Tag: Public Transportation

METRO’S FREE RIDE Suggesting that the transportation agency is “too concerned with the bottom line” — and not focused enough on the riders who depend on it to get around town — Mayor Parker proposes lowering fares on all Metro bus and rail rides. Or (why not?) dropping them altogether: “While acknowledging that Metro would have to cope with the loss of fare revenues — $66 million in 2009, about 20 percent of its expenses — she said it is a discussion the agency needs to have. . . . Metro says its operating ratio — the share of its costs covered by fare collections — has increased from 17 percent in 2005 to an estimated 21 percent this year, still well below the national average of 33 percent. Eliminating fares, of course, would make cost-benefit analysis meaningless, since every route would be fully subsidized. But allowing passengers to ride for free might attract enough riders to reduce congestion for drivers and produce other benefits, Parker said. ‘I don’t really care so much what they collect at the fare box,’ the mayor said. ‘I’m not going to tell them to do this, but I am personally interested in exploring — unless we’re leveraging those dollars in some ways for other kinds of matches — dropping the fares to get more people on board.'” [Houston Chronicle]