12-17-2015, 01:16 PM
(12-17-2015, 11:12 AM)chutten Wrote: I see a lot of spend by GRT on fare systems. Why _not_ just make public transit single-payer? We already do that with healthcare to some success. Right now having it be partially subsidized and partially based on fare cards and partially on tickets and partially on cash... it seems inefficient.
Just let the people on the bus and let the people off the bus, and we'll get where we're going faster.
(begin comments written by people who don't and won't use public transit attacking this idea.)
(begin comments written by people who do and will use public transit supporting this idea.)
No one of our size has tried that yet. Talinn, Estonia is close: http://citiscope.org/story/2014/free-pub...ed-results
They managed to make the cost work out, though, using incentives that we don't have: the claim is that free transit induced more people to register as residents of Talinn. I don't think that's a thing here nearly as much.
Can someone remind me of the farebox recovery rate of the GRT?
In the absence of good empirical data, we're in the land of hypothetical arguments, which always makes me somewhat uncomfortable. There is an issue with respect to things that people don't pay for. Sometimes that's not good, in that people then ascribe zero value to that thing.