We already pay the bulk of the TriMet operating budget through (mostly employment) taxes (49%), federal operating grants (13%), state and local revenue (8%). That’s a total of 70% that everybody has already paid—even folks who aren’t passengers. Passenger revenue is only covers 6% of the TriMet budget. https://trimet.org/budget/index.htm Why are we expected to cover an additional 6% via fare? If TriMet were fareless, it would attract more riders. More riders would make rides safer and garner more support for public transit. More support means more tax revenue. More revenue means more routes and greater frequency. This is a virtuous cycle. Instead of blaming fare evasion for budget crises, blame the austerity. Fewer routes making fewer trips makes TriMet less reliable. So, Mooch City, stop crying about your neighbors evading 6% and start demanding your electeds and the TriMet board to grow up and implement the fareless transit system Portland deserves.

2 replies on “Fair Transit = Fareless TriMet”

  1. Mooch has seemed to have made it their vision quest to bitch about TriMet on this forum on a daily basis. I suspect they are probably too young to remember, but there actually used to be this thing called “Fareless Square!” If the city’s developers were really interested in rebuilding a thriving downtown/Lloyd Center/Rose Quarter, they would bring that back. But no, they are too busy buying up the city’s most valuable property on the cheap, write off the taxes, and wait for the city to pay them to do something with it. Maybe a little less focus on subsidizing sports stadiums would help a bit too. If NYC can dare to dream of free transit, I’m sure we can too.

  2. I’m so old I remember when one ride was $1.25. I wear that like my badge of honor. I remember the paper tickets and the punch holes. I would save them all from the start of the month and if I had the same two holes punched on a previous ticket, I would use it if the times matches up instead of paying again. Sometimes I lived one stop past whatever Zone 1, 2, or 3, and hell no, I’d pay for the lesser zone. I loved how arbitrary the zones were too.

    Sometimes I’d ride fareless all the way out to Zone 3.

    I am the Master Mooch.

    I know how to sneak into any Sporting event you want too.

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