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Tan 1
Phillip Tan
Mr. Macher
Gov/Econ
03 May 2019
Should Public Transportation be free for every citizen?
Public transportation in the United States include a variety of transit options such as
buses, light rail, and subways. Transportation costs around $11,403.00 per year for each person.
Some people can not access the place that they need to go because of the price of a ticket, even
though they are citizens. These citizens are paying taxes to the government, and they should
receive something back from government such as free public transportation, free education, and
free medical care. Therefore public transportation should be free for every citizen.
First, the City of Los Angeles has a big issue with traffic congestion because there are
many people using cars, and it makes the whole city full of traffic. So if public transportation
was free for every citizen, it would help the City of Los Angeles with less traffic because it
would not have as many people using cars if public transportation provided the same routes.
They can just show their ID, get a ticket, and they will get a free ride. For carpool people, $1 or
$1.50 is a lot for them, and if public transportation are free then they will have access go to work
or go to the places they want to go. Also, it will save a lot of money for citizens. The traffic in
the city will be less and less. Whenever public transportation is free, most people will take a bus
or train to their destination..
Second, public transportation is the safer than driving a car. Todd Litman found that
“riding commuter or intercity rail is about 20 times safer than driving; riding metro or light rail is
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dWx536afX6GiHp1jgot2TNNBW9gGEWcvRdNKWsrO4-U/edit 1/3
5/7/2019 Mock Congress Research Paper - Google Docs
Tan 2
about 30 times safer; and riding the bus is about 60 times safer.” This mean taking public
transportation is really safe. Nearly everyday on the news, it shows car accidents happening
everyday, but in public transportation an accident happens mostly once a year. Public
transportation should be free, because it can save people’s lives from car accidents that happen
almost everyday in regular transportation.
Third, the environment in Los Angeles is filled with smog and bad air quality due to
many years of commuter transportation. However, the environment in the city is getting better
because most of the public transportation is using 71.5% form of Natural Gas for Bus Fuel and it
also helps the air quality get better too. According to the Metro company it said “ Metro has
reduced NOx pollution by 40%” that show all people can help the environment better by using
public transportation. If public transportation was free it would help a lot of things such as time,
money, environment, traffic, and safety.
Some people would not be happy if public transportation was free for every citizen
because they can not earn their benefit and they do not want the public transportation be free too.
Private companies like Lyft, Uber, and taxi companies would not be happy with public
transportation because they would lose a lot of customers that would normally use all their
company. Another reason, that citizens would not want public transportation to be free is because
they will need to pay more taxes to the government to provide “free” public transportation. They
just think they are working so hard just to pay taxes. Some document didn’t want the public
transportation be free because of two reason first is high tax and second is the private company
are not happy with it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dWx536afX6GiHp1jgot2TNNBW9gGEWcvRdNKWsrO4-U/edit 2/3
5/7/2019 Mock Congress Research Paper - Google Docs
Tan 3
Finally, if we are looking for solution to solve most of the problems that happen in Los
Angeles city, the government should let all the public transportation be free for every citizen.
This would have several advantages such as helping the environment in the city, carpool people
accessing places they want without paying anything, and using public transportation is safer than
driving cars too.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dWx536afX6GiHp1jgot2TNNBW9gGEWcvRdNKWsrO4-U/edit 3/3