For many years issues of the free provision of transport services, including urban public transport, were outside the main trends of transport economics considerations. However, nowadays, the discussion is ongoing related to usefulness and limitations of the free urban public transport implementation. Protection of the city environment, reduction of personal cars traffic, and increased accessibility and mobility in cities are given as premises for such solution introduction. However, assessments of introduced solutions may not necessarily confirm the assumptions made. Financial problems and those in provision of services - characteristic of goods and services provided for free - add to that. The paper has undertaken the issue related to premises and limitations related to introduction of the fare free urban public transport in regard to the pursuit of effectiveness in the public management.
The setting of minimum targets for EU member states to procure green vehicles within two reference periods ending in 2025 and 2030, should help to promote mobility with low, respectively zero emissions. The research results reveal that the V4 countries (Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary) will find it very difficult to meet the set minimum targets for the share of ecological buses in the total number of buses included in the sum of all contracts subject to EU Directive 2019/1161 concluded from 2 August 2021. The share of buses with alternative powertrains in the V4 countries in 2019 was only 12.79% (with the minimum target being much higher). The Nordic countries are best placed to meet the minimum targets for the share of green buses (in 2019, the share of such buses was almost 19%). The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has and continues to affect bus demand across Europe, may have a significant impact on meeting the minimum targets, especially by the end of the first reference period.
The paper presents how to apply and use principles of the nonmarket allocation of goods and distribution in public transport systems. In most countries, regional and local public transport is a public service, whose availability should be ensured, with originating deficits financed by the public authorities. In the course of this service provision, problems can result from financing the deficit by various entities, e.g., municipalities and municipality groups, as well as participation by district and voivodeship self-governments in agreements related to the common organization of public transport and unified tariff-ticket systems. Based on local justice theory, this paper sets out principles that can be the foundation of deficit financing system development, including the analysis of their practical application to financing integrated public transport systems.
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