https://www.nrk.no/rogaland/bruker-200-millioner-pa-a-gjore-alt-kollektivtilbud-gratis-for-alle-i-stavanger-1.16417150 Stavanger, Norway has made public transport free for all residents. Love this policy. The free bus pass for those eligible in Scotland is great, gets young people independent and used to getting around without a car. #freePublicTransit #FreePublicTransport

I read a long an interesting thread (https://social.ridetrans.it/@dx/109932946751469741) from @dx on the move to #FreePublicTransit.

I am down with that. Interestingly the discussion was all about the cost-benefit analysis. The basic gist being that free public infrastructure is a net economic gain.

No doubt it is true, but what I find interesting is the assumption that we need to think about public infrastructure in economic terms and not simply in terms of public goods.

There is a cost to building, running and maintaining anything. We need to work out how that cost is to be covered, if the thing in question is going to happen. Both the Marxist and the capitalist tell us that treating those costs as measurable on a single scale à la classical economics and then maximizing for whatever is measured by that scale is the way to get the maximum amount of the things that we want.

I am suspicious of the idea that all value is commensurable, but leaving that aside it is interesting that having made that move we quickly forget that the thing measured and maximised by economic theory was not the things that we wanted in the first place. Those are things like happiness, ease, kindness, beauty, knowledge, good food, health, athletic prowess, art, music and so on and so on

“Washington DC is making public buses free forever… the D.C. Council also agreed to expand bus service to 24 hours on 12 major routes downtown.”
https://fortune.com/2022/12/12/washington-dc-making-public-buses-free-forever/ #dc #washingtondc #transit #buses #freepublictransit #urbanism

In #Connecticut, free bus fares will be extended through April 2023: https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/11/18/post-thanksgiving-special-session-takes-shape/ #transit #freepublictransit #urbanism