Benefits Of Public Transport – A Study On Social, Health, And Economic Benefits

Discussion

Public transport is one of the greatest advantages for the citizens. There are different forms of public transport such as buses, cabs, local trains, metro rails etc. Public transport has multiple advantages for the society and it enables the people to travel together to a common designated route. For instance, public buses are available for different directions within a city and there are designated routes that are being covered. Similarly, public cabs are also available t commute to different parts of the cities.

The major importance of public transport lies in the fact that not everyone can afford a private car for their own transportation therefore it is always beneficial to have efficient public transportation systems within the cities in order to enable the common person to travel wherever they need to. Public transport is also used for transportation of children to the schools and used for leisure travel. Public transportation also has health wise as well as economic advantages and plays a very important role in the society. The following paragraphs will explain the different aspects and form of public transport and how important it is in the lives of the citizens.

There are different kinds of benefits of public transport in different areas. There are social, health as well as economic advantages of public transport all of which will be discussed below:

Public transport often means boarding of buses, local trains, trams or even cabs or other forms of transport that are often not available right at the door step. Therefore, in order to board these vehicles one has to walk to the bus stop, or cab parking or the rail way stations. In the process, people walk a lot on a daily basis, which is also a form of physical exercise for the people thereby ensuring to keep their bodies fit (Klaehn & Hall, 2015). In case of personal cars, people tend to travel even the shortest of distances, which are even walkable, by their personal cars, which tend to develop a feel of luxury and comfort in them (Nosal & Solecka, 2014). This in turn reduces their habit of walking which has the potential of causing health issues in the future such as gaining fat and other issues in the body.

Personal vehicles also reduce the amount of emission of harmful gases in the environment, which not only affect the environment, but also causes health hazards which as cancer and other diseases (Redman et al., 2013). Since the rate of purchase of personal vehicles can decrease with the increase in public transport, more people will start availing public vehicles and thereby the emission of gases such as carbon monoxide, which is a harmful greenhouse gas, can be greatly reduced (Farkas et al., 2014). In addition, it will result in lowering of health hazards across the world.

There is a lot of stress in owning a personal vehicle as well as driving constantly for hours, which indirectly affects the health. For example, while one is driving his personal vehicle, he is quite concerned about scratches on his vehicles therefore he tries to drive as carefully as possible. He has additional expectations of luxury such as an exciting interior music systems and best in class air conditioning system within is car. He also needs to worry at time of parking since he always wants to ensure his vehicle is properly parked and there are no fines he needs to pay or there are no scratches from other vehicles etc (Diab & Geneidy, 2013). Additionally, driving for long hours no matter how much ever comfortable the vehicle might be, can be a major reason of back pain. These factors have the potential to generate immense mental as well as physical stress on the vehicle owners and even their families (Velde, 2014). These issues are eliminated if one avails public transport for transportation.

Health benefits

One of the biggest advantage of public transport is that it bring a common sense of unity among all the individuals who use it. This is not available in private transport. For instance if there the schoolchildren who travel together in public buses develop a strong sense of unity and friendship among each other which psychologically helps them tremendously. People also travel in public transport for long distances together such as long tours, picnics, etc. (Cervero, 2016). Often people tend to think that people with lesser social status or less income tend to use public transport more but that is not true. People who travel to long distances also pay the same amount as other passengers provided the destination is the same (Mouwen, 2015). It also helps in bringing people and getting to know each other even ore in the process of long journeys.

Another important social benefit of public transport is that it is a safer way of commuting and gives the users a freedom of movement. The divers of the public cabs and buses including the trains have to undergo specific technical training programs prior to successfully become bus or cab drivers (Tirachini, Hensher & Rose, 2014). They should also ensure that all the traffic rules set by the government are met while they are diving the vehicles. It has also been seen in multiple researches that the rate of road accidents due to private cars is much higher than the rate of road accidents caused by public buses or trains (Salonen & Toivonen, 2013). The commuters also have a sense of freedom to travel wherever they want, whenever they want unlike in case of private vehicles at a much cheaper rate to. According to Tirachini, Hensher and Rose (2013), they have mentioned in their book, “We show that optimal bus frequency is quite sensitive to the assumptions regarding crowding costs, impact of buses on traffic congestion and the overall congestion level.” This shows that road congestion is also reduced by the use of public transport.

Public transport is also a cost saving way of transportation. While owning a private vehicle the recurring increasing price of petrol/diesel also has to be taken into consideration, which is not a consideration while using public transportation (Rueda et al., 2013). In the process of purchasing a vehicle there are different kinds of charges associated such as insurance fees, subscription charges, insurance charges, road taxes and other taxes that has to be paid by the owner of the vehicle. There are parking fees that has to be paid by the owners at the time of parking’s (Nosal & Solecka, 2014). Not all these payments are needed in case of public transport. Therefore, it is a much effective solution.

Comfort in public transport can be further improved. The passengers should be encouraged to move to the rear end of the bus instead of crowding the front or the door area, open strollers should be provided in inside areas of the bus to make it easy for the passengers to sit as well as walk (Redman et al., 2013). Seats that are more comfortable should be provided at bus stops as well as within the buses. Escalators at major railway stations can be slowed down for the benefit of older people. Online ticket booking systems should be improved and more remote places can be connected.

Conclusion:

Therefore, it can be concluded form the above report that even though there are different advantages of public transport, there are multiple areas of improvements, which has to be addressed by the government. The prices fares of the public transport can be reduces as well as better connectivity to remote places and villages that re still not connected by public transport can be provided. The public transport industry will attain newer levels of success provided it addresses all the public concerns in an innovative way in the future. This will also in turn help in improving user feedback and more shift towards public transport in the future.

References:

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