Ocklawaha Rant's With Help, FARE INCREASE IS WRONG!
City after City, is trying to fill the empty seats in those buses. Fare free transit may be just around the corner in the entire Nation. But here goes Jacksonville and JTA in the other direction. Yes, our buses are a better deal when stacked up to Philadelphia or perhaps Atlanta, but hold the phone. Fare box doesn't make all that much of a recovery in bus transit operations when placed side by side with other funding sources. It just can't. I'm not sure who thought of this first, Austin, Texas and San Francisco both tested fare free transit and quickly had to curtail the program because suddenly the cars stayed parked and the buses were full to over-flowing on EVERY ROUTE! Wow... So what is our goal, make money on Transit? Fat chance that will ever happen again. So is it get people off the roads and improve our air and life quality? In that case, perhaps a dedicated funding source is the wave of the future. We don't need higher fares that are going to drive away more of the very people that depend on our bus network (yes the poor and non-drivers make up over 50% of our ridership). As JTA is under attack for it's BRT system, let's not let this idea get past our City Leaders. Just imagine the mobility this would provide to anyone, anytime and from any walk of life... Simple.
Hillsborough Considers Scrapping Bus Fares To Increase Ridership
By RICH SHOPES The Tampa Tribune - 7-7-07
TAMPA - Riding the bus could get a whole lot cheaper. Try free.
Hillsborough County's transit agency will explore eliminating fares as it considers switching from property taxes to sales taxes to keep buses running.
"I think we need to look at that," said Hillsborough Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who pitched the idea Monday during talks about the revenue switch. Sharpe also is a Hillsborough Area Regional Transit board member.
A half-cent sales tax would give HART $110 million a year, plenty to replace the $36 million the agency gets from property owners and enough to cover fare box collections at $10 million.
Scrapping the fares would increase ridership and set an example to cities serious about mass transit, Sharpe said.
Reaction was muted. Other board members didn't comment, and the commissioner spoke briefly, saying it should be something to consider later.
Free rides are a hot topic in transit circles - but mostly just talk. Cities such as Miami, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Chapel Hill, N.C., offer fare-free zones or give university students and seniors a break, but only a handful extend the courtesy to everybody.
Suited For Medium Systems
Whidbey Island Transit, 40 miles north of Seattle, is one of two fare-free systems in Washington state. Its $8.3 million system operates 56 buses.
"It seems to work for small to medium systems," said Assistant Director Sandy Rubini, who sometimes gets calls about how the system works.
Island Transit is funded by a 0.6 percent sales tax. Had the system been larger at its start 20 years ago, or had it launched today, Rubini isn't sure it could've mustered the funding to succeed.
"The cost to implement and operate a fare system and maintain it … we would not get any useful revenue to go toward our budget," she said. "To say we're starting everything right now and buy all new equipment, I don't know."
Jacksonville has off-peak free rides for seniors, and Manatee County's transit system offers free trolley rides on Anna Maria Island. Miami operates a free downtown people mover called Metromover.
The Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization recommended in a recent report that HART consider a fare-free downtown zone by 2012, but the agency hasn't decided. The standard one-way fare for HART buses is $1.50.
"There's been a lot of discussion but very little application," said Steve Polzin, a program director at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida.
One reason is unwanted side effects.
Agencies that experimented with free rides saw big ridership gains but also exponential growth in operating and capital costs. The surge wasn't always good at the customer level, either. Vandalism and petty crime rose.
In some cases, buses became popular all-day hangouts for teens and panhandlers, prompting loyal riders - and those the agency wants to lure from their cars - to complain or avoid buses, Polzin said.
"It gets to be a real nuisance problem to the regular customer," he said.
Influx Of Cash Necessary
Closer to home, the downtown 96 Trolley ran fare-free for two years but started charging a fare after a grant expired two years ago.
HART would need a windfall before it can dump its fare boxes now. Switching from property taxes to sales taxes would go far toward doing that, but the switch wouldn't be easy.
Before the agency can draw one penny of sales tax, it will need voters' approval. Before that can happen, Hillsborough County commissioners would have to give their support to place the question on the ballot.
The HART board voted 10-2 to study the idea.
The motion came as HART is struggling to find $2 million in budget cuts after lawmakers in June voted to cut property taxes statewide.
HART staff members came to Monday's meeting with a list of service changes that affect more than a dozen routes.
On the chopping block are the 98 In-town Trolley (One of my favorite's, ANOTHER POTATO-CHIP-TRUCK-PLAYING-TROLLEY...I want to be there when we shove it into the Hillsborough River! OCK.) and the 52LX, a limited express bus from New Tampa and Pasco County to downtown. About a dozen others would be trimmed or see their hours cut.
Instead of gaining board approval, the measure was tabled until September so an alternative plan by HART's union can be studied.
HART wanted the cuts to take effect in October, at the start of the fiscal year, to achieve their full benefit. Now it looks as if those changes won't happen until November, if at all.
The union, which represents bus drivers and mechanics, suggested the agency cut management positions and combine others to find enough savings to preserve bus service.
Board members promised to look into the union's plan. They should have a decision by next month.
Ocklawaha :o ::) :-*
Here's the deal. I insert 1 US dollar bill in the black box, acutally it's stainless steel but whatever, after stepping onto the number 240 bus I take to work in Austin. The driver presses a button and out pops a Capital Metro Day Pass. The pass is good 1 day--get it a Day Pass. I can use the day pass within 24 hours the next time I take a bus in Austin. Do the math. It cost me fiddy cents to get to work and fiddy cents to get home. That's not a bad deal. I can't start the rover for that...we'll, I usually can't start the rover regarless but a dollar to and from work is so me.
And for my vision challenged friends:
Here's the deal. I insert 1 US dollar bill in the black box, acutally it's stainless steel but whatever, after stepping onto the number 240 bus I take to work in Austin. The driver presses a button and out pops a Capital Metro Day Pass. The pass is good 1 day--get it a Day Pass. I can use the day pass within 24 hours the next time I take a bus in Austin. Do the math. It cost me fiddy cents to get to work and fiddy cents to get home. That's the deal. I can't even start the rover for 50 cents...we'll actually, I usually can't start the rover regarless but a dollar to and from work is so me. ;D
A good way for the City of Jacksonville to test this type of idea might be "TEN CENT TUESDAYS" or "WEEKEND QUARTERS" type of test. Do this for 3-6 months and see what happens. I'll be willing to bet those disadvantaged amoung us will flood the clinics, retail and grocery stores on those days, the young and young at heart (old Hippies) will pour into downtown and the beaches on those days to. The professionals will suddenly choose a day to abandon that Rover and get on the bus, after all, it's about the bottom line isn't it?
The Austin system is a great idea, we need to get on this bus and get those (quality riders) cars off our roads!
Ocklawaha
With my day pass I can ride the bus as many times as I want in 24 hours. Today, I rode the bus 3 times for a $1.00...hey Ock, that's in the range you want; however, there is going to be an adjustment in the fare in September. The increase is going to $2.00--but still, you ride as many times as you need that day. That's Austin! Why doesn't Jacksonville have a day pass deal like that? Is it a tax on the lower class, or let the poor pay for our retirement. Something just isn't right. Perhaps the laws of physics don't exsist in hill country...maybe it just costs more to operate a bus in Jacksonville? Tar just durt cheap in Texas? Why??? :-\
Given how low our fares are compared to other cities I find it real hard to complain about fare increases. Now service is another story!
The point of fare decrease is those 1.00 or 2.00 buses are driving around with 30-40 empty seats in them most of the day. By going to a lower fare, you don't loose money, you fill seats. If we decided to go fare free, we off set the costs with a dedicated funding source. Few transit agencys in the entire World get more then a token (pun intended) amount of their total operating requirements from the fare box anyway. So it goes back to the argument of:
Are we running buses for some imagined profit?
Or
Are we running buses to get cars off the road and make citizens mobile?
Ocklawaha
We're running busses.