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Welcome to Friday, Washington. More reactions to the Metro Board's proposed fare hikes this morning, as The Examiner quotes the chairman of Metro's Riders Advisory Board claiming he'll be switching to driving from Rockville to Rosslyn at least two days a week if the increases go into effect. Do the proposed fare hikes make you think you'll change your commuting habits?
Operator Error Blamed in Track Deaths: Another report about a terrible Metro accident from the National Transportation Safety Board has been released, and the agency found that the operator of a Yellow line train that hit and killed two Metro employees a year ago did not follow proper procedure while operating the train, and lied to federal investigators about being on her cellphone and when she hit the emergency brake.
Hispanic Immigrants Targeted by Robbers: There have a been a string of violent attacks and robberies targeting Hispanic immigrants in the metro area, and the Post has a big story this morning looking at what's happening overall. Called "amigo shopping" by some, Hispanics are targets because they are assumed to be illegal and therefore thought to carry cash rather than use banks and to be reluctant to report crimes to police.
Briefly Noted: Pepco and Turkish Embassy locked in a billing dispute ... One man dies, another is hospitalized in series of unrelated overnight shootings ... D.C. sees rise in avoidable hospitalizations ... D.C. Schools ombudsman recruited from review panel.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we took a look at the D.C. government's new online crime map and in 2005 we teased Metro for trying to add a line to a Nicole Kidman film to try to make sure people know you're not allowed to hop the fare gates.
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Now if Econ 101 taught me anything; if there is a delince in demand for Metro (beacuse of the hike)then there will be a increase demand for parking. Since there is a limmited supply of parking spaces, one can only assume that the price for parking will also increase.
Outrage about fare hikes seems a bit ridiculous. We all know about inflation; we see it everyday when we buy our milk. We know energy prices are going up when we pay our electric bills and continue to pay more at the pump. Metro though needs to continue to operate on the same income level per person as it has for the past how many years?
Electric companies don't hold back price increases because of consumer outrage at the increases and neither do dairy farmers. They might phase in the increases over time but they can't continually operate at a lose like metro has been doing. Why should public transportation be any different from public utilities. If they were smart they'd at least have an annual or bi-annual price adjustment to at least keep pace with inflation.
No I don't want to pay more either, but I understand the reality of increasing costs.
RJ-I assume you mean private parking lots. We've seen how hard it is for Metro to raise parking prices, I'm sure it's equally hard for the city to raise prices on meters.
Seriously though, this is what is bound to happen when you don't have flexible pricing for metro (i.e. inflation pegged). You have to wait until you're in an untenable situation, by which point people are all loving the fact that their real cost of public transport has been steadily declining over the last several years, and then they complain a whole lot when their it shoots up overnight. If the fares automatically went up 2-3% about the time people got their cost-of-living increases, then we wouldn't have this ridiculous process.
Sure it's more expensive for consumers, they don't get the gradual discount. But it's better for metro, and we all love metro right?
The appointment of Tonya Vidal Kinlow as D.C. Schools ombudsman is brilliant. Ms. Kinlow is articulate, sensitive and knowledgeable. At last, some good news from DC Schools.
I'd be interested to see what Metro's prices look like when adjusted for inflation. If there is ever a downward trend, then we could consider ourselves lucky; however, I am more likely to believe that the price of a ride has an overall upward trend.
Real costs might mean something to economists, but the layperson only sees a steady price with periodic large increases. Most people probably don't even equate the increases with inflation, but rather increased operating costs or reduced financial efficiency. Point being, making the case to the general public involves dealing with people's emotional reactions, not economic theory.
WHAT ABOUT A MONTHLY PASS. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS METRO SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT ABOUT A MONTHLY PASS. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS METRO SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!
Krisa,
That was my point. Psychologically, emotionally, people have a harder time swallowing big increases. So peg that s to inflation!
IDG,
Heard somewhere that the original fare in 1976 was $0.50. What would equate to $1.81 in 2006.
Oh my fucking christ that Examiner article is biased, particularly for suburban riders.
"Huge fare hikes"
The word hike is already pretty value-ladden. The word "huge" has no place in a newspaper unless it is entirely undebatable.
"forced the large parking increase by refusing to go along with any plans to raise bus fares more than a dime"
You can practically hear the Imperial March being played over a photo of Jim Graham.
"Graham’s victory, however, could spark thousands of Metro passengers to quit the system and drive to work from their suburban roads, clogging roads that already are among the nation’s most congested."
This is just alarmist and stupid. For one, how many "thousands" (and where did these numbers come from)? You could have "thousands" of people and it would be statistically insignificant to the hundreds of thousands of daily commuters.
And even if it were significant, the statement then goes on to say that congestion is already terrible. So presumably it would get worse, which this writer doesn't conceive could lead to more people taking the Metro.
What this writer doesn't understand, or won't admit, is that Metro has a lot of these suburban residents by the balls. Sure, some might be right on the edge between driving and metroing, and a $30-$50 monthly increase would push them over, but I'm willing to bet most are not really that close to it, despite their "I'm just going to take my toys home" bluster.
BART in the Bay Area switched to an automatic price hike based on inflation every two years. This has been good for a couple reasons -- it keeps the price from making enormous jumps every 5 years or 10 years, and it keeps some of the politics out the equation. It becomes just an automated fact.
As for the Metro Riders Advisory board statement. I can't imagine a more hellish commute via car than Rockville to Rosslyn. I wonder how long he'll keep that up. Although perhaps he's already lost his sanity and this is just further evidence.
Fuck Turkey. What, do they think they are protected from paying up by diplomatic immunity?