Should transit be free?
What are all the benefits of providing 1500
low-income households free transit passes as the Seattle Housing Authority and
the city are now doing?
Should people who ride transit to city council
hearings get a transit discount the same way car drivers get a parking
discount?
Is it really reasonable to fine people who cannot
afford $2.75 in bus fare $124 or even $50?
Turns out the answer to the last question, see link
above is NO! Thank you King County Auditor and Metro staff responding to the
auditor’s report. RantWoman is glad something is being done about this.
As far as transit vs parking, RantWoman just buys a
pass anyway so something discount does not even register.
And the 1500 public housing resident families:
RantWoman notes that a lot of transit service is financed by sales taxes. WA
has the most regressive tax structure in the US. Poor people pay a
comparatively large percentage of their income in sales taxes. So, whether they
are paying for passes or not they are in fact paying for transit service. Plus
more people on transit means less congestion and CO2 emissions for
everyone. And then there is the HUGE
increment in flexibility if one has a pass compared to having to pay attention
to transfer windows. In other words, RantWoman is FINE with this program.
RantWoman also has plenty of people in her life who
do not buy passes because they say they do not ride the bus enough to justify
the expense. RantWoman sometimes finds this reality a trial because RantWoman
is just not used to keeping track of transfer windows. And it is hard to know
one’s friends are closer to the edge than RantWoman.
So, should transit be free?
Transit should not be free for people who get on the
bus with bathtub-sized lattes or reek too heavily of alcohol but do not have
bus fare. And this goes double if they
tell the driver they are going to church.
(RantWoman keeps money in her ORCA wallet for
various reasons and once in awhile offers to pay someone’s fare, gets them a
paper transfer, and makes their day easier. RantWoman does not do this for
people who are just obnoxious and offensive.)
RantWoman thinks paying one’s fare and thinking
about the cycle of buying passes probably helps a lot of people keep their act
together. This includes both busy professionals and people living a lot closer
to the margins.
RantWoman thinks people who buy passes all find
transit service very valuable and if they use the service well, they get back
many times the cost of the pass in services. Maybe RantWoman is wrong but
Rantwoman thinks a lot of people are happy to pay voluntarily. At some point,
the bus runs anyway and making room for people who truly cannot pay is the
right thing to do. RantWoman particularly applauds the idea of replacing the
practice of repeatedly harassing the same people over the same issues with
staff to find the people getting harassed more appropriate help. And RantWoman
thinks getting kids started early can build a lifetime of ease and comfort with
transit.
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