Judge backs MTA

The latest from The Times' Rong-Gong Lin II: A Los Angeles judge today refused to grant an injunction preventing the MTA from imposing hefty fare hikes for bus and rail service, making it likely the new prices will go into effect as scheduled this weekend.

Comments

[Nike SB]

Thats outrageous I cannot afford a rate increase right now im on the welfare!

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

Dear stan y: or buy a one-way bus ticket out of town and go home.
Free emergency room care, free food stamps, free education (in Spanish),
free transportation. The well has run dry; and Americans (not hypenated-Americans) have pulled this bus off to the side of the
road and the bus operator has said "this is where you get off."
Before, the bus operator had said "just where do you get off?"

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

Poor mm, has to pay for a bus pass that he may not be willing/able to use for a couple of days. Poor mm, do you call the phone company and tell them not to bill you for the service you will not use the couple of days you don't use it?
(silly me; I'm sure you do).
Poor mm, that's just the price of socialism, mm=bus boy.
Get a back bone; be responsible for your own decisions.
Life is wonderful; live yours (and let others live theirs).
Nice talking to you; sorry, this is my stop.

[stan y]

One can imagine most of the readers here are more well-off than an average Angeleno. Obviously the "bus riders class" is not represented well here. I think many of you agreeing with the fare hike don't really see the big picture.

The bus fare hike by itself seem reasonable. But taken in context, consider the rise in housing costs for the poor during the last decade(200%~300%). Plus gas prices and groceries and so on. All the while the minimum wage going up measly ~15%. A decade ago single minimun wage worker would have about $600 each month after rent, to pay for food, living and transportation. Today living in the same apartment he would have $200 left.

Of course the MTA is not the culprit for this distortion, but the poor have no choice but to fight for every little morsel at every chance they got.

[mm]

Monthly passes are not the answer the way that the LA MTA currently markets them. They lock you into the decision of whether you will ALWAYS buy monthly passes or not since the month does not always stop/start on a sunday, which is when weekly passes go into effect. Thereby you are either going to buy a monthly pass and overlap with a weekly pass and waste money, decide to switch from a monthly to weekly pass and have to pay the daily pass rates for a few days before the weekly pass goes into effect or waste money when you decide to do something like go on vacation for a couple of days or when there are holidays and you are suddenly essentially paying for a week of service that you are never using.

I agree with calwatch and Metro SHOULD sell passes at vending machines or ticket machines. As they said, other cities do it and it is part of what makes public transportation work. That is why I am frustrated that I cannot buy a pass at the place that metro offers as an alternative to selling from a vending machine, the nearby grocery store that sells MTA tokens and the not so nearby places that sell passes, but are sold out most of the time I try to buy one.

johnny, I really do not appreciate your insults based on false assumptions. I don't work at a welfare office and I am sorry you did not read that I wrote I do not spend money on indulgent things, such as the ones you mentioned. If I want to learn a language, guess what? I go to the library and check out books and tapes, so no one needs money for english language classes. The reasons I live where I live are because I am close to a Metro station, I can live near loved ones and close friends and because unfortunatly, you can't change the locations of schools and so sometimes you just have to split the difference. All types of jobs are not evenly distrubuited across the city and if you are working in a certain industry, your options are limited.

This fare hike is pushing people out of public transportation and that is the last thing we need to be doing right now. This move is irresponsible. I am sorry that I am young and have to think about the fact that I will be stuck with the crappy and selfish (sometimes unconscious) decisions people make about destroying the environment for the rest of my life. I am sorry that I hate to see the city I live going farther downward into a pit of congestion in a society that makes it difficult for people to go against the established norm that is usually rooted in someone's pocket/bank account (cars in this case).

[jeff]

Memo to mm:

You can buy monthly passes online or by mail if you don't have a credit card. It will save you money if you're buying a daily pass every day.

The answers are on mta.net.

[calwatch]

They need to sell weekly and monthly passes at ticket vending machines. Metrolink does it, New York does it, Chicago does it. The machines can take $20 bills. It is asinine that they can't do this basic function.

[Scott Mercer]

Thankfully this judge finally showed some sense.

These fare increases were regrettable but unavoidable. Inflation is just a part of the capitalist system. Almost every price goes up eventually.

There are some items that can go down in cost due to manufacturing economies of scale, such as computers or electronics, but these are the exception rather than the rule, and transportation is not one of those services.

$62 a month for your transportation needs is quite fair. It's about $2.07 per day, less than a magazine or a Big Mac or a Starbucks coffee.

Even if your car is totally paid for, you're most likely paying more than that in auto insurance alone, not even mentioning gas, oil, or whatever repairs might be needed. Plus parking charges! Dump your car!

[Pete McFerrin]

mm, where do you work? Get off at Wilshire/Vermont or Westlake/MacArthur Park sometime, walk a few blocks in any direction, and you will find a little bodega that sells MTA passes.

I just checked the MTA Pass/Token Directory page (http://www.mta.net/riding_metro/pass_token/SalesLocations.asp) and found these locations near Red/Purple Line stops:

CITY CHECK CASHERS 828 S. VERMONT AVE. 90005
JONS MARKET #3 3334 W. 8TH STREET 90005
LIBORIO MARKET 864 S. VERMONT AVE
MARTIN PHARMACY 801 S. VERMONT AVE #104
RALPHS 670 S. WESTERN AVE.
PLAZA STATIONERS 3450 WILSHIRE BLVD .#108 90010
REDWOOD SHOP 213 SO BROADWAY 90012
COURTHOUSE CAFÉ * 312 N. SPRING ST. -FOURTH FLOOR
LADOT (EZ) 201 N. LOS ANGELES ST. #18B
FIELDS FAMILY SNACKS 300 N. LOS ANGELES ST. (FED. BLDG.)
METRO CUSTOMER CENTER ONE GATEWAY PLAZA
A CHECK CASHING 317 S. BROADWAY 90013
CASH IT HERE 400 S. BROADWAY
POWER DISCOUNT STORE 325 W. 5TH STREET
AFEX 659 S. BROADWAY, STE. GL111 90014
CASH IT HERE 440 S. BROADWAY 90014
CONTINENTAL CURRENCY SERVICES INC. 600 S. SPRING ST. 90014
A. C. FINANCIAL/NIX CHECK CASHING 334 S. VERMONT/RITE AID DRUG 90020
SAV-ON VARIETY STORE 558 S. WESTERN AVE 90020

I could go on, but I think this'll do.

[Ben]

I wonder if those who have so passionately criticized opposition to the MTA's fare hike will come out in opposition to congestion charges?

What congestion charges are to drivers, the fare hike is to bus riders. Perhaps drivers will relocate to within walking distance of their jobs, as has been suggested bus riders do in previous posts?

I'd love to see congestion charges. Maybe it will let the bus I ride in move faster since all those cars will be off the road.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

I'm haven't heard how the bus riders will have to stop paying for their
English language lessons once the new bus fares go into affect.
I complained that Snickers bars in the six-pack were getting too expensive for me; I was either forced to pay and additional 66% for the Snickers bars in the six-pack or stop buying their product: I made my decision. mm, you could go to school on that.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

I'm haven't heard how the bus riders will have to stop paying for their
English language lessons once the new bus fares go into affect.
I complained that Snickers bars in the six-pack were getting too expensive for me; I was either forced to pay and additional 66% for the Snickers bars in the six-pack or stop buying their product: I made my decision. mm, you could go to school on that.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

Dear mm, either move closer to your work (welfare office); or work closer to where you live. No one put a gun to your head and told you to work at point A
and work at point B. Your choice, alone. Grocery stores' function is not to necessarily hand out bus passes. I asked them; they passed. Here's a quarter; call someone who cares (Hugh Chavez).
You are all hat and no cattle.

[mm]

Umm sorry but I will continue to complain about the fares since I still cannot buy passes at the grocery store that is incredibly close to the Universal City Red Line station and without them my weekly transportation costs for work are shooting up 66% next week even though I keep on requesting this. I don't have cable, satellite programming, cell phones for myself and my pets, plasma tv, excessively expensive shoes (although I do admit I splurge a little on buying comfortable/sturdy shoes since I walk many miles every day to get from the train stations to my final destinations or just simply walk to where I need to go), drink soda, go out to eat, buy seasonal clothing or pretty much almost anything else you can bring up as "indulgent" spending.

[RB]

Are you kidding me? Hefty? The price of our citrus has gone up more than the MTA fare hike. A single ride is still a $1.25. Prices go up and that's just a fact.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

These "fare hike complainers" have no problem forking over money to their cable tv operator, their satellite program provider, their cell-phone provider for themselves and their four children, their new iphone, ipod, and their new
igiveup, the 24 pack of beer, sprite, diet dr. pepper, their bling-bling, their
plasma-HDTV whatever and their three pair of $289 Nike shoes.
You "fare hike complainers: Cry Me A River.
Bus fare at any price is a bargain for the buck.
Different values for different folks.

[Bart Reed]

Hefty fare hikes? Since when is $10 / month or $ .45 / day (22 days / month) out of proportion or hefty? Metro originally proposed a $23 / month phase I hike and a $45 / month Phase II hike. Use of this type of charged language makes me think that Rong-Gong Lin II is really a publicist for the BRU, not a Times Staff Writer. With the new fares, if you ride more than 3 days per week, you will save a lot of money with a weekly or a monthly pass. Most riders can figure out the best value for their dollar.

Eric Mann has been really pushing his lawyers to try and find any loophole they can to sue Metro. Metro was actually blessed with some team members who actually read the law and made sure the fare hikes complied to current rules. Eric still have a few legal angles left, but I think the horse has left the barn.