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On 22 – 24 August 2013 the international summer school “The
Capital of Free Public Transport” shall be held in Tallinn, Estonia.
The 150 participants registered in the summer school taking
place in Tallinn University include regional, state and
European level planners of politics, members of
non-governmental associations, experts and representatives of
interest groups who are fascinated by the closely intertwined
issues of transportation, environment, social cohesion,
economy, budget and spatial planning.
Foreign journalists from China, Russia, New Zealand, South
Korea and various countries of the European Union shall also
take part.
One of the headliners of the summer school that starts with a
conference day, is the European Commissioner for Transport
Siim Kallas. At the conference also Aubagne (France), Chengdu
(China), Hasselti (Belgium) and Zory and Zabki (Poland) in
addition to Tallinn shall share their experience with free
public transport.
The research results of the scientists of KTH Royal Institute
of Technology of Sweden regarding Tallinn’s free public
transport shall be presented by Dr Oded Cats. The policy of
social space development shall be expanded upon by Professor
Georg Sootla from Tallinn University.
“Today many cities and local government areas face the
pressure of increasing the cost of tickets of public
transportation. Yet this involves a serious risk that the
public transport shall be used even less,” the Mayor of
Tallinn Edgar Savisaar described the main topic of the summer
school where he shall make the opening presentation. “As in
Europe public transport is subsidized mostly more than 50%,
more and more cities are starting to pose the key question –
why not introduce free public transportation to justify the
current subsidization rate, to increase the usage of public
transport and to reduce car traffic.“
[Ed: Fare Free NZ will be covering this important event - watch this space!]
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