Fare hike: Can we afford it?

The MTA's proposed fare hike doesn't sit well with some transportation experts, who worry it could reduce ridership on bus and rail at a time when L.A. is dealing with rising gridlock. The Times' Rong-Gong Lin II said that while the working class are most impacted, some worry it could others who can afford to walk away:

"It really puts all the burden on the poorest, who are really relying on the bus," Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, chairwoman of the UCLA Department of Urban Planning, said of the fare hike. But others worry the higher fares are most likely to drive away more affluent riders who take the Gold Line, Orange Line and Red Line into downtown from the suburbs. A rider who has a car may react to a fare hike by saying, "Oh, forget it. I got the car. I've paid the insurance," said Brian Taylor, director of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies.

The MTA argues it's an impossible choice: Either raise fares or significantly cut service to close a huge budget shortfall.

What do you think? Hit COMMENT and speak out!

Comments

[mm]

If you take a look at the New York MTA site, you will notice a few things about their fare structrure, including the fact that their $2.00 pay-per-ride fare include "Free subway-to-bus, bus-to-subway, or bus-to-bus transfer within 2 hours of paying your fare. (Some exceptions apply)". That is not true and will not be true from what I have heard once the the LAMTA changes in July since we still do not have a pay-per-ride type thing (although there are TAP machines all over the train stations, which from what I have seen interrupt foot traffic and have been vandalized). This means that following a simlar NY fare structure here in LA, I would , at maximum, pay $4 a day to get from the red line to the gold line and then back home the same way ($2 for each way). Following the proposed LAMTA fare structure I will be either paying $1.25 every time I get on a train or bus, which would be $5 a day whether or not I get a daily pass. The chart makes things look like they aren't so different, but they are.

I don't know what the MTA on-time service record is, but bad compared to horrible doesn't mean that bad is the same thing as good. Yesterday morning it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to go 20 miles on the train. If you set your standards low (i.e. make the service 3 to 4 times slower than cars), then sure, maybe you can be on time most of the time, but if being not on time means it is taking twice as long as driving instead of the same amout of time as driving would mean that I would still rather be on the super crappy one (judged by % of rides arriving on-time). I can't even trust the rapid buses to get home because they stop running so early in the evening, and when I have had friends try to rely on them, they simply never show up, which means more time is spent both waiting and finding an alternative route home than originally taking the slow train.

Plus, I wouldn't care if I had to pay more if I could solely rely on public transportation and get ride of my car insurance and car payments, but the sad reality is that I can't! I can't take my pets to the vet on public transportation. I can't come home at 2am from Hollywood after riding the train there unless I hang out on the streets for a few hours. I can't get to a lot of places I need to go to. There are many people that I know that living in SF and NY and they simply do not need to own a car because the services there are sufficient.

When you are comparing things, you have to make sure you are comparing equivalent things.

[Scott Mercer]

Other cities DON'T charge less than what MTA is charging right now. These increases will bring MTA in line with other cities whose systems of similar size.

And before you start griping about the "lousy service" MTA provides, look at the facts. What is MTA's on-time performance record? Ask the transit users in San Francisco how BAD they think their transit system is, especially after their system went into meltdown when they recently started the new Third Street Light Rail ine. If MTA service is so bad, then WHY did they win the "Best Transit System in America" award from the American Public Transit Association?

Having said that, some increases are justified, but these increases that are being proposed by the MTA are too much. And, I predict, they will be toned down somewhat before the changes go through, but some increases are unavoidable. We've had no fare increases in 13 years!

[Peter McFerrin]

It doesn't look like any of you complaining about the increase in prices for monthly passes have bothered to stop and think about why people buy the passes in the first place: the discount. If monthly passes cost more per ride than cash fares, passholders will switch to cash fares. It's pretty simple. The 500-600% increases in pass costs are just a bargaining ploy by Snoble and company.

The best thing MTA could do would be to roll out TAP card readers on every single bus and every rail station and eliminate every other method of payment except single-ride cash fares. Riders would then have to TAP out at the back of the bus or on their way out of the rail station, or else pay the maximum fare possible for that route or maybe $10 (whichever is less). With a double-ended TAP system like this, MTA could then introduce per-mile fares, which would actually help bus riders since bus trips generally cover much shorter distances than rail trips.

[mm]

Why can other large cities charge prices that are comparable or significantly less than what LAMTA wants to charge, yet they offer inifinitely better service? (Note MTA claims with charging the current rates they would have to CUT our current not-so-spectacular services.) Is it simply because of the ground area covered here in LA is more, they have figured out how to be more efficient, they simply have more passengers or are they getting money from some other sources we are not getting money from? San Francisco is in the same state and they charge less for a monthly pass than what we pay today in LA (1/2 of what MTA wants us to pay in a couple of months and 1/4 of what MTA wants us to pay in less than 2 years).

[Shaun]

Some of these fare increases are ridiculous. $2.00 per trip is not bad. $8.00 for a day pass is kind of steep but still not horrible. But the weekly and monthly passes are just outrageous! MTA has to be out of their mind to make monthly passes $120!! That's about the same I spend a month on gas. They will severly kill ridership and hurt the working poor if they think they can charge that much. What makes MTA think they can charge more than Chicago or New York for monthly passes? Their transit system is 10X better than LA's. I'd might pay $120 for a montly pass for CTA or NYMTA for sure as hell not for LACMTA. Why would any of us pay that much when it's such a crappy system? Our subways don't go anywhere. OUr buses are slow and overcrowded. Who does MTA think they are.

[Mark E. Capron]

Electronics can allow for individual autos to be mass transit. Use cellphones to match regular and on-the-fly ride sharing requests. Optimally, you tell your cellphone that you want a ride home as you leave a movie. A few minutes later, your phone starts offering carpool matches from your pre-approved circle of Motorola Driver AdvocateTM equipped carpool buddies who happen to be driving by. This is more convenient ride matching than the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) RideNow, Robin Chase’s GoLoco, and Logan Green’s Zimride.

MTA can not prevent this trend. Auto manufacturers are deploying automation and communication technology (fully drive-by-wire stability control systems, adaptive cruise control, General Motors’ V2V). Congestion relieving vehicles will be available before 2030. The April Scientific American explains stability control systems. The May issue of Popular Science, has a good description of the DARPA Urban Challenge vehicles. Note the civilian applications can happen much faster by having the vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, trains, highway workers, and road features communicating locations and accelerations. On page 66, Seth Teller, MIT faculty adviser, points out, “If cars are communicating, no one has to idle at a light for three minutes again.” Jacob Peters, University of California at Davis notes that “Active safety technology that makes cars drive closer together would easily double (road) capacity.”

Thus far, auto manufacturers have been deploying automation technology on a schedule not easily predictable by transportation planners and with inadequate incentive to address the full spectrum of transportation “service.” There is also some uncertainty of exactly which technologies (cellphone, radar, laser, differential GPS) provide the optimum results. One good way to achieve full spectrum service, settle the technology arguments, remove timing uncertainty, and save lives quicker is to study GuardianAngelCars.org.

[JK]

The fare increase would be acceptable if the service wasn't horrible. One example of many: Why does the red line close at 00:30 on Friday and Saturday night? It goes through Hollywood! Any sane person would run it until at least 02:30.

[Michael L]

120 for a month pass. That has to be a joke. If you are going to charge me premium prices I better be getting premium serivices, something I don't currently get (except for the subway which is really nice when I goes where I need to...which is rarely) I am all for helping the MTA but but wow. They claim that they have "plastered" every station with ads. Not true at all, there are hardly any ads in the train (Can't think of one other city that has this) and only a couple of the stations have ads...or rather they have one large ad. Sell this space I am really good at ignoring it and I won't mind it if it keeps the prices a little lower. A modest raise is acceptable but 300 percent...I am starting to lose all hope in this city.

[RB]

$120 for a month pass!? Even with inflation, it'll cost less to fill my car with gas than to buy a month pass. No thanks. I take the bus for the convenience and to save money. I will choose the cheaper of the two when I decide what form of transportation to use.

[Jay Handal]

The MTA has been run by the wrong person for years. There has been no vision or plan of implementation.Now, they are stuck with screwing the bus riders either way, cut service or raise fares. It is time for Roger Snoble to resign, and bring in a commuter czar to look at the entire process of moving people -bikes,cars,trains,buses,monorails et al.....

[Matt]

Obviously a one sided point of view. Why no comparison of the percentage of population living below poverty in L.A. verus other cities with higher fares like NY and Chicago? Why no comparisons to fares at A.C. transit in Oakland, or San Jose VTA, or San Diego, or New York, New Jersey, Pittsburg, Boston or Philadephia and their demographic characteristics? And as for the tired bus verus rail argument, I don't care what the vehicle is (and obiously the Valley's Orange Line patrons don't either), L.A. needs more grade separated options, buses sharing lanes of traffic with cars is just plain dump - doesn't anyone remember the Proposition A map that was included with the voter information materials? We voted for grade separated options, and we voted for them more than once. Studies of job access and transit show that while transit can cover about 70% of job centers, car ownship is still more important than transit in rising above poverty. And lasty, why no mention of the BRU/Strategy Center's $2500 a table party in the luxurious Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore to be held May 5th? They can't afford bus fare but they can throw a big fat Hollywood style charity ball? Poverty advocacy or poverty pimping? One can only imagine what the Times would have to say about Metro for pulling such a stunt at a time like this. Will someone please scratch beneath the surface of the yellow-shirted shreiks and look to the future?