Posted on 01/15/2020 11:51:56 AM PST by karpov
LAWRENCE, Mass. — Dionisia Ramos gets on the 37 bus twice a day, rooting through her handbag to dig out the fare and drop it into the slot, so it came as shock several months ago when the bus driver reached out his hand to stop her.
“You don’t have to pay,” he said. “It’s free for the next two years.”
Ms. Ramos had never heard of anything like this: Someone was paying her bus fare? At 55, she lives on a monthly unemployment check for $235. So saving $2.40 a day, for her trip to and from community college, past the hulking mills of Lawrence’s industrial past — that meant something.
Since a pilot program began in September, use of the buses has grown by 24 percent, and the only criticism Ms. Ramos has of the city’s experiment with fare-free transit is that it’s not permanent.
“Transportation should be free,” she said. “It’s a basic need. It’s not a luxury.”
That argument is bubbling up in lots of places these days, as city officials cast about for big ideas to combat inequality and reduce carbon emissions. Some among them cast transportation as a pure public good, more like policing and less like toll roads.
The City Council in Worcester, Massachusetts’ second-largest city, expressed strong support last week for waiving fares for its buses, a move that would cost between $2 and $3 million a year in lost fares. And fare-free transit is the splashiest policy recommendation of Michelle Wu, a Boston City Council member who is expected by many to run for mayor in 2021.
Larger experiments are underway in other parts of the country. The cities of Kansas City, Mo., and Olympia, Wash., both declared that their buses would become fare-free this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When a business has falling sales, it exits. Government bills the taxpayer for a service that few people are willing to pay for. A service like Uber pool actually takes you where you want to go and is probably responsible for some of the decreased bus ridership.
Making something free, for example Starbucks bathrooms, attracts vagrants and therefore repels people who don't want to be around vagrants.
Critics wonder who will pay for it.
DUH! Taxpayers of course!
As bad as they are to ride now, they’ll be even worse & more dangerous if no one has to pay.
“Making something free, for example Starbucks bathrooms, attracts vagrants...”
Well, public transit is already lousy with vagrants, so it’s probably not going to get much worse on that count.
Who will pay for it? The middle-class as always.
Free transportation is a right given by God. It’s called your feet.
If you don’t have feet or yours don’t work, we can talk.
Put posters on the outside and ads on the inside. Let ADVERTISERS pay for it.
No. Our city has a dumb advertising ban on public transport and PSAs with ugly drug, litter, racism messages. So it isn’t about a more beautiful city.
Free cell phones, free housing, free cable, free college, free healthcare.
On we go down the road to socialism, communism, and destruction. Kiss America goodbye.
Just about every city in modern Asia has clean, on time public transit because it costs money to ride. It may not be expensive, but everyone pays something. I’ve used such systems in Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka, Kobe and elsewhere. Anyone who tries to use them as toilets or sleeping lounges would be taken off so fast that your head would spin.
And everyone knows that riding a bus with drunks that $hit their pants will help liberals save the erf.
Make everything free. A luxury home. A sports car. Restaurant food. Pocket money. No need to work.
What will happen if that is implemented?
No one works. Everyone gets the free things. Since no one is working, no one wants to work in construction to build a house. No one wants to work in a factory to build sports cars. No one wants to work in a hot kitchen while being yelled at.
So there are no more luxury homes, cars, free meals or cash. The plan falls apart because no one wants to work in government to run the free income redistribution system.
The plan fails.
“X should be free, it’s a basic need. It’s not a luxury.”
THAT line of thinking is what will ultimately take this country down.
I’m concerned that Warren gets elected and denudes all our money trees.
Cincinnati was trying that with their street car named “misfire” and still had a hard time getting riders. I think even the homeless refuse use it for shelter.
Avoiding turning left turned into a cost-cutting advantage for UPS.
"They found the UPS approach saved gas but took a bit longer” —Why UPS Trucks Don't Turn Left
Even if this cost-cutting approach doesn’t work for all public transit systems, some routes may be cheaper to operate.
The REAL problem with transit in this area is that their unionized workers can retire with a gold-plated pension and benefit package in their early 50’s.
Far more of their revenues go to paying people who no longer work for them to sit home than to transporting low-income people around town.
Free land-line phones, free food (SNAP), free welfare, free monthly stipend (being suggested), free transport to voting booths. Sure I'm missing some.
Instant free mobile hotels.
Warm, dry, changing scenery, 2-4 seat “bed”.
Increased loitering at “last stop”.
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