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Disagree

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Having free public transport would be a dream. Imagine just walking on any mode of vehicle and taking a swift ride to wherever desires meet - not meeting an inspector, not being burdened with a stash of loose coinage, not freaking about how a card needs to be placed in a ticket machine for checking; just riding.

Such an ideal would be great, however no doubt it would make a dent in the public transport system itself. I imagine that if it were totally free there would not be so many upgrades on the public transport itself, and there would not be all the security that a modern vehicle has attached, and there would not be so many upgrades on seating, or on cleaning services, and the levels of speed on which public transport would not be worked on in order to increase it. I imagine that if it were free the public would get a less modern vehicle, which not only travels slower but also has more breakdowns then normal public transport. I imagine that there will not be as many public transport vehicles in action - which means that vehicles may be prone to overcrowding, and a poorer pubic transportation schedule. This is a bad thing for those who need an extra ten minutes to get ready for work, or an appointment - if the transport was run on a free service it may take at least forty minutes for another vehicle to make its round, and in some places it may take an hour.

Public transport needs its revenue for research and development, maintenance, and information distribution. This is where each dollar you spend on a ticket goes towards.

With saying that I also think that pricing should not be so outrageous as to make the payer feel as though they are wasting hard earned money on travel. In the modern day ticket prices are continuing to soar. With price hikes reaching the limit a daily card is nearing to nine or ten dollars. That's the price of a sizable restaurant meal, a movie ticket, an exhibit price, a bagful of groceries, a birthday present; That kind of price is much too high for any traveller, especially when considering the fact that prices were once two dollars and fifty cents for a daily, and eighty cents for a one way ticket, and one dollar ten for a two hour ticket.

Tickets should be made affordable - but not so much so as to completely drop any kind of development on the transportation system. The transport system doesn't have to suffer through elimination of funds, it just has to be made affordable with a price list that is acceptable to all types of travelling citizens.

Learn more about this author, M Pereira.
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