Reminder of how much we like to criminalize being poor.
Skipping a $3.50 transit fare results in a $425 fine while skipping a $20 parking pass lands you a $70 fine that rich people complained to high heaven about. What justification, other than hating poor people, is there for this not scaling?
Make parking fines $2000 and then let's talk about the fictional "war on cars"
@chu I'm going to write to them and I encourage others to do so to.
I'd rather see the low income pass get advertised since that would actually help reduce fare evasion https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/employment-social-support/support-for-people-in-financial-need/assistance-through-ontario-works/transit-discount/
Apply now for the Fair Pass Transit Discount to save money on transit fares. Apply for Fair Pass The Fair Pass Transit Discount Program provides a 36 per cent discount on Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) adult single ride fares and a 21 per cent discount on TTC adult monthly passes. The discount is programmed onto […]
I want to see the price per hour of parking be at LEAST the price for a family of 4 to take transit.
It should not be cheaper to drive to the museum or brunch than it is to take transit. 4 adults = $28.
THAT's when we start to see actual shift.
We can do this by jacking up the price of parking or lowering the price of transit.
I empathize with the need for a low income pass but that is all but half the equation. This is where we need real political leadership.
@chu I agree. Transit family passes should be a thing to make those trips more viable.
That said, if someone can't afford the fare, they should just be allowed to ride for free. Transit is an equalizer that makes the city a lot of money indirectly. Making sure poor people have a way to get around means more opportunities for them to get out of poverty.
I do this calculation every time we go somewhere outside walking distance and where cycling doesn't make sense.
Precisely 0% of the time has it worked out in favour of transit, which is awful.
For example, on a Sunday we (2 people) could drive downtown in 15 minutes and park for free for 6 hours. Or, we could bus which takes twice as long, has an unreliable schedule, and would cost us ~$16.
I think transit needs some kind of group fare where a single fare will cover up to 4 people and return trip.
Might as well make it free at that point, which is what it should be.
#Canada Press: #BC Greens promise free #transit, doubling of provincial bus fleet “Fast, frequent and free transit will shift how people move, reduce household costs, and enable a giant leap forward on meeting our climate goals.” Furstenau, #BCGreens https://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/news/bc-greens-promise-free-transit-doubling-of-provincial-bus-fleet-7521172 #bcpoli
@chu Imagine if we jacked up the fines for cars, and made public transit free to ride.
There’d be savings on all the fare administration, inspections, and punishment infrastructure. More people might ride the train/bus, saving money on repairs to road wear. There would be less pollution, saving money on health care.
Yes, work must be done to make a transit system that runs well, and attracts everyone.
<Insert joke about Ottawa’s transit system being a punishment infrastructure>
Too easy. You built public transportation infrastructure that can't handle snow.
@chu Here in Albuquerque,city buses have been fare-free since 2022.
Ridership increased from very low levels during the pandemic.
On the other hand,drivers and mechanics have left,creating shortages in service. Service is now every 40-60 minutes on most routes instead of 15-30 minutes.
And violence on buses and at bus stops have increased dramatically since free fares were initiated.
Some conservatives have called for service to be eliminated altogether.
@chu we have these in the UK… it’s so dystopian. Like some of these are legit explanations too.. hell all of them are! My phone battery has died before. What the fuck am I supposed to do about that when there are no charging ports on the trains?? As a disabled person I sometimes get confused and end up on the wrong train.
I detest this attitude. This is why they shouldn’t be run for profit.
public transportation should be free
With this kind of system, they are begging to clog up the courts as people fight these tickets.
I'm guessing they would go easy on a tourist too.
Friend and I bought tickets for the train from Rome to Florence (I'm old so this is a long time ago). Two girls doing the backpacking thing. We got the tickets and it was perfect timing as the next train was about to take off. We ran for it and made it with barely a minute to spare. When the fare inspector came we handed him our tickets and then he proceeded to yell at us in Italian. We had zero clue what was happening. Then he writes something on the bottom of the ticket (as in date and time ) and we finally clued in that we were supposed to punch the tickets before getting on board. We were in such a hurry we didn't see the machines, nor did the person selling the tickets suggest we had to do that.
Then an English speaking passenger told us how lucky we were because that's a hefty fine.
@chu I don't even want to contemplate how much mass transit could be made free for everyone in the USA for the cost of a single F-35.
But F-35 pilots get their airfare and aircraft paid by Murican tax dollars, they sure as hell aren't paying out of pocket.
Ford will probably pass a law to make all parking fines 0 while transit users pay Uber rates
Why not pay for transit with taxes and eliminate fares? Toll roads that charge drivers per ride are rare, we all pay for the roads with taxes why not pay for the transit with taxes?
But I agree parking should cost more, also we should tax businesses for their parking spaces to encourage them to limit free parking.
Are you being facetious in that question?
If we did those things, friends of our corrupt politicians would be sad. There would be good usable transit and Petro sales would go down. There would be less demand for housing in increasingly far out places in ecologically sensitive areas and political donors would make less profit.
If we did half of those things, important people with strong political influence would lose money.
How can we let that happen? 🙄
No, not facetious.
I have lived in one city (Chapel Hill) where public transit was free and visited Germany, where for 50 EU/month you can travel on transit in any city and on some intercity transit.
I know some other cities are making public transit free.
Although I love the idea of making parking more expensive, making transit free is easier.
Plus some studies show it saves money by eliminating the need for fare collection and enforcement.
I was being facetious. Our city is too corrupt for those things.
We are run by the capitalists who put profit way, way over people. There's simply too much money in our auto and petro industries.
@chu Yeah, it's really disgusting, in Germany you can easily end up in prison (not kidding) when you can't afford public transport and still need to use it (to go to a doctor, mandatory social service appointments etc).
There's even an organisation that exists only to get people out of prison:
I think they're on the fedi ... Yes!
@chu In Germany they put people who skip fares in jail after a certain number of times.
If only they did the same with people who get the same number of parking tickets…
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