Cyprus public transport should make car ownership a choice

By Dina-Perla Poortnar I don’t want to own a car, for many reasons. In most European cities, people can choose whether they want one. Cyprus should enhance its public transport, so no one is obligated to buy a car. It would be a blessing for everyone, especially for the born and raised Cypriots. The current discussion about public transport in Limassol is a bit ‘cringe’, if I may use that word. A tram line is being investigated among more than 30 possible transport solutions. There has even been talk of an elevated railway. The figures being discussed are no longer in the realm of a modest infrastructure project. A tram could ultimately mean an investment of hundreds of millions of euros. Something needs to happen though, because public transport is the foundation of a thriving society. But before we think along the lines of a tram, why don’t we create a bus system with more buses and dedicated lanes to give them priority? Make them frequent enough. Run them late into the evening. Connect the cities to their villages and suburbs. And tell passengers, clearly and audibly, where they are and what the next stop is. It’s not rocket science. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. None of this is revolutionary. It is, in fact, almost embarrassingly ordinary in much of Europe. And yet it would represent a rather profound change in Cyprus. Because the real problem with public transport is uncertainty. If I know that a bus comes every ten minutes, I don’t need to organise my life around making it for that hourly bus that can come earlier or later. If the bus has its own lane, I can predict how long the journey will take, including how long I will have to walk. If the last bus leaves at 1am, I can go out in the evening without calculating the cost of a taxi before I order dinner. In a ‘good’ city, infrastructure disappears into ordinary life. No heroic planning, spreadsheet, or app opened 12 times to determine whether I have somehow missed the one bus that passes. And no hundreds of millions of euros needed to be compliant with offering the basics. Because public transport isn’t merely a question of mobility but of what kind of public space we want. Everyone who chooses a bus over a car represents less traffic, less demand for parking, less asphalt, less impact on the environment, and less spent on living costs. That’s why I’m skeptical of the assumption that the answer to Cyprus’ traffic problems must necessarily be a bigger piece of infrastructure with massive costs. People love to build things. But sometimes the more sophisticated solution is organisational rather than monumental. Ten buses an hour isn’t a landmark. A functioning timetable isn’t something politicians will put on a billboard. But together they can change the way cities work and elevate society from the 1900s to the 21st century. Paphos is an interesting test case. If I want to live here without buying a car, I shouldn’t need to become a transport enthusiast. I should simply be able to get to town, the airport, hospital, beaches or any village without treating the journey as a logistical project. Of course, there will eventually be places where buses aren’t enough. Perhaps rail will then make economic and environmental sense. But that should be the conclusion of a successful public transport policy, not its starting point! The focus should be on: can we afford not to make the bus work first? The objective should be to create a country in which owning a car is a choice rather than a condition of participation in ordinary life.