The world has changed, the uses of transportation. Dunkerque, a port city and the steel of the North, intends to accompany these changes on the ground. “In becoming, September 1, 2018, the biggest city of France and Europe to have introduced free for all on all of its bus network, we wanted to hit the spirits,” says Patrice Vergriete, mayor of Dunkirk and president of Dunkirk urban community (CUD). This is a historic moment for our country. It is time to dust off the concepts and practices. “In 2015, according to the latest figures, two-thirds of trips were made by car compared to only 1% for the bike, and less than 5% for the public transport.
While the debate on free public transport agitates many French communities, such as Paris, Amiens, Grenoble, Perpignan and Clermont Auvergne Metropolis, the agglomeration in the north of 200,000 people crossed the line after testing every weekend for two years, and with success, the free bus service (+ 29 % of attendance on Saturday, and 78 % on Sunday).
Elsewhere in France, some thirty other cities or agglomerations of municipalities have already made the choice of the free to restore purchasing power to users, reduce car use, reduce the impact of traffic or preserve the environment. Maxime Huré, a researcher in political science and a specialist fee-free education policies in the transport sector, accounted for nearly 110 of the transport networks, free in the world, including 39 in the United States and 31 in France, the first european country in the matter. Convinced that this topic will be one of the campaign themes of municipal 2020, it was one of the guests of the 1st Meetings of the cities of the free transport held on 3 and 4 September at Dunkirk.
Pedagogy against prejudice
The objective of these roundtables : sharing experiences…
