Mobility Fee—Creating Better Cities, Creating a Better Future!

Abstract

The following paper explores an alternative to financing public transportation in densely populated urban areas through ticket sales as a possible incentive to increase the usage of public transportation with the intent of reducing car traffic and pollution in urban spaces. It addresses the option of collecting a “mobility fee” from residents of an area to replace the revenue generated by ticket sales. Since the fee as it is envisioned in this paper would be collected from residents regardless of whether they actually use public transportation, this method would result in the usage of public transportation itself not being associated with any additional monetary cost. The text elaborates on several theoretical approaches regarding the utility and viability of this concept. Using population data from the city of Mainz and budget data from the Mainz public transportation agency, the authors calculate a monthly fee capable of substituting ticket sale revenue of the local public transportation network in Mainz. Based on these calculations, a mobility fee of 15 Euro per resident of Mainz above the age of six would be sufficient to exceed the ticket sale revenues generated by the Mainz public transportation agency. Instead of trying to make people prioritize environmental concerns over personal convenience, the mobility fee aims to make environmentally friendly behavior more convenient than its alternatives by removing the financial cost and effort of buying a ticket from the decision-making process of urban travelers.