Posted on 02/28/2007 10:25:01 PM PST by Lorianne
Eliminating subway and bus fares could put local mass transit on the road to success. ___ CLOSE TO HALF the travel time on most L.A. bus routes is spent at the curb. Bus riders know the frustration of waiting to board while someone coaxes a floppy dollar bill into the fare box. Likewise, plenty of irritated local drivers have been stuck behind that bus in the right-turn lane. Oh, and the despair of the train rider left struggling with an uncooperative ticket vending machine as the train pulls away.
So what would happen if, instead of hiking MTA fares as is currently under consideration, we made all the buses and subways free?
Eliminating transit fares is the logical flip side to the anti-congestion pricing schemes so favored by economists. London, for instance, charges a daily fee equal to about $15.60 to drive in the traffic-chocked central city between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays. Just as such fees on cars supposedly discourage driving, eliminating fares could encourage public transit use.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
What would happen on elimination of fares would be the transformation of subway cars and buses into mobile dumpsters and toilets.
How about no.
The transit system would go broke.
No?
Oh -- it is already heavily subsidized?
Then taxes would go up -- yup.
You get what you paid for. If you paid nothing, then it ain't worth it.
Yeah, make it free and watch all those working commuters stumble across the bums laying in the aisles or in the seats. If there is anything that will put people back into their cars this will do it.
There's no such thing as a free ride.
Maybe they could add free medical too.
That seems to happen anyway..
Well, this would get the bums off the streets.
"So what would happen if, instead of hiking MTA fares as is currently under consideration, we made all the buses and subways free?"
They would cease to operate.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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