Rewards might stop folks from driving

So much of the discussion about ways to get people out of their cars and onto sustainable modes of transportation focuses on roadblocks.

Bad traffic. Gas taxes. Too few parking spaces. The high price of parking. Highway, bridge or congestion tolls. And in Montreal you can add potholes, snowstorms and construction detours to the long list of disincentives.

But what if we used carrots instead of sticks?

An opposition motion at city council last week called for the Société de transport de Montréal to offer free transit after snowstorms, to encourage people to leave their cars at home and facilitate snow-clearing operations. But perhaps it is something that can also be rolled out on other occasions like smog days, festivals, or when there is major construction taking place.

Across the country and around the globe, governments are coming up with clever and creative schemes to get commuters to change their habits.

GO Transit, the Greater Toronto Area commuter train system, just announced kids under 12 can ride the rails for free. (In Montreal, children under 7 never have to pay while kids 12 and under can go for free on weekends).

The Netherlands actually pays people to bike to work. Cyclists can collect about 20 cents a kilometre on their paycheques, much like drivers can sometimes collect mileage. It’s just one more benefit in a country where 27 per cent of workers get to their jobs on two wheels. Milan is now mulling a similar program, The Guardian reports.

Britain offers commuters a lease-to-own bike acquisition program through their employers. It also offers tax rebates as a reward for switching to cycling. Financial perks are popular across Europe, with Belgium, Germany, France and Luxemburg all offering some sort of tax break to boost biking to work, according to the World Economic Forum.

Meanwhile some cities have decided the stomach, rather than the pocketbook, is the way to appeal to commuters.

From spring to fall, Bologna rewards those who park the car and walk, bike or take transit to work with free beer, ice cream and movie passes, The Independent reports. The intent of the program is to improve air quality. And it relies on an app that allows subscribers to rack up points per trip, rather than by distance. It also employs GPS to keep people honest.

Tokyo is promising tempura and soba noodles in a novel attempt to relieve congestion on one of its most overcrowded subway lines. Those who sign up and agree to travel outside peak periods can qualify for the goodies; and the more who get on board, the more treats will be doled out. Perhaps such a scheme could be considered to take the pressure off Montreal’s beleaguered Orange Line, which is so saturated at rush hour security staff must do crowd control.

Encouraging Montrealers to ditch their cars in favour of transit, cycling or walking is an important objective. Besides the wear and tear on infrastructure, the traffic, the personal stress and the loss of productivity, vehicle emissions are a significant and rising source of Quebec’s greenhouse gases. So curbing car use is key to meeting our reduction targets.

And a little show of gratitude ought to be in order for riders of the Deux-Montagnes and Mascouche exo commuter rail lines, who will have to contend with significant disruptions starting in 2020 due to the construction of the new Réseau express métropolitain. Quebec is already spending $192 million on shuttle buses and reserved lanes to soften the blow. But anyone who persists in taking transit despite delays of up to 45 minutes daily will deserve all the thanks we can lavish on them.

Any or all of these could be useful for Montreal, whether a lottery for Opus card holders, an expansion of Bixi’s program of free Sundays or something entirely original, there are plenty of opportunities to give a little bonus to loyal passengers or attract new acolytes. We could also use it to promote being a pedestrian, since their light footprint on public infrastructure does us all a favour.

Of course rewards alone will not change commuter behaviour. Proper infrastructure (like enough métro capacity, more cycling paths and wider sidewalks), reliable service, security, and ease of navigating Montreal are far more important in getting people to make that shift. And fitness, personal enjoyment and helping the environment may be good enough reasons on their own.

But if drivers need a little extra to get them out of their cars, or an enticement to at least give it a try, freebies can’t hurt. ahanes@postmedia.com

PIERRE OBENDRaUF A cyclist on a cold winter’s day in Montreal. In The Netherlands, some people are paid to ride their bikes to work.