upon their local governance, according to their traditions and culture. The Constitution created two such categories through Article 234 under the Fifth and Sixth Schedules: Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas respectively. While PESA was passed in 1996 and panchayats have been formed under it, MESA still has not been passed. Yet, municipal governments have been formed in Scheduled areas. The conflict that municipal governance faces in Scheduled Areas is because of this lack of legislative protections.

Urbanisation is inevitable and is taking place in tribal dominated areas as well. Urban areas need governance systems which are geared towards their particular needs.

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