Rush hour on a Downtown-bound Metro bus. Traffic heavy, weather bad, everyone a little grumpy.
A bulky middle-aged woman in a white t-shirt gets on and drops into the open seat nearest the bus driver. She addresses the back of his head in a loud, quavering voice.
“Is it true they’re thinking about getting rid of the ride free zone?”
“There’s been talk about it,” the driver replies listlessly.
“That’s horrible.”
A long pause commences while the bus driver considers. “Might keep out some of the riffraff,” he offers.
“Well some of us are homeless, and don’t have any way to get around except in the ride free zone!”
Now a pause that’s far longer and very uncomfortable. The driver breaks the silence.
“Trust me, there’s a lo-o-o-ot of riffraff.”
The woman harumphs.
“I’m the one who has to deal with them,” says the driver.
“Well, you’ve never been homeless.”
“Oh, yes, I have, ma’am,” the driver says, his voice suddenly loud and indignant. “Don’t tell me what I’ve been.”
“Then you should know what it’s like,” says the woman, collecting her stuff and moving toward the exit.
“I got myself out of it,” says the driver. The woman begins to walk down the stairs.
“Well, good for you,” she says, sarcastically, as she climbs off.
…but the “don’t have any way to get around” thing is a little ridiculous from the homeless perspective, isn’t it? Are they so busy with places to be that they need the convenience of the bus? Is having ways to get around for free within a 2 mile radius in a short amount of time particularly vital to them?
I mean, when I have the time, I have often walk from Safeco Field along the waterfront or through to Pike Place Market or Belltown, roughly the equivalent of the ride free zone, so it’s not an unmanageable distance or anything.
I admit, unlike the driver, I have never been homeless and surely do not understand all of the issues, but this doesn’t strike me as too big of a deal to me. And if the drivers are for it, it sounds good to me.
“Is having ways to get around for free within a 2 mile radius in a short amount of time particularly vital to them?”
I was kind of thinking the same thing, Frank, but then realized that many homeless people have stuff with them – and often quite a lot of it. I suppose that if you’re at 3rd and Bell and want to be somewhere around the library, the ride free zone is a good/easy way to move yourself and your stuff to where you want to me.
So I can’t come down hard one way or another on the elimination of the ride free zone. Fare evasion is definitely a an issue for Metro as a whole, and I think that it might speed things up overall to get rid of the zone, but see how it could be a major inconvenience for others.
Solution: separate bus for homeless people.
You’re welcome, Seattle.
… so it seems to me like the ability to travel all over Metro’s service area at all hours would be more beneficial than being limited to the RFA during the hours that it is in service.
Perhaps if Metro wasn’t losing so much money from lost fares in the RFA and fare evasion, Metro could provide more discounted passes and tickets to those who need them.