How much is your transport already subsidized?

@FrayedBear I did a bit of digging and came across this. Seems like it’s quite heavily subsidised already.

There are four main pots of money that go towards paying for public transport.

"The [price of the] ticket is the first, which is the money you hand over.

"Then some comes from your local council, some comes from your fuel taxes and road user charges, and some comes from general taxation.

"There is a huge amount of subsidy in public transport, and it comes from many different places."

In the 2020/21 financial year, Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) and local councils spent more than $1.2 billion on public transport – the vast majority of it going to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

But the cost of the policy the government announced in March – halving the consumer cost for three months – was expected to be $25-40 million.

@Zealandia I thought that may be the case. I think similar happens here. I don't think schoolies have to pay anything to bus to school & during elder's week trains were free in Victoria.

Locally during covid the local council canned parking meter fees but reinstated them months ago. Ridiculous IMO. The cost of contracting a company to employ people to empty, account for, audit & bank 10c, 20 c, 50 c & $1 coins from machines every day plus cost of maintenance I cannot see exceeding the amount collected in a town of 10k people.

@Zealandia Even worse they've now gone electronic & payment can be made through an app but the meters still need the coins emptying. Some towns also have kerb sensors identifying when you parked. Down in Melbourne they were photographing my car 2 minutes after the meter expired despite the fact I was fisplaying a permit allowing double the amount of time.

@FrayedBear My parents had to pay for weekly bus tickets for myself and my sister to take the school bus. Not sure if students have to pay now.

Electronic card for public transport here as well. It’s called the AT Hop Card.

I haven’t had to pay to park very often, usually it’s machines that print out little tickets after you’ve put some coins in.

In my locality everyone seems to ignore the signs for maximum parking times and just stay as long as they want. I’ve never seen parking enforcers walking around, ever.

@Zealandia "eeh ba gum lad, tha must be livin in paradise - "I’ve never seen parking enforcers walking around, ever."

When I was at school we always had to pay for buses but never had to pay anything for schooling other than pens & pencils at high school.

Exactly. Same here. But why not go the whole hog. The efficiency by not having bus drivers collect money. Here much of it is collected electronically but that does not encourage people to use public transport.

@FrayedBear Why not? Easy... people should be free to decide how they choose to commute.

Last, years ago, our bus drivers stopped collecting money. It is all electronic.

@Alienbeing Passing the responsibility & cost to the consumer. I'm surprised that it is not insisted that passengers steer the bus & provide the motive power by peddling or running the treadmill.

@FrayedBear If you had a point, you hid it very well. How does electronic payment relate to your 10/13 reply above?