Ukrainian pensioners are able to use public transport free of charge, but there are calls to limit the hours of complimentary use to off-peak times.
Should pensioners be limited in complimentary use of public transport?
This question managed to attract sufficient support in Zaporizhzhia, where a petition to limit hours when pensioners are able to travel for free gathered 765 votes on the council’s website (750 votes are required to consider any such matter), Finance.ua reported.
The authors of the petition complain that it’s hard to use buses during peak hours because they are full of old people, and call to limit the hours of free use from 10 am to 4 pm. This would allow students to get to universities and workers to factories, authors point out.
Some locals support the idea, while others call it discriminative. For instance, pensioners have to often visit hospitals for tests that are only done before 10 am, and it would place an extra burden on them if they had to pay for transportation.
Zaporizhzhia city council is to consider the petition by the end of October.
Other Ukrainian cities have already started to charge pensioners for trips taken during rush hours: In Zhytomyr such measure was adopted over a year ago. The local administration stated that the effect was positive and it allowed to substantially lower the load during the busiest times of the morning and afternoon. Seniors started to use public transport less frequently during these times, opting to plan their trips during the period of complimentary travel.
In Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, seniors are still able to use buses and trams without limits free of charge.
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Free bus services for pensioners has operated in the UK for many years. as far as I can recall the service has always been free after 9.30 am so that the Rush Hour is avoided. Most pensioners that I have met dont have any objection to this at all.