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 ...
Public transit around the world loses money. No one expects it to ever turn profitable. Yet all the same, it’s still being provided.
Then where is she going every day?
The most hilarious “roundabouts” are outside Sedona, AZ.
They were built at a time when traffic was light.
However, tourism has exploded over the years. Much of that tourism is folks using RVs, big, bigger, and bigger RVs.
The traffic circles were designed for standard cars.
It only takes three or four large RVs to cause amazing traffic jams.
You have to see it to believe it.
To look for work or to go shopping. She probably doesn’t have a car.
The fares should be funded by appropriating the salaries of the Mayor, city council members and all of their staff.
Too true.
Nobody could run a system like that and stay in business, except governments who are quite content to burn through your money in ways you never would.
Are they going to issue poverty ID cards? If not, they will find that wayyyy more people will take advantage of free public transportation than they expected. People will probably run businesses, such as courrier services and drug distribution based on the free offering.
The VTA (San Jose/Santa Clara County) has a Route 22 that is known as Hotel 22. The longest ride in the county, it runs all night and costs $2.50. It was recommended that they shut it down but the usual suspects whined and it was kept. VTA figures show it costs at least $7/fare to run and that not counting all the obscured subsidies.
I hate those roundabouts, accidents waiting to happen.
I agree to an extent. Not only is there a learning curve for drivers who have never used them before, traditional drivers inclined to unnecessarily stop before entering them, but roundabouts can be poorly interfaced with the roads, drivers not sure which lane they need, or if they need to yield.
But when they’re designed correctly then everybody’s happy imo, later if not sooner.
Thanks for a sensible response.
I first saw them in England and hated them there too
The unions will force transportation authorities to keep all those in the fair handling infrastructure to remain employed now and in the future.
Lady, nothing is free. Free means that the producers are getting screwed. In Tampa, I can get an all day pass for HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit) buses, butit doesn't work for me (I can't bring my lawnmower on the bus. Someone tried to bring a mattress (from Walmart) on the bus..They couldn't...
Recall them due to obvious fiscal irresponsibility and lack of taxpayer representation.
You offer stuff to people for free, they then believe they deserve it, are entitled tovit.
You can’t offer anything free to people.
Our founders would never have created this country ifnthey saw what the people would devolve into.
And the more protected class you are, the more idiotic crap like this your demographic believes in. Women, minority, gender pervert, foodnazi, ecofreak, abortion worshipper, feminist...
Yes I imagine he fits into one of “them”!
:-)
Tomorrow I’mgoing to make the post
Minutes ago I watched two videos made in June 2019 in Venezuela.
they were well done and not biased
He went to see and ride ste subway. It was free. The machines to sell tickets were broken. it cost too much to pay the ticket takers.
Gasoline was free but you tipped the service station guy with cookies or cigarettes or what ever
Actually the ‘fares’ only go a tiny way towards paying for this kind of transportation (has been true for a VERY long time).
Its like the public pay toilets they used to have - to make it harder to be abused by all the bums (nominal payment amount required).
.
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