Editor:
Free public transportation is the way to go if you want to save money and avoid congestion in Metro Vancouver, especially on its bridges and tunnels.
Luxembourg has the highest car-to-person rate of any nation in the European Union: 662 cars for every 1,000 people. Nearly 200,000 people from the neighbouring nations of France, Belgium, and Germany commute into Luxembourg for work. Every day, the population of its capital city swells five-fold due to commuters. This sounds a lot like Metro Vancouver traffic.
Some cities in Europe and elsewhere already offer free mass transit at certain times and to people like retirees or the unemployed. Others are considering widening the circle to all users. Facing criticism for poor air quality, Germany announced plans this year to test free public transport in some of its busiest cities.
For Metro Vancouver, free mass transit would significantly reduce delays and accidents due to traffic jams and harmful pollution and its deleterious impact on our health and the environment.
It would eliminate the urgency to expand our roads, bridges and tunnels. It would also eliminate the need for a very unaffordable 10-lane bridge or an expanded tunnel under the Fraser River, which if ever completed would encourage even more cars to go downtown.
Jim Ronback
