Stand: December 17, 2024, 12:22 p.m
Von: Ulrike Osman
PressSplit
Seniors who voluntarily give up their driving license receive a free annual public transport ticket in Landsberg. Joining the MVV causes problems.
Landsberg – The free annual ticket for seniors in exchange for the voluntary waiver of a driver’s license – at the request of the CSU parliamentary group, the city council passed this resolution in November 2017. Since the city was the operator and cost bearer of the city bus, the tickets could be issued directly at the citizens’ office and handed over upon signing a waiver. On average, 16 seniors took up the offer each year.
Problems caused by joining the MVV: Landsberg public transport driving license exchange for seniors means a significant increase in costs
However, the special tariff for the city bus as part of the Landsberger Verkehrsgemeinschaft (LVG) will no longer apply when the district joins MVV. From January 1st you can travel throughout the region with MVV tickets. The city administration therefore recommended that the old resolution be repealed and the previous regulation be deleted without replacement.
Petra Kohler-Ettner (CSU) defended herself against this. Each of the seniors who took advantage of the offer no longer drives a car, “thank God.” Since older people are not necessarily insightful when it comes to their ability to drive, the free ticket is an incentive to return their driver’s license anyway. And the prejudice that taking the bus is “not practical” could be dispelled if seniors started using public transport thanks to the free ticket.
If the offer were to be maintained, the costs would rise significantly, warned Ernst Müller, head of the public order office. While the senior citizen’s annual ticket for the city bus costs around 240 euros, an annual ticket for a zone in the MVV would cover a significantly larger area and cost more than twice as much, namely 519 euros. In this case, you would have to provide a good 8,300 euros per year, assuming that the average number of recipients remains 16. “It should be worth it to us,” said Kohler-Ettner. And parliamentary group colleague Christian Hettmer added: “In view of the sums that we otherwise move, I am surprised by this discussion.”
Landsberg public transport driving license exchange for seniors: strip card instead of annual ticket?
Müller suggested ten strip cards as an alternative. “That would be 100 trips on the city bus and the price would be roughly the same as the old annual ticket.” Or you could contribute 50 percent to an MVV annual ticket. “If you start with strip cards, many seniors are already out,” said Kohler-Ettner. Wolfgang Weisensee (Landsberger Mitte) and Heidi Reiser (Greens) found that there were also advantages to the strip card solution. You can bring a companion with you, for example to carry shopping. But then people “who don’t need it at all” might be able to enjoy free rides, objected Alexa Dorow (CSU).
Other suggestions included a subsidy for the Deutschland Ticket or 500 euros, which could be used as desired within the MVV. Here, city treasurer Alexander Ziegler warned that the whole thing had to remain “administratively manageable”. Mayor Doris Baumgartl (UBV) announced that a proposal would be drawn up and presented to the city council for a decision in January. With two votes against, the 2017 resolution was suspended.
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