[rektide]

DC areas metro is facing a good 3/4 billion$ shortfall too, with federal support ending.

We have the added shitshow of being a metro system spanning three different states. No one wants to pay, no one feels responsible; it's a mess.

[killjoywashere]

I'm in DC today, come here regularly for business but live in the bay area, moved into bay area in August 2020. Can't imagine DC without the metro and heard just today they actually fixed the new cars during the pandemic, so net win here. Even before the pandemic the BART helped convince me to not live in the City.

[PaulHoule]

I love the DC Metro system. Last year my wife and I were invited to a graduation party in the suburbs and we stayed in a hotel a few blocks from the furthest out station and rode into the city to enjoy the National Mall and the shops and restaurants around Union square.

I used to go to conferences in downtown SF a lot and I would wind up riding the BART from SFO, I would always meet Europeans doing the same thing but all the other Americans I met would take the SuperShuttle or an Uber. I thought the BART was great.

I ride the bus from rural Tompkins County to Cornell, the one problem is that you have to plan your schedule around just a few trips, but it drops me off right by the cafe on the way to work, if I drove I’d have to spend another 15-20 min finding a parking space and walking to my office and might need to move my car mid day or pay for parking.

The bus has been in bad shape lately, we used to get a full size bus (often electric) now often it is a mini-bus, sometimes a mini-bus where 1/3 of the seats have been replaced by a wheelchair elevator that gets used once a month. A few years back there was a utopian proposal to not charge fares, it seems to have become a reality because some vendor screwed up and now 90% of the fare boxes are busted. I think the service is great but it surprises me how few people use it because it stops at some very transit friendly development.

[jandrese]

Yeah, but they just jacked up the prices to encourage ridership. So it should be all good now.

[ars]

I rode the DC metro with family because I was warned about parking and traffic in DC.

BIG MISTAKE! On the second day I took a car, and it took 1/3 the time, and 1/10 the cost EVEN with searching and paying for parking.

Public transit should be free.

[bombcar]

Farebox recovery is so damn low that I can only think the fares remain as an excuse to kick homeless and other undesirables off who aren’t technically breaking any rules or laws.

[Karrot_Kream]

It's a pretty new topic in the US and studies are being conducted on this. AC Transit recently did one (I can link it if there's interest.) Indeed, farebox recovery is low enough that one of the main arguments for fare enforcement is to kick problem riders off. This is most impactful for operators who have to deal with the passengers in a way we riders do not.

[bombcar]

I’ve always thought that issuing free passes to all appropriate taxpayers/residents would be a great way to go. Then you can raise the non pass price to soak those tourists!

[Karrot_Kream]

They're there! AC Transit runs a program called Clipper Start. The problem is, low income folks just don't take advantage of it, and it's (without further study) unclear why. This was identified during the session on fare enforcement and exactly as you say, there's interest in promoting it more heavily and trying to jack up the price on tourists or high-income leisure riders.

[jandrese]

As if the bums don't just jump the gate every time.

[hanslovsky]

I live in the burbs and barely ever take the metro into DC

[vanattab]

Lol I see what u did there! Nice try, but the metro does not span 3 states. It spans 2 states and a federal territory. Nice try though.

[bombcar]

DC is a state: of confusion, dismay, disarray.