There's nothing quite like seeing a thread full of people gloating about evading POP fare inspectors to remind me how stupid POP fare collection is
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"FUCK paying for this bus, FUCK paying for this train, take me wherever I want for FREE!" "WTF why is there no money for transit? Why won't transit respond to ridership trends?"
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Whoever pays for it gets to call the shots, because they're the ones who decide whether the system lives or dies. Passengers who don't pay--just as much as governments that cut funding--are saying they want the system to die.
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Replying to @380kmh
Given racial profiling concerns re: POP fare inspectors, would you prefer fares to be abolished and transit solely funded through taxes? Or an alternative solution?
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Replying to @Cliftonial
No, I want--as much as possible--for fares to cover the costs of operation. For most of the US this means a) higher base fares and b) distance-based fares. I want passengers to be the principal source of revenue, so that their needs are the principal concern of operators.
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Replying to @380kmh
Doesn’t this ignore the reality for many US communities that the folks most able to afford higher fares don’t utilize public transit? For example DC’s ridership is (relatively) class egalitarian & could potentially shoulder higher costs, but Baltimore’s almost only used by poor.
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Replying to @Cliftonial
That transit ridership skews poor in the USA and that it cannot support higher fares aren't the same thing...PVTA operates buses only, and does so in an economically stagnant region, but 2 of its last 3 fare hikes resulted in HIGHER ridership, not lower
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Replying to @380kmh @Cliftonial
Which isn't to say that the fare hikes CAUSED the growth in ridership, only that they weren't beyond the capacity of riders to pay
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Replying to @380kmh @Cliftonial
If you're struggling with money, paying a single fare isn't so much of an issue as how *often* you can pay it, and therefore how often you can actually travel. This is very much a problem for the poor in places without transit; if gas goes up they're stuck having to drive less.
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But that's sort of inherent in being poor--you can't do as much as you would like to. Antipoverty measures like welfare etc that give them more money to work with is more helpful than setting transit fares so low that it puts its future into the hands of ppl who don't ride it
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