Filenews 25 August 2024 - by Panicos Charalambous
Recently, Fileleftheros published a very interesting report about the cost of the Park and ride experiment in Nicosia. As is well known, this is the measure of transportation from GSP stadium to Nicosia by buses, the cost of which is paid to the company by the State.
The data show, inter alia:
● For one year the State has paid the private company about €800,000
● The service has been used by a very small number of passengers, around 350 per day, mostly themselves
● At best the buses have around 15 passengers and at worst one to two
● The average cost to the State per passenger was estimated at around €9
Given the Government's intention to introduce a similar free service in Limassol and Larnaca, I would like to note the following:
First, the evidence shows that this is a measure that did not deliver what was expected. According to Fileleftheros' report, the measure removed only 300-350 cars from traffic at the entrance of Nicosia out of a total of 4 km. incoming vehicles. The problem at the entrance to Nicosia still remains, mainly between peak hours of 7 to 9 am.
Secondly, the cost of the service is high and the State should study whether it is worth continuing and if so, what additional measures it will take to strengthen it. Environmental costs should also be taken into account in the equation.
More generally, however, as can be seen from the relevant data - which for me was to be expected - this was a service doomed from the outset to fail or to move below average because it concerned an isolated measure that is more in the realm of sensationalism.
Even so, since the Government wants to extend the measure to other cities, it will have to do so on the basis of new parameters, such as:
– The award should be made with tenders for a medium-term plan that will include other measures that will increase the use of these buses. In this effort, the companies themselves should be involved in order to have an incentive to increase passengers as today, rain, snow, transport or not of passengers, their profit is a given.
For example, they could introduce special routes for public service workers who would disembark (and board) them at their workplaces. Even special routes for pupils and students.
– There should be conditions for the buses to be used to be small and medium-sized, electric and charged from renewable energy sources. This would boost the drive for fewer pollutants in cities (fewer private cars and zero-emission buses). Today buses of about fifty seats are used to carry 2 to 15 passengers each way!
Apart from the above, however, I still hold the view that the traffic problem in Cyprus cannot be addressed with aspirins.
It should be done on the basis of a general planning - master plan - which in the medium and long term will also change the urban map of the country. Cities designed in such a way that they can be decently served by public transport, decentralization of public services outside cities, strengthening the countryside so that additional residents can live, work and attract to it, strengthening schools so that parents and pupils are not forced to resort to cities and much more that experts can record with arguments.
But if the goal is to stay in impressions and Park and ride, we will undoubtedly "Go Express" to a new dead end, highly paid and much worse than today. Finally, I hope we don't "go express" for a new scandal...
