My personal inflation rate will be a bit lower as of Jan. 2. On that date Metro Transit will extend the $1 senior fare to all hours. The exclusion of morning and evening rush hours, in place since the 1970s, will no longer apply.
I’m a senior, I use transit frequently, and I’m as willing to save a buck (actually, a buck and a half) as anyone. So I guess I should be happy about this. No more pressure to finish whatever I’m doing by 2:55 pm!
But I’m also interested in good public policy; this fails that test. The reduced fare for seniors is not because they are poor. Quite the opposite – the Boomers, and the generation before them, are the two most affluent generations ever. On average they possess far more wealth than the average taxpayer who will pay for this additional subsidy. Certainly, some seniors struggle financially, but they can qualify for reduced fares on the basis of their limited income.
For the rest of us, the only real public purpose in “buying down” our fares is to get us to make our trips early, late and in the middle of the day. It’s good public policy to shift a lot of trips from peak hours, when there is not enough capacity on the buses and trains, to the off-peak hours, when there is more capacity than is needed. Same idea as theaters with much lower prices in middle of the day.
By the way, I know that demand-shifting was the original idea of reduced fares for seniors. In the 1970s I lobbied at the Legislature for this policy. In those days, as a still twenty-something, it never occurred to me that I might be a senior myself someday.
