Solarpunk Urbanism

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A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.

Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.

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Fifty years ago, Switzerland was poised to become as car-dependent as anywhere in North America. Now it has the best transit system in the world. What’s the secret to this alpine nation’s success (www.theglobeandmail.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This was a revelation. For just over $6,000 a year, the Swiss can travel anywhere, reliably, in comfort, and get where they’re going on time. (In neighbouring Austria, where the cost of living isn’t so high, the equivalent national rail pass costs just €1,100 – or $1,600.) In Canada and the United States, the average cost of car ownership – including payments, parking tickets, insurance, parking, and gas – is more than $12,000 a year. That’s a high price to pay for a system that delivers congestion, traffic deaths and injuries, air pollution – and, more often than not, gets us to work or school late. For half the price North Americans pay, the Swiss get reliable, anywhere-to-anywhere mobility.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In Germany, it's currently 696€ a year to use all local and regional public transport (metro, bus, regional train, etc.) nationally, 4899€ a year to also use all long distance public transport (IC, ICE).

Unless you travel around the country a lot, the first plus a long distance discount card is usually enough to get around.

Still, there has been too little investment into public transport for decades, and the 696€ Ticket is partially funded by the federal government, so let's see whether that lasts past the next election. All in all, could be better, but could also be a lot worse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same same, I don’t know why they talked about the 6k pass (AG 1st class is 6500, 2nd is 4000) as it isn’t widely used. Most of those are offered to employees at management level by their companies, or by rich people who doesn’t care about money and doesn’t travel by car (so maybe 5 people?)

The rest of the population use the 2nd class AG only if they travel a lot on IC.

And most of us just have a cantonal pass + half fare card for long distances. For my canton it’s 500chf annually (public price, I have it for 370) and for the quality of Swiss public transport I think this is very reasonable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For my canton it’s 500chf annually

Ah, I see why that's way better. Here in Aargau it's 2700, feels like you might as well get the GA at that point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Holy shit! And 3300.- with Zurich, that’s crazy. Yeah you can totally go for the GA at that price point, and you can move during weekends.

I guess living in a city canton makes it cheaper as the network is smaller with more customers.