Comments

1
The homeless seem to never pay their damn share around here.
2
I wonder if they've factored in that price is a deterrent and that by raising fares ridership will take a hit as people who formerly used Tri-Met turn to carpooling, biking, walking, finding work closer to home, etc.?

Maybe Tri-Met needs another source of funding.
3
With the new light rail line opening in September, I like the idea of limiting it to light-rail only for a while as a second option to not making any changes. No one will be more than a few blocks away from light-rail at that point, although that doesn't take into account the hills people have to walk up. But it's fairly safe to say that when it comes around, most of the bus trips that come in downtown will be starting or ending a trip outside of Fareless Square anyways.
4
@Amanda: I would sure hope so. It always reminds me of the taxes on cigarettes that claim they're going to "help reduce smoking!", then the funded programs get all sore when it actually does reduce smoking and the money coming in from the tax drops drastically.

Perhaps they could combine a couple of the options: keep the MAX fareless but make the buses standard fare. It would help with their problem while encouraging light rail use at the same time.
5
Ditch fareless square and keep ticket fares low. It is a much greater hardship to cut bus lines than to have to pay to get from Lloyd Center to downtown.
6
"The free transit strengthens the city's economy by helping cut transit costs for students and business people and by helping make Portland a great place to visit. "

Undoubtedly true. However, how many students are going to say "I just can't go to PSU, because there' s no longer free transit downtown?" Same question applies to tourists who will choose to visit Seattle instead because of the hardship a nominal, still heavily subsidized transit fare will impose.

My guess is that you can count the combined total on one hand.
7
Somehow, it just seems that Tri-Met is just greedy. When the cost of gas went down, the fares stayed high. Ever check on how much Tri-Met employees make? It's a pretty sweet deal.

This reminds me of the record company's estimates on music piracy. Fact is, many of the people who ride for free when charged, just wouldn't ride. They ride because it's free, so the estimates of lost revenue are automatically askew.

Where's the mayor on this one?
8
I'm thinking the homeless can walk more and be healthier for it.
9
Sschting, are you really criticizing Tri-Met for paying their employees equitably?
10
This will probably cut into a main vein of homeless panhandling revenue. Darn.
11
No, I'm even envious and I wish that more employers would pay as well; it's just hard to buy into thinking that Tri-Met is hurting right now.

When you're hurting from unemployment tax burden you're either laying everyone off or firing them without good reason. Have they been laying off employees, I haven't heard?
12
If they need revenue, why don't they just extend the hours to accommodate bar patrons after beer:30 ?
13
They would probably lose more money by extending hours becuase 1. not enough bar patrons actually paying the far to make up for the cost and 2. all the piss and puke, broken windows, damaged stuff, that has to be cleaned up, fixed, and all that hassle.
14
Yeah, a bus full of drunks would suck.
15
I wonder how much it would cost them to simply enforce Fareless Square being Fareless Square--and then how much revenue they would gain by having people who ride the MAX beyond F.S. actually pay to do so.

Of course, to do this, they'd probably need to make sure the ticket vending machines downtown actually work. . .

I also wonder about whether/by how much revenue would improve if month passes were a little more incentivised--if, say, they reduced them to $60, would many more people be tempted to buy them just for the convenience factor? Or maybe they've got a sweet thing going at $75 from people like me who are dedicated/dependent transit users.
16
I ride fareless square (MAX primarily) at least every other day. I walk to fareless MAX and hop on to get downtown. Sometimes I get home that way. Other days my wife drops me off on her way through downtown. Fareless Square is a great benefit and when we bought a house the easy access to free public transit was one of the pluses of our location. So obviously I am personally in support of Fareless Square.

I think that bus ticket prices need to be standardized. Get rid of the zones. Two bucks for all you can ride four hours. if you are going to have fareless zones, enforce them.

The alternative is to tax (that dreaded word) every property owner in the three counties a set amount to make up for revenue and spend the repair/maintainence/collection funds on security for MAX and better cameras. Maybe a token 25 cent charge to track ridership?
18
I would imagine he meant no one would be more than a few blocks away from light rail within fareless square.
20
jake, you're too harsh on El Cubano. The new light rail line will run from PSU all the way to Union Station, right through the heart of the most populous section of downtown. In combination with Streetcar, very few will be more than a few blocks away.

If only MAX riders are getting on for free, the buses can load more quickly and the bus drivers can check fares without people saying "fareless!" and riding out to Gresham for free.
21
“Ever check on how much Tri-Met employees make?”

~~>A full time bus driver makes $47k a year. Which is nothing but a lower middle class lifestyle. The reason that looks so good is that there are SO MANY FRIGGEN JOBS THAT PAY SLAVE WAGES!

Bus drivers have more health problems+ die younger than the general population.
It aint no ‘sweet’ deal;.
============================

“Where's the mayor on this one?”
~~>Hanging out in the bathroom. (sorry, couldn’t help myself)
======================

“Sschting, are you really criticizing Tri-Met for paying their employees equitably?”

~~>thank you Graham!
=============
“Have they been laying off employees, I haven't heard?”
~~>70 driver positions are getting whacked, dunno about middle management
…………………………….
“I think that bus ticket prices need to be standardized. Get rid of the zones. Two bucks for all you can ride four hours. if you are going to have fareless zones, enforce them.”
~>AMEN BROTHER!
……………………..
I’ve never been a fan of fareless square. I can’t tell you how many times I would hear:
WAAAIT UPPPP!
I pull over the bus, they hop on, say FARELESS, and they go ONE FRIGGEN STOP!

Fareless square is an idea left over from the 70’s.
It clogs the system and pushes out people that actually need to GET OUT of fareleess square.

Some buses are so full of fareless people that fare paying people can’t get on.

And for those of you skeptical that TRIMET is making this up, check what’s going on in Seattle!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29251064/

The entire countries transit systems are falling apart.

So much for OBAMA’S stimulus. USELESS!

There are people that don’t live in PORTLAND that are about to be left stranded.
These people have been riding TRIMET for years but are now going to be abandoned by TRIMET.

Its an obscenity for people to be riding FREE right now while others can’t get service and more have to pay top dollar to get to Portland.

END FARE LESS SQUARE NOW!




22
FURTHERMORE;
The police say there is a problem, and they are not going to just make that up for no reason.

http://blip.tv/file/1794012
23
I don't know if you can rightly blame a guy who's been President for all of a month for the decades of neglect of the country's transit systems. Nice try, though.
24
Al - the police say there's a problem with MAX being fareless. They've never said (that I can recall) that there's problems with buses being fareless. Trimet's solution? Make MAX free and pay for buses. Huh?? Whatever valid arguments there are for cutting back on fareless square, security sure as hell isn't one of them.

The big picture is the unsustainable way Trimet is funded. Whenever there's a recession, now or in the future, payroll tax revenue is going to drop. But that's when ridership increases. Doesn't take a genius to work out that the revenue system needs changing.
25
Supporters of the Rail-Only argue that "no one downtown is ever more than a few blocks away from light-rail", with TriMet having published a series of maps showing that most of downtown falls within 5 blocks of either a MAX or streetcar stop. This argument ignores then fact that people often need to travel East-West to reach destinations downtown and not just North-South.

There is no East-West rail or streetcar route North of Morrison and many Fareless Square riders make use of the '20-Burnside' and other bus routes to traverse downtown East-West. At the South end of downtown, the streetcar travels East-West on Market from 11th to 4th, but there is no guarantee that the streetcar--which is a separate entity from TriMet--will remain fareless.

Due to illness, disability, or aging, a substantial (and growing) proportion of transit users experience mobility problems. In addition, decades of research shows that walking distance to transit stops is one of the chief determinants of whether people actually use public transportation. The Rail-Only option would harm mobility-impaired Portlanders and would reduce transit ridership at a moment in history when all efforts should be geared to creating new transit users.
26
Some of the comments about the homeless on here are staggeringly ignorant and lack compassion.

As a PSU student who just spent several weeks learning about homelessness through reading first-hand accounts and now through interviewing homeless people, I can tell you that a) it's a lot easier to become homeless than people think b) the homeless are regular people, by and large, who simply lack the familial support networks that many of us take for granted c) their life is by no stretch of the imagination "easy" and they definitely don't need more "exercise" to become "healthier" d) even the people with drug and alcohol problems, etc. deserve our sympathy, because when a rich person gets addicted, they can afford rehab/their family probably takes care of them, but some people don't have that option. Money and privilege make some people President of the United States and others resident of the gutter.

I talked to a man of 51 who bottles and cans for a living. He makes about $3 a day these days, because there's so much competition out there now. He can't get a job because he committed a felony 20-some years ago, and now he's being punished twice because employers aren't hiring ex-felons, even as laborers. $3 a day means a $2 bus ticket is 2/3 of this guy's daily pay.

I talked to a couple with a baby where neither parent can get a job. They're in a temporary shelter, but they use fareless square to get between services with their very well-taken care of happy-looking BABY. Let me tell you, pushing a baby around is pretty good exercise on its own.

I talked to a man who lost his job 4 months ago after his wife died of cancer and he broke down and became homeless. Gee, I can't believe jerks like that want us to help them. (Note the heavy sarcasm.)

At any rate, I wish that every person in this city had to go through the experiences I've had lately and actually get to know some of the people living on our streets and what reality might be like for them. I think if you did, you would see things in a different light.

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