Metro’s Proposed Fare Increase Reveals

Deep Flaws in Transportation Funding

Key to making Los Angles more livable in terms of air quality and traffic congestion is an efficient public transit system. In Los Angeles County most people drive and elected officials spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to fix traffic and clean up the air. Fewer car trips means less pollution and less traffic, so getting people on public transit is an important part of the solution. And, despite our long love affair with the automobile, a lot of people in Los Angeles are taking public transit. In fact on the average weekday, people get on a bus or train over 1.3 million times each day. Assuming each transit user boards twice for each trip, that’s a reduction of 660,000 trips made by car, daily.

Last November, California voters passed a $19 billion transportation bond measure, but only $4 billion was for building better public transit and none was for operation costs for bus and rail. So it should come as no surprise that less than six months after voters approved billions to improve transportation and reduce congestion, Metro is struggling to balance their budget. A substantial fare will be levied on the people who are doing the most to tackle traffic and air quality problems – transit users.

Metro is caught in the squeeze of rising costs for new buses, fuel, labor and other expenses that have gone up over the years while neither fares nor the incomes of most bus and rail riders have gone up at all. Recently released from the consent decree with the Bus Riders’ Union, Metro is now proposing to more than double fares by 2009, with the first increase slated for July 2007.  Some of the fare increases are listed in the table below. 

So what does this sort of fare increase mean for Angelenos that use public transportation?  If you’re paying cash the fare increase won’t affect you that much because it will remain $1.25 per trip until 2009 when it increases by 75 cents.  But if you rely on public transit because you’re trying to reduce your carbon foot-print, you’re disabled, or you don’t own a car, you probably have a weekly or monthly pass.

For example, if you are a senior or disabled person who receives SSI ($812 per month) you barely have enough money for rent, let alone food and other necessities. The current cost of a monthly pass would require you to spend about 2% of your income on a monthly pass, but in July you would be spending about 3% and in 2009 you would be spending 7% of your income.

Suppose you are a single mom with two kids trying to hold it together with a $732/month CalWORKs check. Again, this is hardly enough money for rent and definitely not enough to have a car. Right now a pass at $52/month swallows about 7% of your scant monthly income. By 2009, it will cost $125 – a whopping 17% of your total monthly income. We just hope your landlord takes note and lowers your rent.

What if you work full time as a security guard making $10/hour? Now you set aside about 3% of your income to buy a $52 monthly pass. By 2009 the $125 monthly pass will consume over 7% of your paycheck. Security guards are going to need a substantial raise over the next two years to maintain their standard of living in the face of such a large fare increase.

We understand that Metro has to make hard choices to balance their budget, but we can’t help but believe that there is a better way than making our seniors shut-ins, leaving our welfare moms stranded with no way to get to work, or squeezing the lowest wage workers until they say “uncle.” It’s hard not to think that if more of that $19 billion or the billions of other state and federal highway subsidies went towards public transportation, perhaps we wouldn’t be facing a fare increase today. 

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