[Tiktaalik]

Generally the barrier to using public transit is not price, but rather deficiencies in the network, so the best way to increase transit use is to invest money in expanding the network or improving frequency and consistency of transit.

This is definitely the case in North America, but still likely the case in Germany despite Germany having a much more robust transit system.

[pwdisswordfish0]

Yeah no, it’s definitely the price and the hassle of getting a ticket. I probably live in the best developed area in Germany, public transit wise. I could be in the next big city center in 10 minutes by train, but without the €9 ticket I frequently took the car (which I have to have for rural reasons), because apparently rather than paying €12.40 I preferred driving 30 minutes, finding and paying for parking, and not drinking. Because it’s not just paying 12.40, it’s figuring out what ticket to get, being shocked by the price, calculating a thousand and one fare options to try and penny-pinch myself to a clean conscience, dealing with their fucking ticket machines or their fucking app, begrudgingly committing to a time and a train… Hating every part of it and feeling hated back by Deutsche Bahn at every step of the way, knowing they’ll readily fuck me over if they find the tiniest excuse.

The €9 ticket got you around without playing stupid games. The same freedom is either unavailable otherwise, or comes at absolutely unjustifiable prices.

[chironjit]

Upvoting and confirming your experience. Lots of commenters here sound like they haven't used the network.

I've only been here for a month and see why the 9 euro is so popular.

I've already experienced everything you mentioned in my short stay here

[pjmlp]

I have used the network plenty of times during the last 20 years.

Some routes that take me 30 minutes with the car, go up for 1h 30m or even 2h if I am unlucky, due to the amount of times I have to change public transport and waiting between connections.

[chironjit]

Yup, you're right. I've read several articles on this topic now and none really capture the full picture nor do they explain the issues with the existing system.

Travelling on the DB is not easy for several reasons, and even with this 9 eur ticket, it's not likely to shift very time sensitive travellers.

That said, most people would be willing to forgo that inconvenience for a price, and this ticket did that.

[insane_dreamer]

I'd say the barrier in N.America is both deficient networks in most cities, and price (it's actually quite expensive because there's such low usage). If it were free, or close-to-free, it would ostensibly increase ridership which would increase the impetus for further expansion (which right now is hard to advocate for when so few people use it; it's just not worth the cost even if you charge people for it).

[iggldiggl]

Only relatively recently some smaller scale experiments in that direction were done in a few German cities, and service improvements were indeed found more effective in gaining additional passengers.

[desindol]

This is only true if you can afford other options. There is a reason why the CDU wants refugees in the more rural areas. With no means of transportation they are stuck and out of the way of most if not all cities. This is obviously boring asf so crime rates go up which leads to anti refugee sentiment and plays into their agenda. This is a trend across most of Europe and free public transport would 100% ease the situation for the refugees and the people in the area.

[homonculus1]

That is quite a theory...