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For many years, that was the reduced Metro bus fare for any senior or person with qualifying disabilities, on any ride, at any time of day or night.
Seven years ago, the senior fare during morning and evening peak travel hours was doubled to 50 cents. Off-peak fares were still two dimes and a nickel.
Effective July 1, two dimes and a nickel, peak or off-peak, will be history. All senior fares will be 50 cents.
Half a dollar. Not much to your average Wall Street banker. For us low-budget seniors, the increase is just the latest chiseling reduction in our standard of living.
Seniors aren’t the only riders paying higher fares. On March 1, adult peak and off-peak fares increased by 25 cents. On July 1, youth fares will increase from 50 cents to 75 cents, and the price of Metro passes will also rise.
To be fair, we give you Metro’s rationalization for the increase:
“During the past several years, Metro Transit has taken steps to offset rising costs and hold fares steady. This effort has limited Metro’s ability to keep up with increasing demand for transit services, and it is affecting the on-time performance of bus service. The fare increase will raise $11.7 million in additional revenue annually and allow Metro to maintain and improve the reliability and dependability of its system…. Since the most recent fare increase, bus operating costs have increased by 37 percent.”
From the standpoint of Metro officials, fare hikes were justified and inevitable.
From the standpoint of the average rider — senior, youth, or in between — the new fare hikes are just one more regressive tax added to what has long been the most regressive tax system in the U.S.
If you ride the buses, you know the people I’m talking about. People headed for low-wage jobs, too poor to own a car (or to fill the gas tank, if they do own one); students traveling to school; and seniors, looking for shopping bargains, or headed to a doctor’s appointment, to visit relatives or friends — or just to get away from household loneliness.
These are people prepared to endure long, often cold waits at bus stops; standing-room-only rides; and the occasional drunk or loudmouth or mentally troubled hallucinator among the passengers.
They endure all this because they need to get somewhere, and cab fare is for the well-to-do.
You see them in stocking caps and baseball hats, worn coats and sweaters, and broken-down tennis shoes. Very few “suits” ride Metro. You see the wheelchairs, and you thank Metro for equipping every coach with a lift. You watch as the infirm elderly negotiate those impossibly high steps and fumble in their side pockets for passes or coins.
Two dimes and a nickel — versus half a dollar.
Slice it any way you like, it’s another step backward. |
