What's up with Spare the Air Days This Year?
Anybody know why the Spare the Air days have been, basically, half days this year on BART? The free rides have been ending at 1PM... Seems to me that it's not as effective a strategy, and that it's not going to convince as many people to ditch their cars for the whole day. If I had a car that I used every day, it wouldn't make sense for me to lose it just for a one-way ride. Feeling the sting of the return trip ticket would probably be enough to sour me on the whole thing. It's supposed to be a Spare the Air DAY, not a Spare the Air MORNING, right?
Of course, I could just be whining because I bought a MUNI monthly pass this month, so have not been able to take advantage of this... Oh cruel gods, how you taunt me!
Maybe BART wants to squeeze
Maybe BART wants to squeeze the last bit of that almighty dollar. Instead of me paying BART 7 bucks for a roundtrip - i guess their thinking is that at least they can get 3.50 out of me.
You're both right... But
You're both right... But there is another key component.
Last summer, we were busy as hell on Spare the Air days.
"Aye, blood! Tha BART free today, nigguh! Lets go ride tha BART!"
Thug wannabes would just jump on trains and fuck around in the system. No real destination. No real reason to be on BART.
Most thug wannabes aren't awake and out of bed by 1pm (classes at DeVry start later in the day, I guess?) or don't want to have to pay for their return trip.
As for turning people off of transit, bus systems (AC, Muni, Tri-Delta, Wheels, CC, etc) were free all day and I know they saw ridership soar.
BART saw, I would estimate, an increase of ridership between 10% if not 20%. I talked to one woman yesterday morning who didn't usually take BART, and she said she would start doing so several times a week. And I think that was the ultimate goal. People get the free ride as an incentive to try BART. They try it and realize that most of the bad things they hear are just hype. They then in turn commute on public transit more often.
From a law enforcement standpoint, this new Free till 1PM thing really is working. There hasn't been nearly as much riff-raff as last year.
I rather have BART free for
I rather have BART free for half the day rather than the entire day. I agree with PPID911. However I do attend Devry Online =/
I think the half day is a
I think the half day is a workable solution. It certainly toned down the thugz (tm).
I wondered if the cutoff was
I wondered if the cutoff was at 1 because of the thugz element riding around in the afternoon and evening of spare the air days. It seemed to reduce those problems. These didn't seem to have as many kids just riding around to cause trouble or walking up and down the train yelling to each other "where the b*tches at?" (actual quote from spare the air day last year).
AC Transit was much fuller, too, especially in the afternoon. I had to leave work in the afternoon for a dr appointment and ended up walking 20 blocks back to work because all buses were full in the other direction and weren't stopping to let anyone on. I didn't mind the walk, but was trying to get back to work faster to finish things before going home.
Just curious, but if you
Just curious, but if you enter the system right before 1 on a spare the air day (ie without a ticket), how do you get out of the faregates at your destination after 1? If it's through the emergency swing gates, how do you tell those riders apart from fare evaders?
The fact that you even
The fact that you even consider that is proof enough that you're not a fare evader. Those who fare evade rarely (I've NEVER seen) possess the comprehension skills (or know who or what a comprehension is) to contemplate (new word to them) that.
Station Agents are pretty good at figuring that out.
Fare evaders don't bother to make contact with the Agent upon exit.
Make sense?
Interesting question. I
Interesting question.
I think I read somewhere there is a time limit for regular BART tickets.
If memory serves me, the ticket gets a digital time stamp upon entry through a fare gate. That time stamp opens a 3 hour window for exit at another fare gate.
After 3 hours you get the 'ole screen of death "See Agent" prompt while trying to exit.
So, if all that is true, maybe BART has a "soft cut-off" time of 4:00 pm during freebie day's.
urban myth?
jbap21