Montpellier Metropolis Offers Free Public Transport: A Sustainable and Equitable Solution?

Free transport: a ticket for the city? fileFrom the end of December, the 500,000 inhabitants of the Montpellier metropolis will benefit from free public transport on buses and trams. A good solution to reconcile ecology and purchasing power? Between social pricing and free access for all: do we have to choose? To answer these questions, meet on December 21 at the Opéra Comédie.

That’s it ! From December 21, for residents of the Montpellier metropolis, buses and trams will be free. Here is the new shock measure from PS mayor Michaël Delafosse. The idea is not new: around thirty cities already benefit from this measure, like Niort, Châteauroux, Calais and Dunkirk, which is an example. So, what’s the new thing? The number of users. With the approximately 500,000 people concerned, Montpellier will be the largest European metropolis to offer such a full-scale service, after the Estonian capital of Tallinn. However, this measure is debated: on the left, we campaign for social pricing for the most modest people and targeted for young people or the elderly when the opposition stands up to denounce the impossible financial equation of which the first Victims would be businesses and the increase in taxes that weigh on them via the “mobility payment”. So, does it really make it possible to reconcile the fight against global warming and social justice? How can we continue to invest in the network while financing the cost of everything free, estimated at more than 35 million for the metropolis of Montpellier? Should we not instead tackle head-on the place of cars in the city and encourage alternative forms of mobility such as cycling? How to manage all of this at the same time? To discuss it, come and attend the debate led by Jonathan Bouchet-Petersen, editorialist at Libération and Amandine Cailhol, deputy head of the France department at Libération.

See you on December 21 at the Opéra Comédie in Montpellier (1 place de la Comédie). FREE ENTRANCE.

From 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The news of the week. Montpellier passes for free: the rich idea? With Michaël Delafosse, mayor of Montpellier, president of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole; Arnaud Passalacqua, university professor at Paris Est-Créteil University and at the Paris School of Urban Planning.

From 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Debate. To get moving: is everything free a good solution? With Frédéric Héran, economist and urban planner, lecturer at the University of Lille and researcher at the Lille Center for Sociological and Economic Studies and Research (Clerse); Philippe Poinsot, lecturer at Gustave-Eiffel University; Jérôme Baloge, mayor and president of the Niort conurbation (on video) and Bruno Gazeau, president of the National Federation of Transport Users (on video).

From 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Outlook. And Europe in all this? With Mihhail Kõlvart, Mayor of Tallinn; Karima Delli, MEP, President of the Transport and Tourism Committee in the European Parliament.

2023-12-14 17:00:06
#Libé #debate #Montpellier #free #public #transport #ticket #city