This is in response to the LAist article - Why free public transit is also climate just? And it is not a critique of the article or its writer but about the notion of this being some form of justice let alone climate justice. I write this as someone who certainly cannot say I have experienced being poor. However, I ride a lot of public transit and including once or twice week for 2 hours each way and this has nothing to do with how inefficient or hard I find it for myself. Lets first dispense with the notion free transit is economically beneficial to the working poor or at least the most important thing they might want.
Average commute speed via public transit including walking, transfer and waiting - 10 mi/hour
Average commute speed via private car - 30 mi/hour
Time to travel 20 miles via public transit - 2 hours
Time to travel 20 miles via private car - 0.67 hours
Savings in fuel and maintenance and depreciation = $0.40 per mile* 20 miles = $ 8
Savings in parking cost = $5
Ticket fare = $2
Avoided cost by taking public transit = $8 +$5 - $2 = $11
Excess travel time = 1.33 hours
Minimum wage above which savings in time is worth more than savings in driving cost
= $11/1.3 hours
=$8.7 per hour
Basically, if you make more than $9, which is 40% below the $15.5 minimum wage in LA taking public transit is costlier unless you do it for some other non-monetary benefit. If we assume people are rational, this means no one who is riding transit is doing it because they like it and if they like it like myself, they would much rather it be costlier in exchange for quicker, cleaner and safer. Of course, based on the assumptions if I am more generous, I can make public transit worth while even up to $16 per hour but you get the point that it is for the poor at least in LA.
So why do people take transit then?
- They are not eligible to get a license
- They are poor and cannot afford a car
- Public transit is the most convenient or for the sake of the environment - They dont like to drive -avoid stress from traffic, finding parking, they can do other things while not having to focus on the road
The first two dont have a choice and asking them to help the environment (not literally asking of course) and the rest of us piggy-backing on their hardship to reduce emissions so we could emit more is cruel. The third group do it anyway and not for the cost. So who is really going decide to switch from driving to public transit just for the savings in ticket fare. And if they are, they likely are not doing the necessary and correct calculations. People who ride public transit are like the people who are waiting to migrate to America or Europe from the south. They are just waiting to be able to afford a car. I would rather the poor ride a car and save precious time wasted on public transit while earning low wages and commuting long distances.
Dont get me wrong, by all means use public transit and we should do a lot lot more to get people to ride it and ditch cars. I go so far as to say, public transit agencies should not be expected to make profit but to maximize ridership. Given that fare collection accounts for a miniscule share of costs making it free is also not such a big extra burden for transit agencies. And by the way are we even enforcing payment now to make this even relevant? Or perhaps this is the reason nobody is opposing it.
Either way I just dont see how making it free make for better services - safer at all hours (yes, I as a male dread riding the red and purple homeless shelter after 630 pm!, yeah I know but ride it to and from work and then talk to me), reliable, clean, better riding experience, and adding new routes and more frequent services which will bring more people to ride transit which is what we need the most for climate and equity. We are also not targeting the people who can afford to take extra hardship for the environment just asking the people who do to put up with poor services while the rest of us feel warm and fuzzy about living in a city with free transit while chipping in a few cents in taxes but never really will take the trouble of riding it even occasionally let alone for work.
The issue is that anytime one mentions environmental justice (or diversity for that matter) few dare to question out of fear of being seen as elitist and out of touch or insensitive.
Making public transit free for climate justice or increasing ridership - not so fast I say.
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