Bus tickets instead of car keys: In many Bavarian municipalities, senior citizens can voluntarily return their driving licenses – and in return receive free bus and train tickets. The municipalities have now drawn a positive interim balance. In Augsburg, for example, they are satisfied with the response to the exchange campaign, which has been in place for four years: “Many senior citizens who have not driven a car for some time or who suffer from health restrictions, this free subscription offers an incentive to give up the driving licence,” said regulatory officer Frank Pintsch. The exchange is possible in autumn, the costs for the subscriptions are shared by the public utility and the municipality.
In the pandemic, the exchange rate is falling
Since 2017, almost 550 Ingolstadt residents have used the offer to exchange their driver’s license for a public transport annual pass, as spokesman Michael Klarner said. In Landshut, too, older people who do not need their driver’s license are offered an annual subscription for public transport. In 2019, 71 people used this offer, in 2020 and 2021 there were 26 people each – which, according to the city, is due to the pandemic. People were less mobile. Since 2017, the city of Kaufbeuren has made it possible for seniors to use public transport free of charge for a year if they voluntarily do without a car. “Experience so far shows that the offer is accepted and used,” said city spokesman Tobias Müller. For six years now, older people in Fürth have had the opportunity to use the bus and train instead of the car – and to get public transport vouchers. From Würzburg it is said: Every year around 20 people voluntarily give up their driver’s license and in return receive five day tickets and a weekend ticket for public transport in the Lower Franconian city. It took two attempts in Bayreuth to establish a corresponding offer: A first project was discontinued a few years ago due to a lack of demand, but was revived in 2020 at the suggestion of the senior citizens’ advisory board, said a spokeswoman. In the meantime, however, the idea has been well received, it said.
The offer is not yet available in the two largest cities in Bavaria
In Bavaria’s second largest city of Nuremberg, the “Subscription instead of a driver’s license” campaign is currently being examined, as announced by Katrin Kurr, head of the regulatory office. Plans for an exchange offer are also under way in neighboring Erlangen. The exchange is not possible in the state capital Munich – although the topic has been discussed there several times, as a spokesman for the district administration department explained. However, the legal examination has shown that surrendering the driver’s license actually has no effect – the driver’s license remains in place. Even a waiver is therefore not an adequate solution, since anyone who voluntarily renounces can apply for a new driver’s license at any time. The Bavarian state senior citizens’ representation (LSVB) emphasized that the public transport offer in the respective region must be good in order to do without the car: “Without well-functioning public transport, I am dependent on the car,” said its chairman Franz Wölfl. The representation promotes a return of the driver’s license from the age of 70 – the ability to react decreases, but environmental protection also plays a role.