Most potential riders do not perceive the DART risk as the ticket price. It is not knowing what to do and whom you will encounter. The flip side of free is every ne'er do well, particularly on hot or rainy days, sees DART as a good place to spend the day. That image is not going to help DART.
I believe few adults in the area that commute have not at least considered using DART. Several studies have shown that the number of adults in the area that could realistically use DART based on work and home location is not high. That stat is the absolute maximum. After that threshold, you have the DART 20 minute rule. No matter where you live or go, using DART will likely add 20 minutes to the trip, excluding time waiting for first leg. I use DART a lot and have almost always found the gap to be right round 20 minutes. The question riders have to ask what do I get for giving up that 20 minutes plus flexibility on starting trip. In more congested cities, I suspect that the 20 minutes goes to zero and may flip to negative number. Add in parking fees and the rational decision can be transit. Except for us in the 4 per cent, people in Dallas want that 20 minutes.
You can forget about gas prices changing the equation. As expected, people will simply adjust driving behavior or get different cars to keep auto as sole option.
They used to do freebies on Ozone Action days years ago. Now they don't even do that. The last time any transit around here was free was the introduction of the DCTA A-Train. It was just supposed to be the weekend before, and it ended up going into the next full week.Originally Posted by profbarium
A federal grant paid for the ozone day freebies. When it expired, no more freebies.
mjblazin, I think for the most part you are correct, however when your prices creep up to into the car payment category, i.e. $160 a month for a regional pass, now you are not only limiting your potential market share due to the 20 minute rule, but also due to the ticket price.
$160 a month is a nice little 5 year old compact car over three years, and the car is yours to drive anywhere anytime. DART is kidding themselves if they think there is no ceiling to ticket prices, in regards to the opportunity cost equation. They are rapidly approaching that ceiling. 25% to 33% increases in price at one time is simply a flat out dumb business decision.
...that's only the capital cost - you're ignoring insurance, gasoline and maint (tires, brakes, oil changes)...
Sure, but you're ignoring the opportunity costs - the fact that the car sits in your garage, you get to drive it whenever and wherever you like 24/7, as opposed to paying $160 a month to ride to and from work and then still having to pay for transportation outside of that window.
Last edited by Alex Rodriguez; 25 April 2012 at 02:07 PM.
While a DART pass may not be usable enough for people to go car-free, it does allow many families to have only one car instead of two - especially in single earner families where one of the cars basically only goes between home and work anyway.
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. - Robert Persig
$160 a month is insane. I pay $86 a month for a MUCH better system
I stipulate to that, in theory this is true. But at $160, the number of people willing to pay that to stay a one car family goes down, because now you are in car payment territory, so fare vs. car payment is a wash. The incremental savings of not owning a car (gas, insurance, maintenance) may or may not be worth the opportunity cost of not owning a car (Time and gas for spouse to go pick you up twice a day, not having a second car to run errands if car #1 is not available, not having a second car to drive around when car #1 needs maintenance, etc. etc.)
But no one at DART apparently thinks through that.
To be fair, the $160 is for 3.5-ish systems: DART, TRE, Ft. Worth T, DCTA. While the CTA may have a better bus/rail system (than all of those combined), it probably doesn't cover a larger geographic area.
Or does your $86/mo. (I presume that's not the annual rate divided by 12) cover PACE and/or METRA too? If that's the case, it really isn't close.
Oh, I didn't realize it was regional. No, it doesn't cover METRA or PACE (or at least that I am aware of). I am actually not sure if there is a regional pass here. I was trying to find one but couldn't find much
Not to mention the fact that a small car can hold at minumum 2 people, and most can seat 4-5 people. The $160 fee will cover 1 person.
Additionally, DART's request fare increase within DART's local system will be $80 per month, and is now $65 per month. Your $86 per month is 32% higher today.
DART's planned fare increase doesn't even catch up with what you're paying CTA now.
CTA is three times the system that DART is. Yes, DART is the largest light rail system in the USA, but CTA is not light rail. Their downtown network makes a mockery of what we have here, they have twice the stops overall if not more, run more frequently, cross town connections, etc etc. Not to mention their bus service. Then the fact that Chicago's cost of living is higher than Dallas. If DART thinks they can charge what CTA charges, they are kidding themselves.
DART is still in the building process, CTA has been around much longer, so I'm not surprised CTA is larger overall. Can CTA clients also buy "Regional" fares using the same tickets for Metra? How much more do they have to spend for "Regional" services, and how much do they save if buying a month vs daily tickets?
CTA
1st ride $2.00 (bus) or $2.25 (rail)
1 day pass:$5.75
30 day pass:$86
Merta monthly fares are based upon zones. While the TRE and DCTA have two zones, DART only has one.
Zone Monthly One-Way
A $78.25 $2.75
B $85.50 $3.00
C $121.00 $4.25
D $135.25 $4.75
E $149.50 $5.25
F $163.75 $5.75
G $178.00 $6.25
H $192.25 $6.75
I $206.50 $7.25
J $220.75 $7.75
K $235.00 $8.25
M $263.50 $9.25
A corresponding "Regional" fare can be arrived by adding up both monthly fares, $86 + $78.25 (minimum) = $164.25 (minimum) and up to $86 + $263.50 (maximum) = $349.5 (maximum).
That sort of makes the new $160 DFW "Regional" monthly fare a bargain in comparison.
We can sit here until the cow jumps over the moon arguing fares. I just wanted to point out fares are relative just like the cost of living in various cities is relative. Suggesting DFW "Regional" fares are out of line with the rest of the nation is correct, but not in the way you think, it's actually the other way around, DFW can be much cheaper.
Well the fare increase is in effect now, and in general I'm happy that they introduced a mid-day fare for only $1.75 that is valid from 9:30 to 2:30. My only pet peeve is that the other day I ended up in Fort Worth and wanted to go to Dallas on the TRE during the mid-day. But in The T's territory, you can't buy a mid-day ticket for the TRE! Grrr. So what should have been a $3.50 fare, I had to buy a $5 ticket. But if I had been on the Dallas side, I can buy a ticket for $3.50 and get to FTW and that ticket is valid on any bus in FTW as well until 2:30 PM.
Just wanted to rant a little.
Interesting... I never thought of that.
But, I do dig the fact that TRE Centerpoint and East is now included in the local daily pass. Before, it would have cost $7 for that ticket.
How many DART riders paid the surcharge going out to Centreport? I have ridden TRE a lot over the years and have never seen anyone check tickets. I have heard several times the conductor, when someone asked him or her what to do if they rushed on without a ticket, tell people to buy ticket when they debark from train. DART and T got the people that needed tickets at both ends, maybe most of traffic, but did not really care about the middle. They did not really lose any money from adding Centreport to what was Region 1.
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