QuoteSmall Cities Should Have Fareless Transit
Following on from my transit award, I thought I'd turn from Chicago to smaller cities and look at ways they can design better transit systems. I think one of the best ways to do this is to simply build fareless systems.
Why have a fare in the first place? It is odd that we pay per use on transit. We don't pay to check books out of a library. We don't pay to visit most city parks. We don't pay when the police or fire department come to our house for a legitimate emergency. Most non-utility municipal services are provided for free to users and funded by taxes. So why is transit different? I suspect it is rooted in the origins of public transit systems when they were private, for-profit companies. But they aren't that today so why adopt those legacy practices?
It seems to me that there are two basic reasons you would charge for a government service. One is to recover the costs associated with it from users. Two is to ration usage.
Full article:
http://www.urbanophile.com/2009/04/01/small-cities-should-have-fareless-transit/
He makes some pretty decent points but they all rely on the local community to cover the full costs by paying more taxes. Doesn't seem like anything requiring more tax money to work effectively is going to work for Jax right now. We've already proven that we're willing to sacrifice quality of life if we think it saves a half cent.
I'm not sure anyone can really judge the tax sentiment in this city. On this forum alone people complain about taxes being used for unnecessary items while the same say they would gladly encourage a tax increase if that's what it took to keep police, fire and library services. Something like mass transit, if designed smartly and operated efficiently as well as being funded by an additional tax on the businesses in the area it serves I think the majority would get behind. Of course, that would most likely require a complete upheaval of people in the city council, DIA and JTA.
Oh, I wasn't attempting to judge, I was just being realistic. Fareless transit aside, even the idea of a complete upheaval of people on city council, DIA and JTA (which I don't think this is completely necessary) would take years.
The skyway went fareless resulting in a substantial increase in ridership. Has there been a followon study to see if this increase has translated into dollars spent at locations along the route?
I'm pretty open to a tax increase if I know it will result in smart action. I don't think our leaders would spend the money wisely, to be honest. I think huge missteps in the past makes the city skeptical. I think the city accepted increases like the Better Jacksonville Plan because they believed in the leadership at the time. It is also hard to say what the city would agree to if it was sold to them in a better light/ or a more correct light.