More than three thousand people joined the 2019 survey on Yerevan's public transport.

A third of the respondents are ready to pay more for improvements. In numbers, 16% of respondents would be fine with fares increased by a half and 14% of respondents would be fine even with double fares.

"Our survey shows that people support government in improving public transport services what is a difficult task and in many cases fare increase follows. Access to a good public transport makes our environment healthier and contribute to economic growth. In modern European cities public transport is one of the highest priorities in their development plans." says Patrik Lucan, a founder of Transport for Armenia, an online journey planner conducted the survey.

Survey asked Yerevan commuters what are the three biggest issues of public transport. 43% of respondents say that they use private TAXI few times a week due to insufficient capacity of buses and minibuses. This would be a reason why there is a large number of respondents who are already willing to pay higher fares for better public transport.

The greatest issue recognised by 77% of respondents is low capacity of vehicles. While other European cities have fleets of large buses and trams, Yerevan is depending on technically obsolete vans and medium size buses up to 40 passengers. In comparison, the main avenues of Tbilisi are being served by large buses with a capacity of 82 passengers.

Every third person thinks that drivers shouldn't smoke and make phone calls while driving. "Yerevan drivers are more busy making phone calls than call centre operators. If they don't make calls, they smoke cigarettes one after another right below a no smoking sign. And nobody complains." says Vanda, a tourist from Germany.

More than 30% of respondents miss night services. Between 11.30pm and 6.30am there is no other option than taking a taxi. Bratislava, a post-communist city with half of Yerevan population, introduced regular night bus services 12 years ago. Between midnight and 4am there are buses running every hour taking people from the city centre. The city helps people to travel at any time for low fares, decreased dependency on private cars and taxis.

Nearly 18% of respondents miss information on bus lines, timetables and fares. "We believe that we are doing good public service for commuters and foreign tourists. Now, when bus and train schedule times are being published on site Transport for Armenia, public transport became transparent and easy-to-use. This is how we contribute to positive change in Armenia." says Patrik Lucan.

In well managed cities parking cars at bus stops is strictly prohibited and controlled by police. Even though Yerevan have similar law regulation, many TAXI drivers do not respect these rules. "We have to jump over TAXI cars like kangaroos and then buses do stop in the middle of a busy road." says Ruben, a daily commuter between France Square and Nor Nork. He is one of 17% of respondents who thinks that illegal parking at the bus stops makes boarding on buses difficult and unsafe and such violators should always get fined by police.

The survey was carried out by Transport for Armenia in the last April. More than 3500 respondents from Yerevan participated in the survey.

Transport for Armenia is the first online public transport journey planner for Armenia. "Transport system seems to be chaotic if you don't have access to information on routes and schedule times. We know there are many challenges for improvements. Our online tool makes public transport easy-to-use and brings closer to international standards." says Patrik Lucan, an entrepreneur from Slovakia, who runs this start-up in Armenia.

The journey planner speaks Armenian, English and Russian, is free of charge and everyone can visit it on https://t-armenia.com.