The MBTA has it backwards.
It has riders paying more money for less service when it should be providing more service for less money.
That is one way the troubled transportation agency could stem the hemorrhaging ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another is to hand out free face masks to ensure compliance with safety protocols. Instead, Gov. Charlie Baker has mandated that anyone, including children, not wearing a mask or face covering be fined $300. Talk about turning riders off.
If there are any other ways to force people off public transportation and into their cars — if they have cars — the MBTA and the Baker administration will find it.
It took a major step in that direction a week ago when it announced sweeping cuts in all forms of service due to the unprecedented decline in ridership and revenue as riders have deserted the transit agency in fear of the coronavirus.
These new cuts come after the MBTA raised fares July 1, 2019, the fourth increase since 2012.
Under the proposed “temporary” cuts, certain bus routes would be eliminated and other routes consolidated, weekend commuter service would end, some stops eliminated, ferry service would stop, subway lines would run less frequently, and among other things, both bus and subway service would end at midnight.
The only people who are using public transportation these days are people who find it essential and who may have no other choice. They have no cars and have jobs that require their physical presence — like hospital workers, for instance – -and now the MBTA is making it even tougher on them.
‘We are very aware of how anxiety-producing the conversation about service adjustment is,” Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack said in perfect bureaucratese, “but we’re confident that making the changes now to avoid spending money on service that people are not using is the best prescription we have for saving money we need to run fuller service when our riders come back, whenever that may be.”
If the riders come back, that is. People have a way of adjusting to life-changing events, just as they are adjusting now in coping with pandemic shutdowns.
Many people are getting to work, to school and to appointments without relying on the MBTA. They are carpooling, or bike riding, or walking, or working from home, if they can.
People may get used to functioning without the MBTA and might not come back at all.
So maybe it is time to consider what the MBTA can do now to bring riders back instead of just shutting things down. The COVID-19 pandemic along with the shutdowns will come to an end, particularly now that a coronavirus vaccine is on the horizon.
The issue then will be how to get riders on board now that they have learned not to depend on the nontransit transit agency.
One way is to offer them a better product at a cheaper price.
Politicians like Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, who is running for mayor, and Boston City Council President Kim Janey, as well as others, have called for free bus rides or for an MBTA totally free of fares.
The idea is not as far-fetched as it once was, and has been implemented in cities in Europe and on a limited scale in cities in the U.S.
In March, the MBTA allowed passengers to ride for free during the pandemic by allowing them to board buses and trolleys through the back doors on the Green Line and Mattapan Line. That way they maintained distance from the drivers.
People quickly get used to free stuff and then expect more.
But it does not go far enough. Under my proposal, the MBTA would pay you to ride it, instead of the other way around. It would be like living on one of those sparsely populated Greek islands where the state pays you to live there, and not the other way around.
Riders would flock back. And we would save the MBTA. It’s socialism on steroids, baby.
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November 21, 2020 at 05:54PM
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MBTA’s less-for-more plan will slam doors on ridership recovery - Boston Herald
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