Coalition for Fair Fares shares goals for transit fees
Pushing for change
Pittsburghers for Public Transit and four other agencies were listening when Port Authority CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said transit advocates should dream big when they look at the future of transit locally.
The Coalition for Fair Fares — which includes Pittsburghers for Public Transit, the Alliance for Police Accountability, Casa San Jose, Just Harvest and the Thomas Merton Center — will present a series of recommendations at a news conference Tuesday that includes a goal of free rides for everyone by 2030.
The four planks of the program — cost, payment, enforcement and incentives — will include some of the items the agency already is pushing, such as free transfers and fare capping. But the coalition also will call for free rides in the summer to reduce cars on the road and improve air quality, discount fares during off-peak hours, and free rides during days when museums and other attractions offer free admission.
Port Authority is holding a series of community meetings through late April to hear from the public on a variety of issues. These include the agency’s fare policy, which is being reviewed by a consultant whose report is expected later
this year. Laura Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, said that’s why it’s important for the groups to present recommendations now so the consultant considers more issues than just how much riders should pay.
“We know this is a critical point to share information before the fare consultant comes back with its report so that report is in line with what the community wants to see,” Ms. Wiens said. “It’s very exciting for us to be helpful in this process.”
In addition, she said, it is important for the authority and riders to outline their future needs before the state Legislature considers a new bill to fund transportation. The current funding plan expires in 2022.
The coalition spent the past two years pushing for Port Authority to change policies that it considers unfair to low-income riders, such as:
• A $2.75 fare for cash instead of $2.50 for those who can afford prepaid ConnectCards.
• $1 transfers for ConnectCards users while cash customers pay full fares for each transfer, even if they have to take two or three buses to get to their destination.
• Fare capping, which would allow cash customers to reap the benefits of buying weekly or monthly passes if they buy enough fares to qualify.
Changes to these policies remain the primary shortterm goals for the coalition, Ms. Wiens said.
“However the system accounts for revenue, it shouldn’t be on the backs of the people least able to pay for it,” Ms. Wiens said. “The dollars and cents of the Port Authority program aren’t the only things the consultant should consider.”
Under cost plank, another immediate goal is better access to ConnectCards and other fare-payment methods such as day passes, which often aren’t available in lowincome neighborhoods. Long-term goals include discount fares for low-income riders and free rides for people with disabilities or under 18.
Immediate goals for how to pay fares include passes that begin the day they are first used rather than the first day of the week or month; a cellphone app available to all riders; and a uniform payment system for transit agencies in the 10county region.
Long-term recommendations include immediate access to money loaded on a ConnectCard (there can be delays now); paying fares for more than one rider with a ConnectCard; and paying at a bus stop or light-rail platform before boarding.
Fare enforcement should be a civil matter enforced by civilian ambassadors rather than a criminal matter, and ambassadors’ goal should help riders figure out how to pay, the group recommends.
Goals for long-term fare incentives include bulk passes bought by corporations, events and conferences, cultural organizations, universities and developers; discount fares during off-peak hours and weekends; family passes; and free rides during RADical Days, when organizations such as Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, Carnegie Museums and others have annual free admission days.
Port Authority officials have said they are willing to consider all suggestions, but the key will be how the agency pays for the changes. The agency gets about 21% of its revenue from fares — about $90 million a year.
Ms. Wiens said she’s confident that the recommended changes would boost ridership without substantially increasing Port Authority’s overall costs. She noted that the agency expects to increase ridership — and revenue — when it opens the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system between Downtown and Oakland in late 2023.
“What low-income fares do is drive more riders onto public transit,” Ms. Wiens said. “Public transportation is a right, not a privilege.”
The coalition will hold its news conference at 9 a.m. Tuesday on South Avenue and Hay Street near the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway station in Wilkinsburg. Tuesday is Transit Equity Day and the birthday of Rosa Parks, the African American woman who in 1955 refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated Montgomery, Ala., bus.