Wow these are the same people I ride the bus/MAX with? amazing insights, folks.

SRs two cents.

How much does Trimet get from the fares anyway? How much does Trimet spend enforcing fares?

I would like to see the numbers discussed more frequently. Has anyone proposed a payroll tax of $X an employee for employers in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties? Add on a yearly hotel tax of X per room and just make the whole system fareless. Use the money spent on enforcing the fares and maintaining the fare machinery for security guards, better cameras etc. No fares means faster loading and unloading as well.

At the very least the system should be free for students though high school age.

stats and costs for trimet:
http://trimet.org/pdfs/ridership/busmaxstat.pdf

Wow Merc, I think you set the record for the most hoboes used in "news" report.

I want turnstiles. And keep fareless right where it is, all hours, thank you very much.

Well I didnt realize that your video was already posted.

OF COURSE YOU ASKED THE PEOPLE WHO USE FARELESS SQUARE, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY WILL SAY?

How about the rest of the trimet riding public, don't you think they should have a say in this too?

Look closer Al - some of the stops where people were surveyed were outside of Fareless Square.

So in Fiscal Year 06 rider fares brought in $67,542,814. If the Fare Recovery Rations means what I thinks they means from the limited footnotes, those fares made up for 24.9% of the costs of paying for the systems and 31.8% of the operations costs. So the fares make up a pretty high percentage of the costs of running Tri-Met. Not quite clear how much of those operating costs involve the fare scheme itself.

The report says that each ride is subsidized to the tune of $1.51 per ride and the passengers pay a total of $0.71 per ride. Assuming there are a million people working in the Portland Metropolitan Area (which would include Vancouver) then that means $67.00 a year would pay for the fare difference. Considering we already subsidize rides, and pay more for roads anyway, I'd rather have the government take each person in the metro area each year and make the system fareless. Or at least down to a nominal $0.25 charge. It's still a lot cheaper than paying for monthly passes.

amazing, yall have funny jokes and shit, but whenever you try and do anything serius it looks pathetic.

that rap music is so tacky, let me guess, the videographer grew up in the suburbs, and did the whole piece for less than 50 bucks? or was he paid at all?

Was, you obviously have nothing to add to this conversation or any other. Move along.

What is it with the internet trolls on this site? They're like herpes. (Herpes that can't spell.)

AMY GIVE ME A BREAK!

you need a better cross section of people than this!

I have plans to ride the fareless square with a pal of mine from another blog and do an inside look at this issue.

Nice try Amy but it doesn't wash!

BTW;

If they succeed in curtailing fareless square after 7pm what they have succeeded in doing is absolutely singling out the poor and homeless.

As we all know, not all poor and homeless are law breakers, just like all white collar workers are not law breakers.

BUT, if they do put a stop to JUST fareless after 7pm then what they are effectively saying is that everybody who is not employed in a business in downtown cannot ride fareless anymore.

NOW THAT’S DISCRIMINATION!

They need to do this fairly, END FARELESS SQUARE, for everybody, right now.

Come up with some sort of “downtown” ticket, say for 50 cents.

Or even better yet, scrap the whole absurd fare structure and charge everybody a buck for a ride, comes with one transfer good on one bus only.

Is that such a difficult concept for Trimet officials to grasp?

Careful there, Al, you're starting to make a bit of sense.

very funny blog junkie;

you folks might be interested in viewing my latest production regarding security:

http://amargul.blogspot.com/2007/12/do-we-need-more-security.html

and don't you folks get all in a huff over my video either by attempting to say that I am some sort of a racist.

I DIDN'T WRITE THE SCRIPT;

thats a verbatim copy and paste from how the information was sent to me!

You know what they say about protesting too much, Al.

Trolls are a sign you're pushing people.

Like the concept of "word on the street" video reporting and hope to see more of it from the Merc but the execution needs some help:
1. Better sound editing please. It was difficult to hear and understand through all the background noise and soundtrack.
2. Others are spot on, you need a better cross section of the population including those OUTSIDE of fairless square to make this have any sort of relevance.
3. Edit some of the people out, seriously did mumbly and inarticulate guy/girl number (fill in the blank) really add any interesting or different perspective from the others?

Interesting idea though.

my two cents.
the violence everyone is responding to is in the burbs, not downtown. if the thought is that people are getting on downtown and riding out to the burbs to do this then cut them off at the pass and hire more fare inspectors and transit security (I see fare inspects maybe once every three or four months and even then only about half the time are they asking for fares).
trying to spin this in to a way for trimet to make more money (getting rid of the square) is just silly. prove you need more money after you have fixed the problem.
trimet threatening fareless square may do what potter never could, drive diverse elements to be allies. the pba, advocates for the homeless, the city, all have vested interests in keeping fareless square.
better yet, scratch all of the above... how about as citizens we all take a bit more responsibility and a few minutes out of our busy life and ask the kid sporting the baseball bat where he is going to go play at. we as a society have gone to far down the path of ignoring problems because they dont directly effect us.

I'm not sure how Trimet managed to change a discussion about a rise of crime in Gresham and other 'burbs into a discussion of fareless square. But I'll bite.

I think it should be renamed Less Fare Square and the rate should be in a currency unit that's simple to carry around, like a quarter. (so people don't feel screwed if they don't have exact change). Perhaps a token can be used as well to facilitate voucher systems for people who need that.

I'm pretty stuck on what to do about securing the MAX stations. The openness of them makes them feel so much more approachable but that doesn't mean much with the crime levels. Turnstiles and walls and fences are so ugly. I think they just need to start securing their damn trains with REAL cops, it's not that hard.

Bus drivers I've talked to seem happy about limiting the fareless square or doing away with it entirely. Whereas I'm a student who enjoys riding the MAX downtown without paying and then hopping on a free bus to take me to PSU. I feel that the new procedures under consideration - such as installing ticket turnstiles at MAX stations, and eliminating free rides downtown - would unfairly discriminate against those who have until now (illegally) gotten along perfectly fine without paying any fare at all.

“the violence everyone is responding to is in the burbs, not downtown.”

See my response to this:

http://amargul.blogspot.com/2007/12/stop-slandering-gresham.html
-----------------------------

“how about as citizens we all take a bit more responsibility and a few minutes out of our busy life and ask the kid sporting the baseball bat”

Well that’s a lovely idea;

IF YOU LIVE IN MAYBERRY!
--------------------------------
“I'm not sure how Trimet managed to change a discussion about a rise of crime in Gresham and other 'burbs into a discussion of fareless square.”

All the issues are up right now. Fareless square makes a joke out of homeland security, which btw, is a joke anyway.

Look I drive Fareless square, its really not doing much to promote Portland Business, believe me. It needs to be eliminated. Get some sort of downtown pass going, or 50 cents, anything will do. People need a stake in the system, American’s do not value free.
````````````````````````````
“I'm pretty stuck on what to do about securing the MAX stations.”

All they really needed to do is put in MONITORED VIDEO CAMERAS on all the max stations, but nooooo, they wont do that.

Who knows why??
``````````````````````
“Whereas I'm a student who enjoys riding the MAX downtown without paying and then hopping on a free bus to take me to PSU.”

Well of course you like that, I WOULD TOO!
What TRIMET should do is allow college student to purchase youth passes, instead of limiting that only to high school and younger
`````````````````````
and off topic, your paper really does have the best internet ads!

http://amargul.blogspot.com/2007/12/passengers-say-keep-fareless-square.html

Interesting that nobody's officially asked me, and I say do away with Fareless. I'm tired of being harassed by the panhandlers that think people riding a bus in downtown is a wonderful captive audience of people paying $76/mo. for this kind of harassment.
Additionally, several of the colleges and universities in the area have their own bus pass programs that are heavily discounted, provided that having a pass that expires at the end of the term and being on your own (having another pass and/or paying cash) during the breaks in between works for you.

I think we should get rid of fareless square, but the most of the fare paying passengers I polled said keep it.

I hate to admit it, but the MERCURY IS RIGHT!

Mr. Bayer,
What did you expect from a source like Street Roots, which represent transients? There's a little bit of conflict of interest, doncha think?

This is just a sad case of rest of people having to suffer to eliminate drain on the society. Drug dealers don't contribute to the economy of the society. Transients don't contribute to the property tax that goes towards in any way.

What we need is sworn officers who can enforce law like Translink GVTA Canada's fare inspectors and terms of use requiring all rider to have a valid ID.

This would create an opportunity to legally arrest transients and hooligans with outstanding warrants on the spot and discourage those with warrants from even riding it in the first place. It's not entirely uncommon for transients to have outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court, defaulted citations, etc.

Mr. Barbour,
Perhaps, we need an ordinance prohibiting panhandling on transit property? If the police goes on to take actions on their own, the homeless advocates will whine about targeting. Instead, if people like you called-in a complaint to the police everytime this happens, they're not selectively targeting them, they're fulfilling their obligation to respond to complaints.

Mr. LeTigre,
You're quite right such would unfairly discriminate against residents and property owners of the Tri-county area who contribute to the property tax directly/indirectly that goes towards Tri-Met cost, as well as travelers, that contributes to the economic growth of Portland.

What the heck are outlaws and transients doing on our transit system, panhandling and causing others discomfort on a system mostly paid for by our tax money anyhow?

If you're a resident in Tri-Met service zone, you're paying for their operating expenses through taxes, so you're contributing to it even if you can ride for free in current fareless square.

What if any, benefit do these transients have to offer for the riders of Tri-Met?

speaking of transit; check out my latest video production: PIN HEADS OF PORTLANDTRANSPORT;

http://amargul.blogspot.com/2007/12/pin-heads-of-portland-transportcom.html