Imagine all those times you had to jump over the subway's doors without a ticket, go through the back of the bus, and hope, all the way, not to meet a ticket inspector.
Well, it's over! If... you live or go through Dunkerque! Indeed, this city of about 200,000 inhabitants is the first European agglomeration to be free on its public transport network every time for everyone, as reported by the media 20minute.fr
But this decision did not come overnight; it's been three years since the city experimented with free train and bus passes, on weekends only.
If this is the first time that free public transport, every day and for everyone is set up in a city of more than 200,000 in Europe, this is not the first time that it exists in France: we find this model in Châteauroux, Niort, Compiègne for example.
And it was the Mayor of Dunkerque, Patrice Vergriete, elected in 2014, who put this project at the top of his priorities.
"There are three main reasons for this gratuitousness, the first is to restore purchasing power to the Dunkerquois, the second is to fight against social exclusion. And the third reason is environmental because 2/3 of trips to Dunkirk are by car, so the idea is to rebalance the modes of travel," he says to 20 minutes.
Work has been necessary to rehabilitate the traffic, and more buses are made available: more buses, therefore, more drivers requested, and the controllers must now supervise the bus drivers.
To finance all, some projects will not see the day, such as the construction of a gym, wish of the former mayor, who could accommodate 10,000 seats, community aid and a tax, called "payment transport", 1.55% on companies.
The ecological aspect is especially important. With this project, the city hopes to raise awareness and offer the opportunity to reduce its CO2 consumption by using transport instead of the car. The network wants to double its attendance in a few months, and the acquisition of 45 new vehicles running on natural gas and with wifi should seduce even more people.
