My county is doubling fares on its on-demand transit. What should I do? (Video)

Danny from Florida asks, "This morning I got word that our local on-demand transit is going to double fares over the next 2 years, cutting ridership by 30%-50% and the county commission seems fine with that. I'm going to be digging hard to come up with data, persuasions, etc to present to the public transit commission and the county commissioners at about 5 meetings in the next 3 weeks. Any hints, tips, resources toward this are greatly appreciated." 

We discussed this with Danny during our Office Hours session and hope that you find the discussion to be helpful. 

More Resources on this Topic

• Greg Sund of Trinidad, CO made an excellent point that: 
  Transit is an easy target in budgeting because it almost never pays for itself without subsidy.  Hence, when elected officials have a desire to require all services to pay for themselves does not work for transit.  Consider the comparison of saying public safety should also pay for itself.  I seriously doubt that the public or elected officials want police to be on a profit motive.
  
  
• https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/tag/transit
  
  
• https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/2/10/yes-this-is-transit
  
  
• This is pretty specific to 2020 and the pandemic's impact on transit ridership but it's got enduring things to sayhttps://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/5/11/the-only-thing-more-expensive-than-saving-transit-is-not-saving-transit
  
  
• https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/10/4/suburban-comma-transit
  
  
• https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/21/the-folly-of-go-big-or-go-home-transit
  
  
• https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/7/5/the-fourth-virtue-of-public-transit
  
  
• Different city context but here's something on what it takes to advocate: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/6/27/danny-pearlstein-bottom-up

Do you have thoughts on this topic? Add your input in the comments below or join the discussion in the community forum!

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