Luxembourg Expats' react to why cars still rule after 3 years of free transportation

It's been 3-years since free public transportation started in Luxembourg.

Many news outlets took stock: three years after Luxembourg made all public transport free in a bid to reduce congestion and pollution, the car remains the dominant mode of transport. The country has one of the highest rates of vehicle ownership in Europe, and the closure of ticket offices has not led to a surge in public transport use. Despite investing €800m ($863m) annually in transport and boasting Europe’s most highly funded tram network per capita, Luxembourg has yet to win over commuters, who often travel from other countries to work in the capital. The country is investing in green technologies as part of its aim to become carbon neutral.

We shared it with our Luxembourg Expats' community, which reaches tens of thousands of expats and instant reactions followed based on personal experiences.

Let's get to the core causes identified by our community why cars still rule the roost:

1. Unreliable: The buses and public transportation that goes outside are either late or they don't even turn-up in some cases. Not able to rely on it.

4. Duration: The duration to get to work by car is 1/4th or 1/5th of the time to get to work by public transportation. What takes 10mins or 15mins by car is taking 1 hour by public transportation.

2. Capacity: The trams are not having enough capacity during rush hours. Even though the car traffic is tough, the trams and public transportation is not providing a solution.

5. Timing: The timings of the public transportation are not convenient and combined that with unreliability, cars are not able to be replaced.

6. By Parents: Parents also highlighted that kids won't be able to travel alone and we do need the car. This is particularly relevant as families tend to be in suburbs for want of larger space.

Even though Luxembourg's authorities have taken the leap of free public transportation with all the good intentions, the underlying primary cause for usage of car does not appear to be price. Pice was not identified as the core problem in not taking public transportation, even before it was free. It was unreliability, mismatched timing and how long it takes vis-a-vis a car are the core reasons.

When people gain the confidence that they can "rely" on public transportation as in places such as London, without paying a huge "duration premium", Luxembourg has a great shot at reducing cars on the road.

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Contributed by our community members. Luxembourg Expats is a marketplace social network community in Luxembourg.

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