Transit Sleuth

Ok, not really.  As anyone in the know around the transportation industry knows, nothing fully pays directly for itself, even the famed auto mode.  So fare increases are coming that will cover a bit more of the multi-million dollar overruns TriMet has had to deal with.

But I digress, it appears that the $4.00 gas wasn't budgeted for by TriMet, not that I would have expected them to.  Instead they had budgeted $2.31 and now need to trigger a fare increase again.  They're actually looking at a rather substantial increase this time, instead of the normal nickel increase, which is a grand 0.20 - 0.25 cents!

I suppose our grand fares of $2.05 will not go to either $2.25 - $2.30 then, and figure the same for single zone tickets of $1.75 currently would hit $1.95-$2.00.  I personally have no issue with this, it seems exceptionally simple and straight forward enough to cover the cost and is still a negligible increase.

Overall though, a base fare of $1.75 is a bit steep though for a single zone trip.  If one looks at the fares of yesteryear vs. today we're getting close to ruining transit for short trips.  In all reality, transit is only good for truly short trips (< 2-5 miles).  If one exceeds that consumption of time generally becomes massive without express service.  Considering that transit is good primarily for short trips one would think the fare would be oriented for that, but in contrast $1.75 currently is oriented for 3+ mile trips, often not a "deal" by transit standards until someone hits mile number 4. 

So why do we not have a fare for the short trips?  Maybe we could get rid of the damnable fare-less square and just have dollar trips?  The amount of money that could be raised from that could be extensive.  It would absolutely cover the absurd costs of the additional fuel increases.  At a dollar we could almost pay the operations of the streetcar too.  It would be nice to literally state that the streetcar covers operations.

But in the end, it is sad, and Portland, TriMet, Metro, and the population of this fair city doesn't seem to care or think the moral honesty and integrity inherit in users paying their own respective fees for what they use and do would be a good thing.  I still have no honest grasp of this corruptive mentality, but it stands as is.  With that I'll be watching for that price increase to come down the pipe, and only because it's more efficient for the urban lifestyle I lead, I'll keep using transit with the hopes that it becomes an honest business again one day!