LIVININTHELOIN

A spare the air day?

On Thursday, June 19, the Air District and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission are partnering with the region’s 30 transit systems to offer free rides for Bay Area commuters.

Transit will be free all day on Bay Area bus and light-rail systems, and until 12 noon on BART, trains (Caltrain, ACE, and Capitol Corridor), and ferries (Golden Gate, Alameda, and Vallejo). Full List. There are some “spare the air every day tips” at the site, like: walk or ride, link your tips, buy locally (all to save gas).

According the SF Examiner (Weekend Edition, June 14-15, 2008), “It will be the only day that the agencies will fund this year for Bay Area travelers to ride public transit without cost.” [p.5]

I believe last Thursday was a “spare the air day”. I remember, because I was thinking “that means that the BART to work commute is free”. Not so much. It looks like free transit, in SF (the greenest city on earth?)on STAD is a thing of the past.

I’ve done some research, but couldn’t out how much BART and Muni will save by killing the free ride program. I did find some statistical information on bart.gov.

In general, BART ridership increases 10% on the (formerly free) STADs. “Thursday’s, 6/22/06, Spare the Air free rides day resulted in approximately 33,000 more people using BART than normal. That’s about a ten percent increase in ridership. BART was expecting to carry about 329,000 riders on Thursday.” Using the cost of my commute, which is $3.20, each way = $6.40 x 329,000 riders=$2,105,600. A conservative fare (mine), and numbers from 2006 — but some serious cash!

Nathaniel Ford, Municipal Transportation Agency, total pay: $325, 452

Stuart Sunshine, Municipal Transportation Agency, total pay: $216,614

Carter Rohan, Municipal Transportation Agency, total pay: $199,209

… and, many, many more: MTA Salaries

Does anyone know when the next fare increase is? The Municipal Transportation Agency needs the money.