UNIFIED TRANSIT

CARD: A REAL

TRANSIT PLAN

Another www.RobertDyer.net Exclusive!!!

The Metro budget options currently on the table are short-term band aids, but long-term disasters if we really hope to increase the use of transit in the area.

Higher fares? Less frequent service? Crowded trains and platforms? Why not just get back in your car at that point?

The real way to get people to use transit is to make it easy to access, convenient, and an enjoyable experience.

Now, the restructuring of Metro is a completely different topic. Today, I'm just talking about the plan I proposed when I ran for state delegate 4 years ago.

My proposal was to create a single card that works with WMATA rail and bus, MTA light rail/subway/bus, MARC, VRE, Amtrak, Ride On and other regional buses, etc. It might also be expanded to include the ability to pay parking meters at transit station lots and taxi fares. In addition, the functions could potentially be transferred to your cellphone, allowing for a completely paperless transaction system giving you full access to every transit option in the DC/MD/VA area.

Users would pay a daily or weekly price that would allow unlimited use of all bus, rail, and subway systems mentioned above. This would not only provide a low price, but encourage more transit use. First of all, your additional use would be "free," unlike the gas you use for the equivalent car trip. Second, the user never has to worry about one mode of transit shutting down, or getting on the wrong route by mistake. With unlimited use, you can keep riding all day if you want.

In order to make this system work, and have a sustainable transit network, we'll still need to radically change the structure and operations of Metro. It will have to be financially solvent, and hopefully one day, profitable.

Increasing ridership is essential to any of that success. Without riders, you can raise fares all you want, but - like Metro at this moment - you'll be going nowhere.