this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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Sure I'd like free transit but, eh, if I had to choose between free and proper investment in bus priority, new bus services and new rail projects I'd pick that first, Vancouver's transit as it is is actually good enough worth paying for.
Since most fees are collected with contactless cards, there's not too much savings from eliminating fare gates. You don't really need to inspect fares often and you will still need safety staff across the system. Plus for TransLink and BCTransit you get the benefit of anonymous transit usage data and pathing, used for actual targeted service improvement rather than just advertising.
If it were free but buses and trains showed up 1/3 as often it's not worth it. I say instead just give out free and concession transit cards to the homeless and poverty line individuals, focus on housing too and focus on bringing more and better service all across Metro Van.
I think free fare advocates aren't advocating for this hypothetical tradeoff, it's probably for increased funding to replace fare revenue
I guess. To clarify, if I also had to choose between maintaining existing service levels but free or prioritizing service expansion with an equivalent amount of funding I would also opt for the latter, except in cases where the cost of collecting the fare outpaces the benefits (like traffic data as I mentioned) or revenue recovery from it.