Big Blue Bus: I say let Santa Monica residents ride free
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
My suggestion tonight really shook up the discussion of local transit funding: Instead of considering higher bus fares, we should be letting all Santa Monica residents have a free bus pass.
The Council was considering ways to cover future deficits in our Big Blue Bus budget. One idea presented to us by city staff was to allow transit-oriented development on land the city owns, bought with transportation funds.
It occurred to me that the ones who feel the greatest impact of such developments are our own residents, so if we’re going to build we should make sure residents get a real benefit in return.
We already have agreements with Santa Monica College and UCLA to provide unlimited bus passes to their students. We know that those passes are counted as “fare box revenues” for purposes of state and federal matching funds. We could take revenue from these transit development sites, use it to pay for bus passes given to every Santa Monica resident, and then count the use of the passes toward earning increased state and federal funding.
The big advantage, of course: getting more Santa Monicans onto our excellent Big Blue Bus, and more cars off the streets. My Council colleagues seemed a bit skeptical, but we directed city staff to explore the idea and get back to us. Here’s the video from our meeting.
Below, part of a story about my idea from the Santa Monica Daily Press.
McKeown wants developers to cover residents' bus passes
By Nick Taborek
October 02, 2010
CITY HALL — With the Big Blue Bus fare increase that took effect in August, Santa Monica's transit system is projected to remain solvent through mid 2013; after that, new revenue is needed to prevent cuts to service, city officials said.
During a brainstorming session on the topic this week, the City Council considered a range of proposals, from increasing parking citation fees, to building "transit oriented development" on sites owned by the BBB, to tacking new fees onto development projects to lobbying the state government to allow the installation of digital advertising on the sides of buses.
Perhaps the most radical idea came from Councilman Kevin McKeown.
Seeing an opportunity in the funding crisis, McKeown proposed requiring developers to pay for bus passes for each and every Santa Monica resident.
The move would have one distinct advantage over requiring cash payments from developers, McKeown said: By mandating payments in the form of transit passes, the money would be counted as "fare box revenue," which is eligible to receive a matching contribution from the federal government, in effect leveraging its impact on local transit operations.
The idea got mixed reviews on the dais, but garnered enough support to make it into the council's official recommendation to staff for further consideration.
Councilman Richard Bloom questioned whether it makes sense to use City Hall resources to provide bus passes to residents, most of whom can easily afford to pay their own bus fares.
McKeown countered that the free passes could reduce traffic congestion, often cited as Santa Monica's most intractable problem.
"This isn't about saving residents money, it's about encouraging residents to use the bus instead of drive," he said.
The entire story is online at www.smdp.com. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.