Let’s think big with this idea...

IT could help make Glasgow a more attractive and affordable place to live and bring more people into the city maximizing council tax income.

It can make job opportunities more accessible to people in different parts of the city removing the burden of high transport costs to access work.

It will provide the affordable alternative to the car that people rightly demand whenever measures to reduce car use are proposed.

And it can obviously help reduce emissions and improve the city’s air quality.

As the council’s Connectivity Commission reported, people in the most deprived areas are suffering most from ill health due to air pollution yet they are polluting the least with low car ownership.

So, we can pay for free public transport through public investment or residents suffering health inequality can pay with their lives.

If it can work in a European capital city like Tallinn, in Estonia with almost 450,000 people, why can’t it work in Glasgow.

We can lead the rest of the country with a radical transformation of public transport with a free travel area in conjunction with other measures to reduce reliance on cars and with a specific benefit for people who live in Glasgow.

It’s time to think about free public transport. STEWART PATERSON