Denmark, Aarhus experiments with making light rail and bus free (but only if you own a car)
Denmark, Aarhus experiments with making light rail and bus free (but only if you own a car)
From autumn 2025, drivers in Aarhus can travel for free by light rail and bus during rush hour if they park at the Park and Ride facility at Klokhøjen.
This is stated in a press release by Midttrafik, which together with Aarhus Municipality is behind the pilot trial.
The trial will test whether free travel by light rail can motivate more drivers to leave their cars and continue their journey by public transport, with the aim of reducing congestion and car traffic in the city centre.
Drivers can collect a free ticket via the Rejsebillet app at Klokhøjen. The trial will run until the end of 2026.
One step forward, one step backwards. Somehow, Denmark manages to make public transportation benefit only the people who need it the least.
I disagree on this: "One step forward, one step backwards. Somehow, Denmark manages to make public transportation benefit only the people who need it the least."
I'm not saying it does benefit the people who need it the most, but this artificially boost demand for public transport which makes more funding more responsible. Also because it artificially lowers demand for roads it makes it easier to 'sell' not investing in roads.
What is a bad thing about this though, is that it might make it more appealing for people who use public transport to own cars.
That's a shallow take. Nobody is gonna buy a car to save 5 dollars on public transport. This is an experiment to collect data so somebody can lobby for more investment in public transportation; something we have already data on and know works. It's kind of pointless, it's just a free cookie if you own a car.
During rush hour, for a lot of people that means 2 tickets a day, four times a week. Those savings on their own might not convince someone to buy a car but there will be people who have no car now consider that an additional benefit. I was not saying this is the best way to spend your money as a government, i was also not saying that this will mean a lot of cars will be bought because of this.
Just buy a junker and enjoy your free rides?
A junker in Denmark is gonna be more expensive than a cheap, new car. Cars are very expensive in Denmark.
This is a weird asf policy.
Poor people, people who barely scrape by an need it most?
Nah…
Car owners ???
It's part of a larger plan to get cars out of the central city, which is plagued by rush hour traffic and expensive parking.
The point is to get the commuters out of the cars outside of the city by allowing them to ride the train for free from the commuter parking outside the city at the freeway and into the city.
Poverty isn't an issue in this regard. The public transport is already cheap and the entire city has bike lanes everywhere. I wouldn't want to own a car there if I lived there, but for a lot of people it's necessary in order to commute to the city.
Give them a free ride and cut a lane to convert it into a native climate resilience greenery in the city :)