FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN FRANCE

In September 2018, the French city of Dunkirk made its public transportation free. Since then, the 200,000 residents of the city no longer have to pay to use any of the local buses. The idea of free travel has already been tried in several small towns in France, but Dunkirk is so far the largest city to do it.(lines 1–4)
Dunkirk's mayor said that one reason for this step is to reduce pollution by encouraging the use of public buses instead of private cars. A year after free transportation began, researchers found that the number of bus passengers had increased by 65% on weekdays and by more than 100% during weekends. Almost half of the new bus users said they had stopped using their cars inside the city and 10% got rid of their cars. "It is clearly very successful in Dunkirk," says Professor Lefèvre, one of the researchers. "This proves that the idea of free public transportation might work in even larger cities, too."(lines 5–13)
However, not everyone agrees that major cities like Paris or Marseilles, for example, could successfully copy Dunkirk's free transportation model. Those against the idea claim that this model is more effective in a relatively small city which doesn't have many buses. Research shows that free transportation in Paris would lead to almost no increase in the number of bus passengers. There would also be only a very small decrease in the use of cars. In major cities, free travel would also cost the government a great deal of money.(lines 14–19)
Supporters of free transportation everywhere argue that the climate crisis has made it more important than ever to reduce the use of private cars. Since private cars are a major cause of pollution and the levels of pollution in the big cities are dangerously high, free transportation is a public health issue as well. The supporters also claim that people have the right to free public transportation. The government should pay for it just like it pays for schools, parks and playgrounds.(lines 20–24)
In the future, will everyone be able to travel for free in France? So far, French leaders have not made a decision. Hopefully, soon they will find a way to try free public transportation in more cities.(lines 25–26)