Free public transport

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also gonna dump some pics of Tallinn's various methods of (free) public transportation

here are some buses

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This is the interior of a bus

And in the foreground is a so-called 'validator', that we use to validate our public transport cards
For the residents of Tallinn, this card is free, meaning you don't ever have to spend money on it

But non-residents of any kind must either load some money onto the card or purchase a (electronic) ticket

This validator system is used everywhere - on trams, trolleys and buses

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Here's a newer trolley

>>1050137
>Using public transport

lol get a car you faggots

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>>1050142
Tallinn's extensive transportation system actually allows you to live without ever needing a car
everything ends up being a small walk away

also are you sure you're on the right board, lad?

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Some of the older trams

very noisy and not a lot of space

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A more modern tram in action
apparently we're getting some even newer trams with the opening of a new line

>>1050144
>Tallinn's extensive transportation system

good joke

Tallinn can afford this because the city isn't actually that big and 90% of lines are buses. Tram and trolleybus networks are patheticaly small there.

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>>1050151
Well yeah, doubt this kind of thing would roll in bigger cities
Estonia being a smaller place is actually a pretty big advantage when it comes to developing infrastructure

tram network is being expanded
trolleys are getting completely weeded out I think

buses are fine, there are lots of them, easy to renew and replace, almost no risk of breaking down

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Interior of a newer tram

>>1050161
Sounds a lot like communism desu.

I wish they had some sort of private form of public transportation.

How is life in Tallinn?

>>1050144
>also are you sure you're on the right board, lad?

Not him but why can't you be a car driver and be in this board? Cars are trabsportation too and one can be interested in vehicular infraestructure, aviation, etc...

>>1050142
Why would you want to waste your mind in driving?

>>1050137
Seattle used to in the downtown area. But the buses just became a warm place for hobos to sleep. So, no more.

>>1050142
Unless you're rich enough to have your own chauffeur to drive you everywhere, driving is wasting your time.

The great thing about public transport is none of the stress of traffic, and you can spend your time shitposting on /n/ instead of worrying about running over some dumbass pedestrian.

>>1050185
>I wish they had some sort of private form of public transportation.
Oh there are still quite a lot of commercial lines, especially ones that reach out of the city

>>1050197
Because there's literally a separate board for that, newshit
>>>/o/

>>1050137
>>1050140
>>1050144
>>1050150
>>1050160
Two of the main arguments I hear against free transit are increased vandalism and hobos starting to live in the vehicles/people just riding around aimlessly. How much does this happen in Tallinn?
Can you give me a quick rundown on public transit in Tallinn?
Here in Germany, we have Semestertickets for university students. They are based on contracts between General Students' Committees or Studierendenwerks and transport agencies. They aren't free, but they are (almost) mandatory for all students and the cost-benefit ratio is insane.
The price and area of validity of a student ticket can vary widely. A buddy of mine studies in Konstanz and can only ride buses within the city limits (town of 80 000 people). I have access to all local buses, trams, light rail, metro, commuter, regional and regional express rail in the whole state of North Rhine-Westphalia and small areas beyond that. The ticket is roughly 250€ for six months.

Oh yeah and my city offered free transit for a day to celebrate the 25th birthday of the conversion from tram to light rail.

>>1050287
>hobos starting to live in the vehicles/people just riding around aimlessly
That's not an effective argument against free transit because it's already like that in the New York subway.

>>1050160
I just took a look on wikipedia and the tram system seems tiny. Can you tell us about extensions and modernizations that are currently happening?
The Baltic states seem like a comfy place to live and I want to see their infrastructure and quality of life get better.

Tallinn's free transit is smart policy in the Estonian scheme where people don't actually have to have their address in the community they pay their municipal taxes to.

Tallinn goads people living in Tallinn (and surrounding communities that commute) to move their municipal taxes to Tallinn with the free transit trick.

Free transit is kinda problematic without such pre-conditions.

>>1050303
Define comfy.
Is being pretty remote from the rest of Europe, having one of the lowest incomes in the EU, having large Russian minority and being a small and empty countries in a pretty cold climate comfy?

No hate to Baltic countries, I enjoyed my time there and I would really like to see them develop and having good future, but I think that some people tend to picture them better than they actually are.

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>>1050303
>>1050341
yeah don't bother, we're full :^)

here's a random Elron train
not part of the free system, but whatever

>>1050342
>we're full

Yeah, more full than Australia, right? :---)

>444,000 population
>19km tram network length

That's about the same length as the town of Plauen in Germany with population of 65,000

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>>1050344
exactly :v)

>>1050345
it's all about the buses I'm afraid

pic related, an older bus

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yeah I guess I made a mistake putting a picture of a tram in the OP
Estonia is generally a very bus-friendly country

The Coach station of Tallinn often displays retro Soviet buses like pic related
Soviet times had a lot of cool-looking buses

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>>1050287
>increased vandalism and hobos starting to live in the vehicles
I have not seen any evidence of this
Is it really so bad in Germany that things like this would start happening?

>people just riding around aimlessly
this doesn't sound like much of a problem

>>1050358
>Is it really so bad in Germany that things like this would start happening?
No, it's just a common argument against free public transit, not against free public transit in Germany.
Most vandals are either football fans, drunk, on illegal drugs or a combination thereof. Many transit companies started banning alcohol on board, employing train guards at night or offering rewards for catching vandals in the act.

The worst things I have witnessed myself was people being loud and obnoxious and smoking on the train.

>>1050137
Public transport is free for students here (Netherlands)

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>>1050303
>Can you tell us about extensions and modernizations that are currently happening?
Red and orange lines are soon-to-be-built tram lines
Blue lines are the current ones

We're also getting even newer tram cars, designed right here in Estonia apparently

>>1050369
I feel like we can still learn a lot from our Western neighbors. Is this for university students or for general schools too?
>>1050370
Very nice. Looks like the network is gonna double in size. You already have fairly new trams in use, right? >>1050150 Will the new vehicles be any different?

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>>1050369
Nice
Uni students over here have to shell out, but with a big discount

>>1050375
they haven't said much, but they're apparently gonna be a heavily modernised version of old Soviet retro trams
pic related is an early sketch

>>1050375
Just now in 2017 they made the rule so any student that's 16+ get's it for free. Used to be 18yo before.

>>1050381
Nice

>>1050370
Helsinkian here. I read your Hobbottis a little and can say the red or orange extensions aren't happening in the next 20 years at least. The official processes haven't even started, just a "preliminary study" every 5 or so years.

Except the airport and harbor turning loops, but those are like less than 1 km of new track and we are talking about a project that would double the existing network.

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>>1050414
>>1050417
it's been 10 years since the first proposal

can't be too long now
I'm gonna stay optimistic

in the meantime, more retro buses

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>>1050310
this is actually a problem because our capital urbanisation is reaching ridiculous levels

>>1050352

driving in deep remote West Virginia today i passed a parked GM bus that looked like that. could've been driveable with some work i'm sure.

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Orlando, FL has, for twenty years so far, a free BRT system that circulates around the downtown. It's called LYMMO and it has 3 lines. It's pretty decent, this and SunRail service in a city that is otherwise a cager hell suburban sprawl poster child.

Though there is talk about adding a small fare to it (maybe 50 cents to a dollar).

>>1050422
Has the council approved a "general study"?

After that there should be another, more detailed design study.

>>1050239
Former Seattle resident here.

They got rid of the fare free zone for two reasons.

One: People were getting on in the free zone and then riding it way, WAY outside of the free area and getting off.

Two: Payment was really confusing. You were suppose to pay on entry anywhere outside of the free zone, but on exit if you got on while in the free zone.

Given that many of the buses that serviced the rest of the city went through the free zone, the whole thing got really complicated. The original idea was that it would drive tourism since people downtown could get around for free, but it just lead to a lot of headache.

tl;dr Not really about hobos.

>>1050140
Buses not having seatbelts really frightens me.

>>1051031
Yeah I've always wondered about the belts, considering you can't go without them in any other vehicle without paying a hefty sum

granted our buses have a stop every 10 meters so they don't go very fast

>>1050586
>Has the council approved a "general study"?
Ages ago

I don't have any info on the more detailed study though
which is weird because a couple of months ago I saw huge advertisements on bus station hyping up sick new tram lines

really wondering what that was about

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>>1050482
That's pretty cool
I was wondering about those retro buses, a lot of them looked like something out of 60s America

they're all Soviet though

>>1051084
>>1050352
>Ikarus 55.14
>>1051084
>Ikarus 255.70
>>1050346
>Ikarus 283.00
Your mother's hairy ass is Soviet. These buses are Hungarian-produced.

>>1051105
The Hungarian People's Republic was a Soviet satellite so I'm not sure what your point here is

I just wanted to accentuate that those aren't western-produced buses

>>1051107
Participant of the Warsaw Pact or "some Eastern commies" != member of the USSR.

>>1051084
Right, I'm sure I see it on SkyScraperCity when its done.

I presume it's the Lasnamäe express tram? After all, the right of way is still there.

>which is weird because a couple of months ago I saw huge advertisements on bus station hyping up sick new tram lines

Reminds me of the "West Metro is coming!" leaflets that everyone, who hadn't put no advertising stickers to their mailboxes, got last summer, few weeks after West Metro corp. announced that they'll need at least half a year more time.

>>1051084
lots of commie designed and build vehicles are copies of older western designs

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GOKL city bus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Four lines that serve in the city center.

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This one in the state of Selangor, Malaysia (just outside of Kuala Lumpur). Serves between some suburban towns.

>>1050142
>choosing a deathcage over comfy trolley buses and trams

pleb

>>1050197
Most car talk should be on >>>/o/ unless it's more general things like urban planning and infrastructure that could be considered transportation

>>1050287
>hobos starting to live in the vehicles/people just riding around aimlessly.
That sounds to me like a problem caused by cities badly handling homelessness. Surely if you get the hobos off the streets there won't be anyone to ride the trams? Or at least provide showers and laundry so they don't stink the place up

>>1050367
>Most vandals are either football fans, drunk, on illegal drugs or a combination thereof.
British Rail used to just run 'football specials' aka the oldest and shittiest trains in the yards that hooligans can batter to their heart's content. Of course, the modern railways use the even better solution of not having trains in the first place :^)

>>1051631
>exposing one's self to the flatulence & unmitigated body odor of the hoi polloi

>>1050358
T-tell me about this fabulously aesthetic bus, senpai

>>1051679
>living in a third world country
shiggydiggy

Portland Oregon used to have free public transit (1975-2010) for some time. bus, streetcar. light rail

this stopped for buses in 2010 and for rail in 2012

>>1052907
Why did it stop?