Why BC Should Make Public Transit Free
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https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/09/17/Why-BC-Should-Make-Public-Transit-Free/
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/09/17/Why-BC-Should-Make-Public-Transit-Free/
Semi-related, it's ridiculous that there's no public transit route to Squamish and Whistler - only private shuttles. Squamish is becoming a bustling commuter town and the Sea-to-Sky traffic is getting more choked every year. BC Transit REALLY needs to set up regular service. Maybe re-activate the fucking train line.
Honestly I wouldn't start to use the current transit in my area if it was free. The issue isn't cost, it's that the service is stretched so thin it's only usable as a last resort and your day has to be planned around the schedule. On the rare occasion I can't use my car I have ended up walking for an hour and a half because it's more convenient than the bus. I'm just glad I'm not disabled or I'd have to turn some of my outings into overnighters.
It really depends on where you live and where you are headed. We have one car and if I've had to go to another city 45 km away and wife has to work, then I jump on the bus, it takes about 1.5 hours and a bit of walking either end (10-15min), but driving it takes at least an hour anyway during rush hour. But there are areas not served by busses and its always the chicken-egg thing: we don't see enough ridership in that area, but if you don't build it then people can't use it
Yeah, I imagine if you're in a city it's a different story. TransLink has been great every time I've used it in Vancouver. Greater Victoria seems to be pretty decent if you're in the core or you're near one of the commuter corridors, Nanaimo seems ok but I haven't used it myself.
I'm in the Cowichan Valley, and like I said all our routes seem to be big loops that go out to all the smaller communities and back to Duncan. The only way I see it being more effective with a similar amount of buses is if there was more of a direct highway route and/or a hub and spoke model. You could then put a local route in each community/ group of communities or even an on demand system if it's more rural. Obviously that's based on my area, but I can't imagine it's much different in many other small towns and spread out communities.
Sure I'd like free transit but, eh, if I had to choose between free and proper investment in bus priority, new bus services and new rail projects I'd pick that first, Vancouver's transit as it is is actually good enough worth paying for.
Since most fees are collected with contactless cards, there's not too much savings from eliminating fare gates. You don't really need to inspect fares often and you will still need safety staff across the system. Plus for TransLink and BCTransit you get the benefit of anonymous transit usage data and pathing, used for actual targeted service improvement rather than just advertising.
If it were free but buses and trains showed up 1/3 as often it's not worth it. I say instead just give out free and concession transit cards to the homeless and poverty line individuals, focus on housing too and focus on bringing more and better service all across Metro Van.
If it were free but buses and trains showed up 1/3 as often it’s not worth it.
I think free fare advocates aren't advocating for this hypothetical tradeoff, it's probably for increased funding to replace fare revenue
I guess. To clarify, if I also had to choose between maintaining existing service levels but free or prioritizing service expansion with an equivalent amount of funding I would also opt for the latter, except in cases where the cost of collecting the fare outpaces the benefits (like traffic data as I mentioned) or revenue recovery from it.
We need free transit to improve service and the loading times.
This will also help unhoused people and people with substance use disorders find work and get to services they need.
To help fund this foreign tourists should pay an entry tax depending how long they stay.
To help fund this foreign tourists should pay an entry tax depending how long they stay.
Hmm, I mostly agree with the rest of your comment but you lost me there.
Public transit should be nearly free - but I do think there's one main argument in favor of keeping it from being completely free - safety. Without a token charge, and with a lack of adequate shelters, busses are one of the most reliable shelters from weather and if folks flock to it to stay cool/dry/warm then it'll make it feel less safe especially for vulnerable folks including single women and the elderly.
We absolutely need to move beyond this dumbass neoliberal idea that public transit should be self funding, though.
That nominal charge seems useless to prevent that specific issue, a daily bus pass is $5 and you can literally just get one from someone who no longer needs it for the day. I've given mine away. Even just begging will get you bus fare very quickly.
I'd rather they do something like "everyone off" when they hit the end of their line, which I believe mostly already happens. That means that people can't setup on a single bus for multiple hours, but still allows homeless to warm up if they need it for a bit.
Also, I don't really care if something "feels'" less safe, I care if it is less safe. I haven't heard that busses are particularly dangerous for anyone other than the bus drivers lately, the cameras are all installed now, and police do respond pretty quickly when something goes wrong.
I would say in that case we should instead provide housing for all our vulnerable members of society with a round the clock healthcare team as they do in Finland. They got down to 4000 unhoused people recently.
As we could build 4 storey apartments under social housing to end homelessness in BC.
I do support building out social housing - Austria is an excellent example of how to do it well... but these houses don't exist yet so I have concerns about how public transit would be until they did - lowering the cost and adding more provincial funding today would help immediately.
Not sure why tourists should fund this, it's mostly locals that would benefit, but if that's what you want just tack a couple bucks onto the hotel fees to make it easy to handle.
Because they need to pay for their public transit use since they haven't been paying taxes in the province.
They do pay taxes in the province though...
Hotel taxes, sales taxes, income taxes on the wages of the people providing services to tourist, etc.
Tourism is one of the easiest injections of money possible into a local economy
A couple visiting for a week can easily spend $2,000+ on lodging, food, and activities.
can easily spend $2,000
Do you always do math based on 'could'? What's the tax rate on "we could win the lottery"?
I mean, there is actual data on this... it's easy enough to google.
28.2 Billion spent by 22.1 million international tourists in 2019 is $1276 per tourist for each trip. https://www.latmultilingual.com/blog/who-are-canadas-tourists-an-overview-of-the-top-tourism-markets-for-canada/
Tourists bring in a boatload of money. I'm not even sure how you would enact a mechanism like this... A BC toll taker at every port, airport and land crossing? How much are we charging to pay for that, that somehow doesn't hurt tourism industries but also completely subsidizes our use of public transit?
I love public transit, think it's important but this seems more one of those "things I would like but don't seem particularly feasible."
(Also, if you've ever been on the N20 or even BLine and watched a mentally unhinged man threatening women, children, non white people or other vulnerable people, well... Not wildly sure I want to drop the barrier to entry to zero. I can be a scary looking dude and have had to use that at least 3 times in the last year as someone experiencing mental issues went off on a quiet brown guy, a woman and some teens respectively.)
You’re thinking short term as more people would have access to work and healthcare services the less strain they will have on their mental health from being excluded.
That's a pretty bold leap. I'm pretty confident the guy screaming removed**removed on the street has bigger problems than the lack of free transit. (Also, if you've ever take a skytrain you'll notice how payment is rather optional for most folks with issues.)