It would be unthinkable to hope that some people would give up buying a car, especially with the promises—albeit misleading—of freedom that it holds. For the same reasons, it would be equally unthinkable that some people who currently own a car would abandon it. However, it is more feasible to convince them to choose public transport to travel a journey when the car is not the only option. To do this, it seems obvious to me that two conditions must be met: lower costs and reduced transit time.
First, costs. For a given trip, the costs of public transportation must be lower than the cost of gasoline—and gasoline alone—for the same trip by car. Why not include the amortization of the costs of buying the car, maintaining it, insurance, etc.? Because, psychologically, these costs are amortized over the set of trips for which the car is the only option.
Since people already own a car, when it comes to choosing between two modes, the only thing that comes to mind is the cost of the journey in question. And it has to be much more advantageous than the cost of the car to compensate for the loss of “freedom” and comfort. I would even go so far as to suggest a preferential rate for car owners, especially when the journey involves a few members of their family.
Basically, what we want is to get cars off our roads. They can still serve as decorations in front of our homes, without too much damage to the environment, congestion and our road infrastructure, right?
The same goes for transit time. Contrary to what public transit officials count, the clock does not start when a person boards the bus and uses their reserved lane. The clock starts the moment they set foot outside their home. You must therefore count the time to get to the bus stop or the metro, train or REM station and the wait that follows until the next one. On the way back, you must count the time between the end of the activity (or show) and the next bus, train or metro, in addition to the time to get to the drop-off point. These delays put public transit at a disadvantage compared to cars.
The solution? Much more frequent services.
If we want people to abandon their cars, we must not hope to sell them fewer. We must make their ownership unnecessary, except for journeys where it is the only viable option. We must compensate for the advantages that cars offer in terms of comfort, ease and social status. This means radically reducing the costs of collective travel – especially for members of the same group who would otherwise travel in the same car – and radically increasing the frequency of trips.