Can Blockchain improve public transport?
I am sitting on a bus as I type this, running slightly later than schedule. I take the bus regularly to commute, to collect my children from school or for leisure. And while public transport in Liverpool, UK is miles ahead of Pretoria, South Africa (where I grew up) it's not as good as it could be.
I am now back home and have had time to mull over the ideas that were beginning to form.
Firstly, it's expensive. For just over £4 you can get a daily ticket. Depending where you buy it decides how much it will cost (and which buses you can use it on). Weekly tickets can cost between £15 to £20 and monthly tickets are between £58 and £65 for one zone.
Secondly, it's confusing. We have about 5 different bus providers here in Liverpool. If you buy your ticket on an Arriva bus, you can only use it on Arriva services, apart from a couple of routes (like the 86) where you can use your Arriva bus on some (but not all) Stagecoach buses. If you buy a Stagecoach ticket, then it's the same sort of thing - Stagecoaches only except for a couple of routes. If you load a daily ticket onto a "Walrus" card (Liverpool's answer to Oyster) at certain newsagents, then you can use your ticket on all of the buses that come your way. More confusion when it comes to zones: the zones for four-week and weekly tickets are different to those for daily tickets. And some services are every five minutes while others are hourly (although often run late or early).
Thirdly, the buses keep disappearing. Last year there was a 173 bus route as well as a C4 and C5. These have now been replaced by the 4 route, which only covers about half of any of the previous, unrelated routes. The 173 was the only bus that linked my house with my son's school. We have succumbed to buying a car so my son can get to school on time. The reason for the bus route changes? Lack of funding. Merseytravel (who oversee the public transport in this region) were subsidising those bus routes. Due to lack of funding (not lack of demand) they decided to withdraw them.
What if buses ran on a Blockchain system? I would like to imagine that buses could be free at the point of use, which would address the first issue - no cost would make bus travel more popular which would be great for the environment. Secondly, the confusion surrounding bus use would disappear. No-one would have to think about which ticket to use for which bus and free buses would be more attractive to people needing to go places. Perhaps there could be a system where every time someone uses a bus, a few pennies are put in to improve the bus services and reinstate those services that have been withdrawn. Perhaps it could lead to a time when people are paid for using public transport. Imagine that - imagine the impact it could have on the environment!
There are cities across the world that have had free public transport for a few years or are thinking about a move towards free transport. A few places that previously had free public transport have had to return to fares because it's been economically unsustainable. But perhaps Blockchain could be the thing that fixes that issue, too.
What do you think?