BeerNut Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Metro delays new payment system contract to consider free fare options Quote Metro on Thursday delayed consideration of a $37 million contract for a new fare system so transit officials can ponder how it would affect efforts to eliminate fares altogether for some riders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 27 minutes ago, BeerNut said: Metro delays new payment system contract to consider free fare options ugh...morons. This is why people think transit is a form of welfare in this country. Their focus should be on building a better system and that system requires more funds, but yeah lets do this because it makes more sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerNut Posted November 22, 2019 Author Share Posted November 22, 2019 3 minutes ago, Luminare said: ugh...morons. This is why people think transit is a form of welfare in this country. Their focus should be on building a better system and that system requires more funds, but yeah lets do this because it makes more sense. I'm personally against free fares. The fare inspectors already work hard enough to keep the shenanigans on the rail lines to a minimum. I would be ok with lowering fares to a dollar to increase ridership. With only 11% of their budgets coming from fares I don't think raising the fares would accomplish much once you factor in people that wouldn't ride due to cost. To increase funding they should sell/lease air rights at transit centers and park/rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 1 hour ago, BeerNut said: I'm personally against free fares. The fare inspectors already work hard enough to keep the shenanigans on the rail lines to a minimum. I would be ok with lowering fares to a dollar to increase ridership. With only 11% of their budgets coming from fares I don't think raising the fares would accomplish much once you factor in people that wouldn't ride due to cost. To increase funding they should sell/lease air rights at transit centers and park/rides. Agree, however I would disagree with the lowering of any fairs at the moment as this will only diminish the alternatives value all together. Considering they have a monopoly on alternative transit of the bus or rail variety in the city fairs should actually go slightly up. At the moment its so cheap for most people that its actually viewed as cheap in of itself. Especially when coupled with the fact that its reach and expanse is so minuscule. Its the weird part of economics where people like cheap things, but there is a tipping point when something is so cheap that it starts to feel fishy, in other words, lower the price or making it free will only see the law of diminishing returns applied. Its like...ok its free or super cheap, but due to the fact I can't really get anywhere, especially with rail, what is the real value? The current value doesn't justify the lowering of price or making it free since the current return when you by a ticket is already pretty low. They are essentially putting the cart before the horse. They need to produce a better product, of which people will want to buy, which will set the value, which will then set the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerNut Posted November 22, 2019 Author Share Posted November 22, 2019 4 minutes ago, Luminare said: Agree, however I would disagree with the lowering of any fairs at the moment as this will only diminish the alternatives value all together. Considering they have a monopoly on alternative transit of the bus or rail variety in the city fairs should actually go slightly up. At the moment its so cheap for most people that its actually viewed as cheap in of itself. Especially when coupled with the fact that its reach and expanse is so minuscule. Its the weird part of economics where people like cheap things, but there is a tipping point when something is so cheap that it starts to feel fishy, in other words, lower the price or making it free will only see the law of diminishing returns applied. Its like...ok its free or super cheap, but due to the fact I can't really get anywhere, especially with rail, what is the real value? The current value doesn't justify the lowering of price or making it free since the current return when you by a ticket is already pretty low. They are essentially putting the cart before the horse. They need to produce a better product, of which people will want to buy, which will set the value, which will then set the price. If they raise the price I expect Japan transit cleanliness....haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 4 minutes ago, BeerNut said: If they raise the price I expect Japan transit cleanliness....haha But that does further provide validity to my point though. I would expect that too. People don't ride the Metro because it still doesn't go very far or too the right places, and it feels cheap and of little quality. The product matters, and while they have been improving themselves (at a snails pace) their product sucks, and doesn't justify a change in cost at all. My only justification to slight up the cost is again due to the fact that they have a monopoly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rechlin Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 I think the concern is the cost of collecting the fares. As the article said, fares only cover 11% of the operating costs of Metro (and an even lower percentage, as I recall in the 7%-9% range, of total costs). And spending $100m on a fare collection system (probably with a lifespan of no more than 20 years given past experience) seems like a lot if they are only collecting $70m per year. That said, I acknowledge the need to prevent homeless from camping out on the buses and trains, which would be much harder if fares were eliminated. Surely there is a solution, but I can't think of a good one. And the issue of needing to make the Metro Lift service free also to prevent violating federal law poses an additional problem. Our transit system is already one of the cheapest in the country (less than $1.14 effective price for 3 hours of unlimited rides, after amortizing the free rides on the Q card, for full fare, and something like half that for discounted fares), so its cost is not a barrier to entry for many other than the homeless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 I wonder what the 'some riders' group is? Students of any variety would be the first thing that comes to mind for me. anyone else, you gotta pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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