Portland is often pointed to as an example of enlightened transit policy – in particular, the existence of free transit in the downtown area, or ‘Fareless Square.’ A similar policy for downtown Vancouver is often No. 1 on the list of things people believe TransLink should implement if it wants to increase transit use.
According to yesterday’s Oregonian, we won’t be able to point to Portland any more:
The TriMet board voted 6-1 this morning to cut buses from downtown Portland’s Fareless Square, marking the first significant cutback to the nation’s largest free mass transit zone.
The change goes into effect Jan. 3. The transit agency said the new policy would cut down on fare evasion by bus riders who board within the fareless zone but stay on beyond its border.
Bus routes downtown will not change as part of the new policy, but riders who board buses will have to pay fares there. The fareless policy will remain for MAX light rail and the Portland Streetcar. With the addition of the new MAX Green Line and the MAX Yellow Line to the transit mall, TriMet officials predict most free zone bus riders will switch to the trains.
Board members from Clackamas and Washington counties said they view the fareless policy as an unfair perk for downtown riders.
Lynn Lehrbach, of eastern Multnomah County, was the lone dissenter in the board’s vote. He said the fareless area helps bring rich and poor together.
TriMet said that most of the public comments it received favored the proposal. About a dozen people affiliated with the Transit Riders Union, a rider advocacy group, heckled the board meeting and shouted disapproval after the vote.
‘Free’ transit was never really an option for TransLink, given that, unlike in the U.S., there is no senior-government source of operating dollars. Indeed, the agency will have trouble maintaining existing service unless there it can raise additional dollars somehow, somewhere.
The other big ‘free transit zone’ regularly pointed to, Seattle’s “Ride Free Area” is also under threat. Facing serious budget cuts, King County Metro is considering shutting it down entirely or extracting much more money from the City of Seattle ($6.5 million/year) to pay for it.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/transportation/archives/175046.asp
Free transit is never free.
i don’t know if i really get what’s going on here. it sounds like Fareless-for-buses Square is changing into Fareless-for-trains Square…??
I always liked the suggestion made by the late great Hans Blumenfeld to make transit entirely fare-less, and cover the costs completely out of general revenue. Blumenfeld drew the analogy with a high rise building, where no one pays a fee to ride the elevator (vertical transit) since the cost of running this necessary service is factored into the lease rates. He made the I think not Swiftian suggestion, if its good enough for vertical transit in high rise buildings, why not for horizontal transit in cities. If this seems an unreasonable suggestion, then ask yourself why we don’t seem to find it hard to do it for cars (or pedestrians for that matter).
They have the same thing in Seattle, it’s very handy if you are a tourist. Just hop on and off with the borders and you don’t pay.
Ah Translink. I have been riding the Skytrain again now for 4 months. I buy my pass every month – 2 zones $99. I have been checked ONCE. Five days a week, both ways. I should do like everyone else and just ride for free, but I know with my luck I would get a ticket – actually that would probably still be cheaper.
Five years ago I used to take the Skytrain everyday. At that time there was a real push for checking tickets. I was asked about once a week. Now for some reason they have stopped.
Which is very funny because currently there are more Skytrain employees standing around the stations than I have ever seen, and they are short of money AGAIN.
Having free zones in the centre of the city is completely counter to the goal of getting more transit ridership. People downtown already have the best access to transit, the most incentive not to use cars (congestion & expensive parking), and trips that are amenable to transit use.
To increase transit use, it would make more sense to put free zones in the suburbs. And particularly between suburban centres. But then, the elite that live downtown wouldn’t like that.