Debates
23/11/2017

The collapse of Prague public transport?

The twenty-third debate of Beseda v Besedě cycle. Name: Through Prague quickly and easily? Guests: Jan Čižinský, Vratislav Filler a Martin Šubrt.  Place and time: Malostranská beseda in Prague, Monday November 20, 2017. Host: Veronika Sedláčková. The debate was accompanied by music by Adams Emily (Emily Bauerová a Martin Adamovský).

Prague public transport works well, but it needs to be improved so that people use it more often. According to Jan Čižinský, who is an MP, the mayor of Prague 7, and a representative of Prague, for the calm of traffic in the centre of Prague it would be suitable to use alternative options, for example shared bikes. He also added  it is necessary to optimize public transport, eg. ticket machine in trams or barrier-free buses.

On the other hand, Vratislav Filler from Auto*mat initiative said that public transport is losing breath and faces limits, public transport is overcrowded, some lines are very busy and for example metro C is already at its peak. There is a threat of collapsing public transport.

Miroslav Šubrt from ROPID, a company operating Prague public transport, says that Prague has very good public transport, but it is necessary to invest in P+R parking, the problems of these parking lots are the demanding purchase of land and disagreements among local residents. In order to improve transport across Prague, cooperation with the Central Bohemian Region and Prague should be strengthened, for example on the construction of parking lots near railway stations so that people can arrive to the nearest railway station by car and that continue to Prague by train. Parking in Prague is insoluble, there are less parking places than cars. According to Filler, it would be beneficial to introduce a toll in Prague, which would limit the number of cars, the other guests did not agree, the living in Prague would be hen more expensive for residents.

A great part of the debate was devoted to the Prague ring roads. All guests agreed that they will not be completed in the near future, and they don´t know how to accelerate the process. According to Šubrt, the completion of the ring roads will not solve the traffic; the cars will still culminate in the centre, only trucks will be restricted.

As usual, after questions from the audience, the guests remained in the room and keep discussing with individual visitors while the music duo Adams Emily kept playing their smooth jazz. This time we could see that there were people in the audience whom had never come before.

The topic attracted fewer people that average. Public in Prague is very specific topic for a specific group of people, considering that we manage bring new people in the audience and their positive feedback, we consider the debate successful.