7/18/2008

Why not just make it free?

Heck, if you cut the price in half and are guaranteed to increase ridership, just imagine how many riders you'll get if you don't charge at all!

Holy shit, this is freakin' genius! I say let's make Borkowski mayor. No...no, let's make him king! That's right! King of La La Land and the Valley of the Half-Wits!

(Too much?)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too much?

There's no such thing?

Michael Horne said...

Travel is free on New Years and St. Patrick's during the evening hours; subsidized by Miller Brewing Company (at least in the past). Ridership is huge on those evenings. A consistent pattern of corporate sponsorship / subsidies of rides could be of great benefit in increasing transit. This is increasingly feasible as corporations will relocate into the city and rely on transit for workers.
Michael Horne

David Casper said...

Michael, it's one thing to use a bus when you're most likely going to be intoxicated and on your way to or from a bar or party. It's another thing entirely when you have to be at work on time or run errands afterward.

And to suggest that prices be slashed by 50% when studies indicate ridership would only increase by 17% at a time when the system is already having a tough time making ends meet is just silly. To even get to the point where they're at now, which, mind you, is still a point of budget shortfalls, they would have to double ridership. Frankly, I can't see that happening.

As I've said time and time again, a goal of the transist system should be to become as self-sustaining as possible. Any sort of subsidy, either from a corporation or through taxes should be something they should hope to need only as a last resort. If they continue to operate under the assumption that the subsidy will always be there, there isn't any motivation to improve the service in a way that will attract riders with the luxury of choosing to ride the bus rather than having to.

Anonymous said...

Can we also stop the subsidizing for roads then as well? And I'm not talking about gas taxes and registration fees, as those are associated with use. But how about property taxes and assessments used for street repair, and road rebuilds to start?