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Freakonomics Radio

513. Should Public Transit Be Free?

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.532.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It boosts economic opportunity and social mobility. It’s good for the environment. So why do we charge people to use it? The short answer: it’s complicated.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

My name is Marcus Fienbouh and I work as a traffic planner in Stockholm, Sweden.

0:09.0

I understand that in a previous life and maybe still in your current life that you were

0:14.2

a pretty devout, I don't know what's the best word for what you were, a transit protester,

0:20.9

a transit anarchist, a public transit advocate bringing more access to public transit for

0:27.2

people.

0:28.2

Just pronounce the name of the organization is it Planca?

0:31.2

Planca.

0:32.2

So it means fair dodge now.

0:34.8

Talk about how you dodge a fair if it's a train or their turn styles that you have to

0:39.0

jump, things like that.

0:40.7

In the metro and the commuter trains that were back then turn styles.

0:44.7

The turn styles had a sensor, so if you just stretch your leg in you would reach the

0:49.4

sensor and it would open up and you would slide through.

0:53.4

Marcus Fienbouh didn't just dodge fairs himself and encourage others in Stockholm to do the

0:58.8

same.

0:59.8

He and his comrades at Planca also had a scheme to mitigate the risk of fair dodging.

1:05.7

We mainly did this by organizing a solidarity fund, so if you got caught and you got quite

1:11.6

hefty fine at the moment I think it's somewhere in the vicinity of $150.

1:18.4

The solidarity fund would pay this.

1:20.5

So this is a group you join where you're not going to pay for the transit that you ride,

1:25.6

but then you contribute to it's kind of like an insurance fund, right?

1:28.4

You contribute a little bit and if you get caught and get fined the fund will pay it for

...

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