In Netherlands I see a lot of buses running nearly empty at mid night. Then I got this question in my mind, why? Why, why, like why ? Why do you even run this huge bus with capacity of 150 passengers, just empty?
Then I realized it’s not just about the bus running cost, it’s about the comfort of the citizen in case of their need. I think there is a very interesting concept grew in European people’s mind. I gave it a name – Collective Effort.
Let’s consider it also from operation cost. Running a bus for an hour at midnight costs x amount of money. Now, if a person need to commute at night, he might be needing a taxi if there is not public transport. And if five people are there at night in this similar need, the cost of running individual taxies are higher than running a bus. There comes the collective benefit.
There is another example. There is a insurance concept “Liability insurance”. If you participate, you pay ~2€ per month. And if there is any damage to your house or car due to wind, or other cars accidentally bumped upon your cars, you get reimbursed of the repair. So, 2€ per month is not a big deal, but it’s definitely a big help in case of accidents. The interesting part is, accident doesn’t happen often and if it happens people get benefit from the collective effort.
While I travel in the weekends in public transport, I see sometimes that cars are stuck at road, while the lane for public bus are wide open. That gives me a respect to the people that they care for public service. They grew this culture of collective thinking into their society. I hope, one day public transport in my Country will also be better than this 🙂
People in Netherlands pay high tax and also high price as commuting cost. And part of these money is used to maintain the transport companies running their service at midnight. The number of people traveling at night definitely not super high. But if people can benefit from little expense monthly, then why not?
Leave a Reply