Pay Your Fare Portland!

Should transit be free in Portland? In my humble opinion, a resounding HELL NO!

You'll rarely hear an argument "for" it from transit operators who deal with hordes of freeloaders who cause the most trouble on our rides. Any service so vital to any economy's success depends upon a public invested in its operation. Once you remove the requirement of payment, you also send a message that respect of said service is no longer necessary.

The most simple reason: nobody respects free. Nothing good should ever come without a price. The majority of Portlanders pay their transit fare. It's a very inexpensive and efficient way to travel around our city. For over seven years, the $2.50 fare for two-and-a-half hours or $5.00 for an entire day ticket has not risen. Compare that to the price of a home, which has skyrocketed where Portlanders' income has remained less than the rate of inflation. Not only that, with the new "tap" fare system, once a passenger has reached a certain number of rides, their transit becomes free for the remainder of the month. This means that an adult paying full-fare can ride every day of each month, 24-hours a day, for $100. That's the price of a paltry few Uber rides from the airport to the outer reaches of our service area. Pretty damn good value for about $3 a day. Just owning a personal vehicle costs anywhere from $200-$750-plus every month when you factor in car payments, gas, maintenance, parking and insurance.

This has to be one of the most ridiculous proposals I've heard since I began driving bus. For once, even management agrees this is a terrible idea. (For management and Deke to agree on something, it must be a ludicrous, at best, proposal.) When I first became a bus operator, downtown Portland was known as "Fareless Square". This was discontinued in 2012 as the national economy's recession and a $12 million budget deficit necessitated its timely death. Turning the entire metro area into a free-fare zone would benefit the tiniest percentage of ridership while penalizing the majority of a largely-decent passenger population.

The value of transit rests mostly with transit operators and maintenance/supervisor staff who are intensely-trained professionals where ride-for-hire drivers (and most private motorists) usually are not. It's an easy trade off: ride with one who is trained with your safety in mind, or spend considerably more on someone who likely has no professional training whatsoever. Ride transit and ease yourself in and out of a workday without the hassle of traffic, finding a place to park and other considerations the typical motorist deals with daily.

The vast majority of passengers faithfully pay their fare. The proposed "free fare" is a terrible idea. Those who advocate for free transit insist that only 11-15% of Portland transit's budget is paid for by fares, yet fail to compensate how much impact losing that seemingly-small income would have. First, eliminate fares and how will that revenue stream be replaced? Oregon has one of the most-heavily taxed workforces in the nation. We are already paying a transit tax, even those of us who provide the service. Will the state increase this tax (not approved by its citizenry) to make up for revenues lost by free fare? The federal government, when it's not passing laws to weaken unions representing most blue-collar professions, is constantly looking for ways to cut expenditures as it lowers tax rates on those who already pay the least: the richest of the rich. Like it or not, your free fare will have to be paid by someone, and I'll lay heavy odds on it being our further burden to bear.

Kansas City recently decided to go "free fare". Their system provided its citizens with just over 13.5 million rides in 2015. In comparison that year, Portland bus transit boarded over 65 million passengers. Perhaps a smaller system can find alternative means of funding. Imagine New York City losing revenue in fare from their 775 million annual riders? It's impossible, at best, to even consider.

Whenever I've had trouble pop up on my transit ride, it's usually one who fails to pay fare. Why should we encourage people to increase disruption of a normally-peaceful ride by doing away with fare altogether? In a transit system as large and complex as Portland's, where over 300,000 people ride daily, fare accounts for about a million(?) dollars a day. Considering a full tank of fuel for one bus costs hundreds of dollars and there are 600+ buses on the road during rush hour, where do the "free fare" advocates think we'll raise the deficit resulting from this loss of revenue? Will it magically appear, or drop freely out of our rainy skies? Given the amount of human waste my maintenance brothers and sisters routinely have to scrub out of our buses, that's commensurate with the value "free fare" would create for local transit.

I foresee "tent cities" moving from the streets to our buses and trains if this proposal is approved. Transit workers will be put under more stress and subject to even more attacks. If automation ever becomes a reality, it's the decent, hard-working Portlander who becomes the victim of fareless foolishness. Many of whom I've queried say they would find another means of transit if humans are replaced by automation. Then, transit would see less ridership, and therefore less federal funding.

In my opinion, fare should be doubled given its rising value. It would still remain the most economical transportation option. So yeah, free fare advocates, NO to your idea.

Do I sound heartless? I'm not. I've been homeless myself, once upon a time. Still, I paid for everything I needed, a working taxpayer every day. Back then, there was no excuse for being slovenly. My trash found its way into a perfectly-legal receptacle... not strewn about the municipality in which I chose to live.

We deal with the poorest of the poor on a daily, hourly, almost minute-to-minute basis. Yes, you can ride "at your own risk". Sure, the tired lie of "I lost my pass" allows you a ride. It's raining hard, you are cold and have nowhere else to go, and you're welcome to ride if you behave yourself. Still, we are often treated to your mentally-ill based tantrums, hassling of fare-paying regular passengers, and demands for courtesy stops where it is not safe to do so. We're ridiculed, attacked, threatened and constantly disrespected with increasing regularity.

Operations and management have enough issues to deal with already, without trying to implement a needless, expensive giveaway in such an economically-vital service to our community.

Sorry, but Portland, just pay your fare. It's the right thing to do.