Villaraigosa Proposes Free Transit Week

According to a July 21st article in the LA Times, Mayor Atonio Villaraigosa has proposed that MTA look into the costs involved involved in providing a fare free week of public transit to the Los Angeles public in order to promote the system, increase ridership, and improve air quality.  The larger goal it seems is to convert current automoblie users into transit riders, as is evidenced from Villaraigosa’s letter to MTA CEO Roger Snoble:

“With high gasoline prices and continuing air quality challenges in the region, there is a golden opportunity to further promote transit usage throughout Los Angeles County.” -from CBS2.com

CBS2.com mentions that San Francisco had a similar program called “Spare the Air Days” that cost the San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Commission more that $7.5 million.

So the question is, is this a great idea to promote the public transit lifestyle in Los Angeles and increase ridership, or a massive waste of MTA’s dwindling funds?

I tend to lean towards the latter in this case.  Why?  Because $3 a day is very affordable. It’s not the money that is keeping car drivers off the buses and trains in Los Angeles.  They spend more than that a day on gas.  It’s NOT the issue.  The issue is that the system is seen as inconvenient, ineffective, and incomplete to them.  They’d rather suffer in traffic and gridlock than battle a system they feel is dirty, crowded, slow, and confusing.  A lot of their feelings are true.  I’d say for many people, the transit system may truly be more of an inconvenience.  Who’s to say that if an auto driver decides to ride public transit to work on “Free Transit Week” that his bus will be on time, have a seat for him, and get him where he needs to go in timely matter.  Because if it doesn’t do that, then no matter how cheap it is, it won’t be enough to keep him out of his car.  You could probably pay many people to ride the bus and they wouldn’t take it because the system simply doesn’t work for them.

On the other side of the coin is the perception issue.  Many automobile drivers simply perceive public transit as dirty, ineffective, and slow, when for them it may actually work out to be none of the above.   I know my trip to work from Downtown to Hollywood on the Red Line is fast, effective, clean, and even fun.  It’s nearly everything that public transit should be, and that driving a car is not.  I get picked up, taken somewhere, and dropped off right where I need to go for a paltry $3 a day.  It’s like magic when it works that well.  I’d pay $10 for that experience rather than sitting in traffic and searching for parking and trying my best to avoid certain doom at the hands of other drivers.  It’s not the money that matters to the people who aren’t transit dependent for financial reasons…it costs a lot to drive a car.  No, it’s the quality and the perception of quality of the public transit system that keeps drivers off of it.

A free week would be a nice gift for current public transit users (well those who haven’t already paid for monthly passes), but I think it will do very little to increase ridership on the system.  If three free days cost San Francisco $7.5 million, one can only imagine what a free week will cost Los Angeles.  I feel those millions are better spent on things that will go further to convert automobile drivers:  making the system better for their needs and improving their perception of public transit.  These two go hand-in-hand: as the system improves so will the perception.  A two prong attack is needed, with money being spent on improving effeciency, scheduling, and routing, as well as money being directed towards image, marketing, and advertising.   Only after those improvements have been made should any sort of “Free Transit Week” be considered, because only then will it work.