The goal of many of these passes is to give a discount to frequent, regular users. This encourages more people to become, frequent, regular users. Convenience isn't really a factor anymore with the smartcards.

The smartcards theoretically give more flexible ways to give the discounts. Why not just say that a smartcard that was used for $100 of transit in the past 28 days gets an extra $10 added to the card. All thresholds and time durations, and credits could be scaled to make sure there are no sharp cutoffs (i.e. if you spent $90 in 28 days you get an $8.00 credit).

It would be difficult for someone to personally figure out their precise monthly or weekly credits, but knowing roughly what it is going to be and knowing it would appear automatically is useful.

by Dan on Sep 8, 2010 11:03 am • link • report

Back in the day when I was taking Metro daily from Capitol South to Dupont Circle for high school, the 10% bonus was great - as I recall it was a $1 fare each way, so $20 would get me 11 round trips.

Now it would be at least $1.95.

by Andrew on Sep 8, 2010 11:12 am • link • report

When you say risk, do you mean risk of not using the pass that month, or the risk of having a flimsy paper card disintegrate in your wallet and/or pocket (not to mention the washing machine)

Although you dismiss the 10% bonus out of hand, I think there is some value.

1) WMATA has to pay some credit card fees, so there is some value of paying cash.
2) What was the time value of money for people pre-paying their metro cards? Related to that was the real reason they killed the bonus program -- they needed the revenue and I suspect they figured out a large number of people were using it with the chopped up farecard hack to ride for free.
3) They reason people wouldn't pay more is because the paper cards were flimsy

I think having one month, or one week, towards the end of the fiscal year, where they offer a 10% bonus for cash payment, could bring in a lot of extra money for WMATA. Sure, some of it is pre-payment forward, but that isn't the worst thing in the world.

by charlie on Sep 8, 2010 11:16 am • link • report

Monthly & yearly passes loaded on a Smartrip card are a must. Not only because they are more convenient but also because they encourage people to travel off-peak ("Why take my car this evening if my metro fare will be free")

Now given the fare structure at the moment it is obvious that monthly passes will not be popular: The savings will me mininmal or non-existant for some whilst for others they may represent good value.

Now how about changing the fare structure into a zonal system, with changing weekly and monthly passes prices according to the number of zones travelled through. (and eventually peak & off-peak pricing)

To be attractive these monthly and yearly passes also need to include bus travel. After all people that live next to metro stops probably already take the metro most of the time. The people that need to be attracted at those that live a bit further but could take the metro as well.

And how do you finance a yearly pass and make attractive. Well there could be a system where you buy a yearly pass but get 1.5 month free. A system could be introduced where a employer could advance the money to his employee who would pay back every month for 12 months.

All in all a system that resembles the London Underground.

by Vincent Flament on Sep 8, 2010 11:48 am • link • report

Don't forget the most important part of the London system: The passes are applied automatically once it becomes a good deal to do so.

This takes away the guesswork and some of the anxiety that goes along with riding transit, and ensures that riders are always getting the best deal possible. (And, as every supermarket on the planet has figured out, consumers *love* knowing that they just got a good deal)

Combine this with an EZ-Pass-style system of automatic credit card reloading, and you should see increased ridership, and decreased crowding at stations. The ability to apply SmartBenefits via the web would also be handy -- it seems a bit silly to have to use the machine.

I agree that Metro needs to do more to encourage off-peak ridership. A sensible pass system would go a long way toward accomplishing this goal, which could also hopefully lead to better off-peak service (which has been somewhat lacking as of late). We're one of the only big cities I know of that doesn't provide a compelling transit pass option.

by andrew on Sep 8, 2010 11:58 am • link • report

Metro should offer passes that let you ride for free during off-peak times.

Metro is bursting at the seams during rush hour. But there's a huge opportunity to create policies that encourage off-peak ridership.

I suggested something in the last post on this subject -- but why not offer a monthly pass which offers some bonus value that is only good outside of rush hour? The base value of the pass would cover the equivalent of a month's (e.g. 40) rush-hour commuter trips, but allow free or discounted transit outside these times.

The cost to metro would be very low, since I suspect the vast majority of commuters are not regular non-rush-hour users. At the same time in would be a strong carrot for those people who've already got that sunk cost to use metro at non-peak times -- when Metro has plenty of wasted capacity.

The specifics can be worked out, but at a minimum why not give a 10 or 20% bonus for people who are laying out a month in advance. Almost by defnition this would be usable only during non-rush-hour times, since you'd expect most people spending $150-$200 a month on Metro are regular commuters.

The bonus fare doesn't do much to encourage non-peak ridership when you just apply it to $20 prepayments. But if you apply it to ~$200 monthly payments, it makes total sense.

I'd love it if they would just let you ride for free once you hit a certain dollar amount every month, say, $200. That is, if you are a rider who uses metro 10 times a week already, you should get additional rides for free or a substantial discount. This would do a lot to incentivize people to use the train outside of getting to work and back.

by Jamie on Sep 8, 2010 12:23 pm • link • report

@ Jamie; or, as I've been suggesting for a while, cut non-peak rail fares to 50 cents. You'll find a lot of users at that price point.

I think the problem with encouraging non-peak use is Metro doesn't want them; the point to point travel is going to be very different and they don't know how to handle the trains, and frankly, they need a break after rush hour.

by charlie on Sep 8, 2010 12:30 pm • link • report

That's not a bad idea. Though I think that it would cost a lot more than offering the incentive only to regular users who put a lot of money into Metro already.

That is, Metro is used by millions of tourists every weekend and all summer long who couldn't care less if it's 50 cents or 2 bucks. I think that the loss of revenue there could be a lot more than the potential for increased ridership from locals on this basis.

At the same time, who knows, people are funny when it comes to a few dollars. Look at all the nutjobs were carrying a bunch of stuff home in their arms instead of coughing up 5 cents for a plastic bag... I could imagine that making the train very inexpensive offpeak could have a major impact on usage, even though it may really only add up to 10 bucks a week or something for a typical user.

I'm not sure I agree with your notion of Metro's desire for offpeak riders, though, the trains are mostly empty a lot of the time. They wouldn't have to change a thing to handle a lot more riders during those times.

But I've often surprised at the pretzel logic that comes out of WMATA. Who knows. It just seems that from a pretty straightforward policy standpoint, there is a tremendous opportunity to apply a little creativity to get more people to use the trains for reasons other than commuting that wouldn't cost much, if anything, and would get a lot of people out of cars.

by Jamie on Sep 8, 2010 12:39 pm • link • report

@Jamie; well, I have argued with MPerkins about this before and he's probably sick of it. His point is transit studies show fares aren't elastic enough so the increase in riders doesn't make up for the loss of revenue. I don't think that is true for off-peak.

And to his credit, passes would do much the same, assuming of course you could afford the pass.

And the real "third-rail" is WMATA doesn't want poor people on trains. That would turn rail into Poor People Transportation, and everyone would stay away. Given what is happening to the Green Line, I can't say they fears are misplaced.

by charlie on Sep 8, 2010 12:52 pm • link • report

@charlie

Just one minor correction: In the past, the 10% bonus applied whether you paid by cash, debit, or credit. As long as you paid for a farecard with a $20 minimum, you got the 10% bonus.

by stevern77 on Sep 8, 2010 1:20 pm • link • report

@ stevern77; they took credit cards back then? So long ago I don't remember.

In any case, I'd be saying a future bonus could be tied to cash payments, which have smaller transaction costs. I don't want to know how much metro loses when I put $5 on the CC to pay for smarttrip.

And another reason NOT to use CC for exit fare...smaller transactions as people put $1 to get out....transaction fees on that would be close to 30 cents.

by charlie on Sep 8, 2010 1:31 pm • link • report

@ Andrew

Yes there is a daily cap but I'm personally against it. The reason being that Metro is having funding issues. Therefore depriving it from a major source of revenue is not a good idea (FYI all London fare system: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx)

Now I accept the fact that a montly pass may also not be revenue neutral. But I would hope that more people would be tempted to buy a montly pass for the sheer convenience of being able to travel whenever and how many times they want.

@ Charlie having seen transit studies myself I totally agree with Mr Perkins point.

Point is Metro needs to devise a system which is easy to understand and revenue neutral or positive. Applying complicated discounts will not encourage anyone to use the system more.

Metro's fare system is already way to complicated according to me. A zonal system with weekly, monthly and yearly passes (eventually peak and off-peak) would give much more clarity to the system: A back of the enveloppe calculations gives me 10 different fares in a system with 6 zones, where travel in zone 1 to 1 or 2 (ie downdown) is one price, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6 4 different fares, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 4 different fares again, 3-4 being the same price as 2-3, 3-5 same price as 2-4... I'd include a one zone only fare for small trips.

So 10 fares in total, a weekly pass according to zones traveled (another 10), a monthly (10) and a yearly (10) would total 0 fares to manage. Not much.

Simple, understandable and very effective. Include free bus transfers and I think this could be a very appealing solution.

In terms of pricing, I'd probably price a monthly zone 1-6 (ie Downtown to Shady grave anywhere between $ 160 - $ 200), which is pretty much 20 times the daily peak travel cost of an average commuter that travels monday to friday to say go to work. The discount compared to the status-quo would be free unlimited travel during the weekend, the ability to take the bus & take extra trips say at lunchtime to go to a shop.

by Vincent Flament on Sep 8, 2010 3:12 pm • link • report

Now there needs to be a reason why WMATA can't go back to this.

They need a bus/rail pass whether its weekly/month/yearly doesn't matter since they cut the paper transfers and anyone using both the rail and bus is getting screwed.

Why is the one day pass only for rail ?

by kk on Sep 8, 2010 3:57 pm • link • report

@ Vincent Flament; yeah, I've looked a few of them. I don't think they are very strong in any case. Clearly, for commuting to work demand is inelastic; what we don't know is what off-peak Metrorail traffic really looks like. Tourists? People working different hours? I doubt the right data will be there.

What what would be great is the simplest way to get more people on the trains. Zones? Didn't will just kill the zone zombie with taxis?

by charlie on Sep 8, 2010 10:02 pm • link • report

@ Charlie

Well to be honest elassticity studies are broad an general so yeah they will never be totally precise.

Now yes commuting is pretty much price inelastic, though the cross-elasticity of price with respect to car is quite high. If generalized cost of using Metro (ie value of time + cost of ticket) increases compared to car, then you will certainly see a switch to car.

I'm sure off-peak travel is a mix of leisure, commute and business travel depending on the time of the day and the day of the week. Now if it is leisure well Metro doesn't only compete with car but also with alternatives such as staying home, going to the pool... So to make metro really attractive off-peak you also need a vibrant downtown.

I'm not totally aware of the whole taxi zoning issue but I seem to remember that it was removed because of confusion, unfairness & some dishonest taxi drivers.

Now I can't see the same issues happening with metro provided it communicates well (which is not a given I admit)

by Vincent Flament on Sep 9, 2010 10:37 am • link • report

"And the real "third-rail" is WMATA doesn't want poor people on trains. That would turn rail into Poor People Transportation, and everyone would stay away. Given what is happening to the Green Line, I can't say their fears are misplaced."

@Charlie,

This is the most blunt and honest comment on the blog in weeks. I never thought about it this way- that they would price it with this goal in mind.

Although public transportation is supposed to be for the whole public, I wonder how many people agree with this.

Personally, I am frustrated almost every time I take a bus on 14th street to the CH Metro stop, with painfully smelly people ('bum smell') coughing on me, boatloads of bags and strollers hitting me, loud cell phone conversations going on, thinking back to when I was a kid in a crappy neighborhood taking the bus every day, dreaming of an adulthood of not taking the bus.

Taking the bus in DC is miserable. (By the way, I'm not talking about the 'premium bus', the Circulator)

One day I will be able to afford something closer to a Metro stop....

Yes, the train is crowded, and the other day, I almost snapped at a guy in the seat behind me for blasting Fall Out Boy in his headphones so loudly that I could recognize it, but it sure smells better.

by ed on Sep 9, 2010 6:24 pm • link • report

The argument for terminating the passes was always pretty flimsy. Passes as a rule are, when priced appropriately, a subsidy for those who have the least ability to pay. They were supposed to roll the advantages of the monthly passes (Which is what people considered them, even if they were numbered for 4 weeks) into SmarTrip, but I don't feel that they ever did. Passes are still used more by the hardworking poor, and primarily on the bus routes; visual inspection is much more expedient then even a swipe. Many systems which are dedicate to promoting public transit do use them, in a myriad of options: weekly, monthly, quarterly, school semesters, or yearly. The problem is of course that it would cut deeply into WMATA's income stream at a time then budgets are tight everywhere.

SL (http://sl.se/en/Visitor/Tickets/) provides a nice little clip to explain matters, and their system is quite a bit like WMATA's. They also have a tab labeled "Plan your journey", a concept familiar to tourists but apparently not to many Metro DC residents.

@Charlie: Well of course Metrorail is intended for the exceptionally well-washed white people with money, preferably those with advanced degrees, otherwise they'd give far more thought to price increases, or the elimination of bus passes. I'm sure that as an effort to further suck up to this population they will soon be returning to first class cars so the ever so well bred among the population can recline in peace, while served by a obsequious elderly black gentleman. I actually would almost promote this, at 2 to 3 times the cost of the regular conveyance, so that they can subsidize ordinary folk.

by copperred on Sep 9, 2010 9:38 pm • link • report