When Public Transit Ceases to Be PublicPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Sep. 16‚ 2008Last week, the BART Board considered whether—given the huge spike in demand, and certain future increases to come—to charge higher fares during rush hour. Yesterday’s SF Chronicle editorialized in favor—deceptively calling it “congestion pricing” (which until now meant charging motorists a fee for driving Downtown.) Never mind that more commuters on BART means less cars on the street. Now that the public is finally taking public transit, why do we want to actively discourage the public from riding it? The financial implication of such a fare hike for transit-dependent riders also ceases to make it a public system. BART offers no discount for low-income riders; and while they finally launched a pilot program in San Francisco to give access to Muni’s senior and disabled riders, low-income who buy the Muni Lifeline Pass (and youth pass holders) still have no BART access. It’s one thing for a transit system to raise fares to keep up with rising costs; but it’s ass-backwards to do it as a means of discouraging customers from riding—at a time when they need it the most. |