513. Should Public Transit Be Free?
Freakonomics Radio
Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
4.5 • 32.9K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2022
⏱️ 46 minutes
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| 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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