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I am happy with the free bus travel for ladies. Makes other ladies feel safe to ride. And honestly public transport should not have a profit incentive. It pays for itself. I hate when people diss on free stuff. You dont criticize Google for providing you free maps, mail and nominal server space. Nor for UPI for providing free money transactions. Some services achieve their use only when they reach scale. So think of these free bus rides as CAC instead of a subsidy. If public transport was favoured, days like yesterday where lakhs of employees being stuck for 5+ hours for 10km commute on Sarjapur ORR would be fewer and fewer. All that time, fuel, mental peace saved would have paid for the subsidies anyway.

Improving infrastructure will make people take buses. Not giving free tickets. This is basic economics. Even govt needs to make things economically viable or they fail in the long run. There are no free lunches. Also, how does not charging ticket price make the rider safer??

It wouldnt have been a problem if these carpools would not charge. But I think we can easily find a way around it. Like use these apps as exploration platforms and then make whatsapp/telegram groups for routes, pay directly to the app driver's relative. That ED guy is being stupid to try to stop it.

Less accountability, credibility and risk of fraud if the platforms move to WhatsApp/Telegram. Definitely not something I'd personally use.