I’m planning on taking the bus almost every day for at least a month, which is a first for me (cue claims of transit hypocrisy). This means I can actually buy a bus pass for once, which is something I’ve been coveting for a while. So today I searched to find out how much I’ll save with a bus pass. February will have new rates, so that’s $2 a way. Commuting every day, 5 days a week, with a trip a week replaced by another form of transportation (wife picking me up on her way elsewhere, or riding my bike if these sunny days keep going), that’ll be worth $64 to me. Looking into the bus pass to find out my savings it looks like it costs… $72?!
I suppose this comes with the benefit of exploring the city a bit on the bus, the reason I was excited about having the thing. And I won’t have to have a constant supply of $1’s (the huge benefit of raising the fare is removing all of those damn quarters). But I guess I’m a little bit disappointed that you really have to be a hard-core bus rider to benefit from the pass system.
Too bad you don’t have a UPASS. I pay 50 dollars for 3 months of unlimited travel on Metro, ST, CT and some others. It is a great program and it has been a national model of how large institutions can meet their transportation needs without building more parking (which is why the program first started).
With all this talk about fare structures I’m surprised no one mentioned the London system. They have “travelcards” which are good for all day or all day minus the morning peak. They cost seven or five p. The great thing is that if you have an oyster card you will never be charged more than the seven (and maybe 5) p a day. It takes all of the guesswork out of figuring out which system works best for you.
“Our aim is to ensure that Oyster always charges the lowest fare. Where it doesn’t, we will refund the difference.” – Transport for London website
With ORCA something like this is possible. I haven’t heard metro or ST talking about how riders will purchase the equivalent of the monthly pass with ORCA. The problem with monthly passes, which you found, is that monthly passes penalize people that don’t use the bus a lot, although on the flip side it is really good for people who use it a lot. Maybe you want to encourage people who have a monthly pass to take transit a lot, in which case that is fine but it is necessary to point out that this discourages semi-frequent riders from getting a monthly pass as well.
I think it is worth looking into a system like this for ORCA. Essentially everyone pays each time they use it but if they pay over some value in a day (week, month?) they aren’t charged for the additional trips. This value could be set by the current cost of a monthly pass. I don’t know how this would affect revenue but it certainly would make purchasing an ORCA even more attractive.
I love how the Oyster card works. I wonder if their ridership significantly increased once it was introduced. However they implement ORCA it will be easier than the current system (ah the time I’ve wasted in line at Bartell’s getting change…).
Yeah, it shouldn’t be like that. But it sucks being mini-transit planners like me or you and thinking about the best way to do things when almost everything is done on the cheap because of Metro’s funding problems and the still-raging battle of transit vs. roads in this region. It’s hard to imagine a reality when passes are discounted in the next few years, unfortunately.
But good point, and definitely something that should be addressed as Metro gets more stable.
-john jensen
It is sad. In NYC my LIRR rail pass saved me money based on 15 days of use for commuter trips. My pass in Munich also saved me money for similar usage. Even in Portland, OR my pass saved me money though I think the breaking point was higher than in NY and Munich. I have yet to get a Seattle Metro monthly pass because even as someone who doesn’t have a car, it doesn’t pay for me. I have lived in this area for almost 4 years now.
The silly thing is how Seattle’s transit infrastructure costs more to use and offers much less than Munich, Portland (OR) and NYC. Ah well.
I just always assumed that if I lived and worked in the city that I’d have a bus pass. It just seems like that’s how the world should work.
Yeah, most cities I’ve been in up north give you a substantial discount for buying a monthly pass, an bigger discount for an annual pass, and even give a discount for paying with tickets rather than cash. On the other hand, their cash fares are more like $3.
I’ve been buying passes for quite some time now and I figured that the pass is only beneficial if you plan on making more than 18 round trips per month. This still holds true for the $72 pass. 72/18=4=2 $2 peak fares. Commuting via bus everyday to work covers that, plus I always have bus fare for when I want to go out on the weekend or after work. Plus you won’t be one of those people that waits until they at the machine to even begin *searching* for the money. In the great wisdom of Jeanie Darcy, don’t get me started.
Exactly. A hard-core bus rider. But ride your bike to work twice a month and not travel elsewhere by bus, and you’re losing money.
So a bus pass will never work for me. Even in the coldest winter months there’s a good chance I’ll find another way home for more than two days. Now where did I put my change?