Submitted by jim karlock on Sun, 09/03/2006 - 8:10pm.
Jason McHuff If you really believe that the city was acting in bad faith, that the disired fare increase was normal and that Rosy was in good health to coninue on, PLEASE provide evidence. JK: Why don’t you provide some evidence.
Jason McHuff From all that I've seen, transit companies including Rosy were going downhill and the city saw the writing on the wall. JK: Transit starting going downhill in the twenties because transit is less useful than cars. Tat does not change the fact that the city refused a fare increase and that resulted in Rosy going under.
In addition, you claim that "Trimet gets under 20% of its revenue from users. If users had to pay their real cost that $1.95 all zone ticket would cost $9.75" What about all of the monthly pass, discounted fare, Fareless Square, etc. use that greatly lowers the avg. revenue/ride?
Jason McHuff How do you know that $1.95 really represents 20% of the revenue? JK: That is the number I had - would you rather I used their lowest published regular pass: two zone, annual = $693. Multiply that by 5 and you get $3465 per year. Three years of this and you could have bought a brand new car. A couple more years at $3465/year and you probably pay for all gas and insurance. (the car comes with 5 year warranty) The same conclusion holds: Trimet is as/more expensive than owning a car. If you choose a car that gets 29mpg or better you will save energy too (compared to a bus)
BTW 20% (I rounded this from 19 something) is the number that TriMet gave to the TSCC, a local government watchdog agency. See: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/orgs/tscc/
Jason McHuff If you really
Jason McHuff If you really believe that the city was acting in bad faith, that the disired fare increase was normal and that Rosy was in good health to coninue on, PLEASE provide evidence.
JK: Why don’t you provide some evidence.
Jason McHuff From all that I've seen, transit companies including Rosy were going downhill and the city saw the writing on the wall.
JK: Transit starting going downhill in the twenties because transit is less useful than cars. Tat does not change the fact that the city refused a fare increase and that resulted in Rosy going under.
In addition, you claim that "Trimet gets under 20% of its revenue from users. If users had to pay their real cost that $1.95 all zone ticket would cost $9.75" What about all of the monthly pass, discounted fare, Fareless Square, etc. use that greatly lowers the avg. revenue/ride?
Jason McHuff How do you know that $1.95 really represents 20% of the revenue?
JK: That is the number I had - would you rather I used their lowest published regular pass: two zone, annual = $693. Multiply that by 5 and you get $3465 per year. Three years of this and you could have bought a brand new car. A couple more years at $3465/year and you probably pay for all gas and insurance. (the car comes with 5 year warranty) The same conclusion holds: Trimet is as/more expensive than owning a car. If you choose a car that gets 29mpg or better you will save energy too (compared to a bus)
BTW 20% (I rounded this from 19 something) is the number that TriMet gave to the TSCC, a local government watchdog agency. See: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/orgs/tscc/
Thanks
JK