Western German Transit Systems Increase Ridership
Despite steady increases in auto ownership, total driving and shift of transportation market share from transit to cars (spurred by Europe's most extensive highway construction program), western German transit systems have increased ridership by 13% from 1988 to 1993. Rutgers University's John Pucher and Stefan Kurth report that innovative transit policies in metropolitan areas have nearly eliminated ridership losses experienced between 1980, when total western German transit trips peaked, and 1990. A "transit coordination" movement begun in the 1960s in Hamburg, West Germany's largest city, successfully imposed order on a hodgepodge of routes, station stops, timetables, transfers and fare media. The Hamburg Transport Federation, a cooperative arrangement of the various public and private transit providers in the metropolitan area, ensures that a transit rider needs only one ticket and a single integrated timetable to traverse the region. Bus, streetcar, subway, suburban rail and ferry stations and schedules are constructed and organized to ensure easy (free) transfers. Since the establishment of the federation, Hamburg's transit ridership has grown 14% in the face of dramatic suburbanization and growth in car ownership. The coordination model has since spread to most major German cities, even encompassing in a single coordinating framework the 24 cities of the dense Rhine-Ruhr area. Improvements within transit systems have also fueled the German transit rebound -- these include modernization and extension of light rail systems, dial-a-ride shuttles in lower density areas, physically separated lanes to keep buses from being mired in traffic and fare policies that discount frequent transit use and permit free transfers between modes (in the Rhine-Ruhr area, only 8% of transit passengers use the basic single-trip ticket). Marketing and promotion are extensive and advertise transit's environmental benefits. Government payments to transit agencies has increased to provide these improvements, largely in response to strong public pressure to mitigate environmental problems and curb auto use. The short-term political calculus governing public policy in this country may prevent our cities from stemming the tide of traffic, pollution and sprawl. Pucher and Kurth's article appears in the Winter, 1995 edition of Transportation Quarterly. Contact Professor Pucher at 908-932-3822.
