Magazine serving the bus and rail transit & motorcoach operations since 1904
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E-NEWS Visit metro-magazine.com to sign up for our University Transit e-newsletter. 4 < m ETRO m AGAZINE JUNE 2014 metro-magazine.com on the web metro-magazine.com News, blogs, videos, photo galleries, job postings and more… — ED PARK Improving the fare equation Contributor Paul Mackie, communications director at Mobility Lab, submitted a blog written by Adam Davidson that posed the question 'What if we sold transit fares like cell phone minutes?' COMMENTS Marcia Ferranto is President/CEO of WTS International. Blog topic: Advancing women in transportation: Closing the gender gap Dave Walsh is Project Manager for Sellen Sustainability, a Seattle-based consulting frm. Blog topic: How transit agencies can make existing maintenance facilities more efcient Louie Maeillo is a Sr. Consultant, L-3 / DPA Independent Consultant, Bus Talk Surface Transit Solutions Blog topic: Training bus documentation … Focus on the facts L.A. Metro Recently posted videos include the only known footage of the historic opening of Los Angeles' Union Station, which recently celebrated its 75th Anniversary. The footage was shot by Ward Kimball, an animator for Walt Disney Studios. (Have a video you'd like us to post? Let us know at info@metro-magazine.com) ADA requires the senior and disabled fare set at half the adult fare, and Title VI has many limitations on what fares you can charge to what market segments. When private market approaches are applied to government systems, a lot of times, they fail to appreciate why government runs the program and not the free market. For d e c a d e s , t h e gove r n m e n t s u b s i d i ze d p r i va t e - a u t o t rave l , m a k i n g i t n e a r l y impossible for those unable to drive to get a r o u n d t o w n , h e n c e s u b s i d i z e d b u s p ro g ra m s we re n e ce s s a r y t o p rov i d e mobility for them. Trying to maximize profts in the transit industry is easy; you stop ofering rides to EVERYONE. Transit operates at a loss, as it is the necessary adjunct of the private car subsidy industry that allows everyone to live far from w o r k a n d e v e r y t h i n g e l s e i n c h e a p , subsidized suburban and now ex-urban areas. Furthermore, using minutes or even better mileage counters means customers need to tap in and out. What happens if they don't tap out when they leave the bus? Do they get penalized? We want to eliminate inconvenience, and forcing customers to tap out in addition to tapping in, and the possibility of financial penalty for not t a p p i n g o u t , wo u l d h i n d e r r i d e r s h i p. Technology is not yet there but is coming with proximity cards where you don't even have to take the card out of your wallet. Then, we can charge by mileage, which would be similar to private cars. CONTRIBUTORS VIDEOS To read postings from our other contributing bloggers and to submit your comments, go to metro-magazine.com/blog To read postings from our other contributing Become a contributing blogger. Email us at info@metro- magazine.com . Featured bloggers: T h i s c o u l d b e y o u twitter.com/METROmagTweet facebook.com/MetroMag pinterest.com/metromagazine.com metro-magazine.com/googleplus FOLLOW US