Pricey gas is pushing TriMet ridership to a record high and a fare-hike is on the horizon – could the time be right to form a Transit Rider’s Union? The upstart group Portland Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP) thinks so. Last week they started a city-wide grassroots campaign to organize a union, donning silkscreened red PCAP shirts and canvassing on the MAX and buses. In six days, the organizers signed up 350 people. The union’s first meeting is scheduled for August 20th and its first goal is an ambitious one: make TriMet a fareless system. 
While some people have also floated the idea of a union to force TriMet to focus funds on the two-thirds of its ridership using the aging bus fleets rather than the MAX, a political association for all transit riders hasn’t existed in Portland for at least a decade. Transit experts outside PCAP think the union could get a lot of support, but are more hesitant about the pushing for a fareless system.
“The idea of a transit riders union is great, the voice of transit riders is not very strong,” says Chris Smith, who runs PortlandTransport.com. Smith says the rising fares might take a toll on low-income riders but the hurdles to making TriMet fareless are pretty big.
During her time in office, mayor Vera Katz investigated the idea of a fareless TriMet, but the final report found safety concerns and lack of revenue for expansion would outweigh the benefits. Jim Howell, who’s been working on Portland transit issues since 1969, thinks the lack of money to expand service could be the biggest problem with a fareless system. “They don’t even have enough funds to meet the current demand,” Howell says, “If somebody wants to come up with the money and provide fareless service, I’m all for it. But I don’t know where that could come from.”
Twenty percent of TriMet’s current budget comes from fare revenue. PCAP’s plan to make up the difference is pretty vague right now, but organizer Colin de Laval believes the decreased costs of collecting fares would help TriMet could compensate for lost revenues.
De Laval says the arguments against a fareless system boil down to money. “Anytime you cut into the capitalist system you’re going to get backlash,” he says, very sincerely. He envisions an end goal of eventually abolishing the TriMet board and running TriMet via the union.
de Laval is not that smart. Trimet is NOT a capitalist system. They lose a lot of money–no profits. This is government run entity through and through
If transit was free, more people would ride it, especially for short trips. This has all sorts of advantages for our community, from less space dedicated to parking lots to less congestion on our streets to air pollution. The value of those benefits can be quantified, and they should be, and published. Then the public can find out that free public transit will reduce the hours spent in congestion X% and reduce asthma related illnesses and deaths Y% and lower our sewer bills $Z, (from dealing with the runoff from parking lots,) and prevent W tons of CO2. And the value of all those things can be added up and people can see that we’d have to raise taxes $A/person/year to have free public transit, and we’ll get something like $20*A/person/year in benefits from it…
If our politicians had spines they’d just raise taxes and do it already, but unfortunately, it will probably have to go to the voters.
Hey, I’m Homeless, if transit were FREE I could live on it, sleep in the back of it, buy or steal my meals between bus stops then eat them on the bus throwing my trash on the floor or leaving it in the seat, hassle the transit workers cuz since it, the bus, is now my home, they can’t touch me or I’ll sue! And the best part, you workers/commuters will pay my way…. He, he, he, Portland Rocks!
If you’re homeless how can you afford a computer?
I like this.
An intermediary step would be if you have to stand up (by which I mean if TriMet has not scheduled sufficient buses for a particular time / line) then you ride for free. This would be solid motivation for TriMet managers to shift buses to where the need is greatest.
I bought a car after years of riding the Fessenden bus and standing up 80% of the time.
It’s a great idea!
It has NO, NONE, ZILCH, chance of happening!
Maybe these people can get incorporated somehow in the existing structure.
“If you’re homeless how can you afford a computer?”
Dude, I found this Laptop on a bus and use Hot Spots… But, before this windfall I used to use the Libraries Public Computer.
BTW, Before I forget, thanks commuters for your Free Money and discards, I gotta go now & pan handle Lunch!
God, I love Portland
You could buy a lot of crack if you sold that computer.
Sir:
Perhaps we can organize a mob to tar and feather Mr. Hanson?
Just a suggestion.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus
My apologies.
Mr. Fred Hanson is the general manager of TriMet. His obsession is building a light rail system.
He careth not for the safety or convenience of you, the taxpayer nor you, the TriMet customer.
Again, please forgive my oversight in not explaining who should be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a (light) rail.
Jacomus
The first comment is spot on. Why do people seem to think that the government has any money of their own?
Give ’em a Fareless Square, they take a mile.
The fares aren’t the main problem with Tri-Met, although more of a discount for monthly pass users might be good.
The biggest problem with the buses is poor scheduling – how many times do you have to wait and wait, and then two or three of the same bus show up at once?
The basic premise behind the Transit Riders Union is that people are better equipped to tailor a system to their needs than a bureaucracy. We pay for TriMet, yet we have little to no control over its operations. This lack of community power manifests itself in spiraling fares, poorly scheduled buses, excessive capital improvement schedules (that don’t reflect the needs of the system), and an army of expensive and ineffective security guards. To pay for a fareless system, we would like to see the replacement of those security guards with community run mediation teams. They would be trained in de-escalation and non-violent communication. Each security guard costs the city appx. $124,000 a year (based on non-profit estimates for yearly security). Removing that burden from the budget would free up untold cash to be used to cut fares and improve service (and who knows, maybe we could give the drivers a raise.) Money would also be recouped through the removal of the fare collecting machines and the fare inspectors. If the system were run on the basis of rider-driver communication through community assemblies, it would remove the necessity of paying outrageous wages to an executive body. We base our programs on the need for empowerment, and putting a system of transportation back in the hands of the community.
Love,
The Portland Coalition Against Poverty
PDXCAP@gmail.com
make the light rail fareless