Edmond may start charging for bus trips to Oklahoma City

[jerrywall]

Edmond may start charging for bus trips to Oklahoma City | Oklahoman.com

I think this is a bad idea. At least the price point they've chosen. $6 for a round trip? From the article, there was a $50,000 shortfall. Ok, make that money up. But they've had almost 50,000 rides in the first 8 fiscal months of this fiscal year. Seems to me you need to charge $1 per trip then.

[FighttheGoodFight]

$6 seems high. Should be closer to $3. It would be nice to keep it affordable for folks and make it $1. Gotta love Oklahoma Public Transportation.

[Plutonic Panda]

I like how DART does it. 2.50 for 2 hours of riding or you can get a day pass for a little more or become a member by paying a monthly fee.

[Teo9969]

I like how DART does it. 2.50 for 2 hours of riding or you can get a day pass for a little more or become a member by paying a monthly fee.

You can go a lot more places on DART than you can Edmond Public Transit.

[jerrywall]

Of course, most of Edmond's bus system (all around town) will remain free. This is just the connection between Edmond and OKC. But this is the part I'd think both cities would especially want to encourage people to ride. It feeds to both cities public transport, and reduces traffic somewhat on Broadway Extension.

[Plutonic Panda]

You can go a lot more places on DART than you can Edmond Public Transit.

thats true.

[zookeeper]

I LOVE the DART. Things really have picked up around every station too. Look at what it did for Mockingbird! Love it.

[kevinpate]

Edmond may start charging for bus trips to Oklahoma City | Oklahoman.com

I think this is a bad idea. At least the price point they've chosen. $6 for a round trip? From the article, there was a $50,000 shortfall. Ok, make that money up. But they've had almost 50,000 rides in the first 8 fiscal months of this fiscal year. Seems to me you need to charge $1 per trip then.

FWIW, Sooner Express, the route between Norman and OKC which runs a few times a day on weekdays, has been priced at 3.00 each way for several months. I use it from time to time as 6.00 round trip is less than the combined expenses of gas, wear/tear and parking. Quite a bit less actually.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Round trip for $6 is completely reasonable. A city-to-city bus ride for $3 is pretty standard in any major metro.

[dankrutka]

I LOVE the DART. Things really have picked up around every station too. Look at what it did for Mockingbird! Love it.

It's good that there's some growth near Movkingbird. I live near a regional station and never use it because the system runs such poor hours. Of course, DART runs better hours than the A-Train, which I have to use. Unfortunately, the DART was just really poorly planned and has not been doing well overall as Jeff Speck detailed in Walkable City. I can never get any of my Dallas friends to step on DART. It's depressing because as a big public transportation advocate I'd love to use it more. Sorry, that's off topic and obviously has nothing to do with Edmond's transportation.

[Plutonic Panda]

It's good that there's some growth near Movkingbird. I live near a regional station and never use it because the system runs such poor hours. Of course, DART runs better hours than the A-Train, which I have to use. Unfortunately, the DART was just really poorly planned and has not been doing well overall as Jeff Speck detailed in Walkable City. I can never get any of my Dallas friends to step on DART. It's depressing because as a big public transportation advocate I'd love to use it more. Sorry, that's off topic and obviously has nothing to do with Edmond's transportation.

DART was running until 1am last Saturday. Is that not reasonable?

[jerrywall]

Round trip for $6 is completely reasonable. A city-to-city bus ride for $3 is pretty standard in any major metro.

Sure, and that's all well and good, except for a few things...

1) The goal is to get people to transition from auto commuting to using public transport. It's an uphill battle.
2) It's been free, so suddenly jumping up to $6 is a pretty dramatic increase.
3) This route includes the SS office, so keeping it cheap has societal benefits.
4) The increase is significantly more than is needed to cover the shortfall.

The regular suspects on this board always attack Edmond for not being progressive enough (by their standards - whatever those are) or being too NIMBY, or whatever, but show me another Oklahoma City that's offering free bussing all over town, and is being aggressive building walking and biking trails, and biking lanes. There's some real effort to transition folks to alternative transportations, and all of the sudden jumping from $0 to $6 seems like a step backwards.

[BBatesokc]

Ehhhh. We've looked into CityLink in the past to go to/from Edmond to OKC. I've actually ridden it just to see what its like. Even at FREE it was too inconvenient for our schedule - doesn't get there early enough and doesn't return late enough.

I personally don't see many Edmond residents paying $120/month (from FREE) to go to work if they already own a car and if gas prices stay below $4. Even though in reality, many already pay this or more in gas to go to work in their private vehicle.

I could see people paying $6 for the occasional need to go to OKC and return.

That's why we bought a Prius as our extra commuter car, right now it costs me about $1.70 for that same trip.

As mentioned, I think they'd need to ease people in to this. If you're riding CityLink now daily then you're probably on a budget. Suddenly finding $120/month in your budget for zero added benefit is not an easy sell IMO.

Charge $2-$4 and its easier to accept.

[Just the facts]

That's why we bought a Prius as our extra commuter car, right now it costs me about $1.70 for that same trip.

Does that price include the cost of the car? A $30,000 car driven 100,000 miles costs 30 cents a mile just to own.

[Teo9969]

Does that price include the cost of the car? A $30,000 car driven 100,000 miles costs 30 cents a mile just to own.

More, actually.

[BBatesokc]

Does that price include the cost of the car? A $30,000 car driven 100,000 miles costs 30 cents a mile just to own.

Didn't pay anywhere near that. Less than a third, actually (I prefer to buy at auction or private seller). Cash - so no payment and no interest. I've had this particular one for 2.5 years (I've owned others in the past). Its never been in the shop and I change my own oil. Just checked my QuickBooks and its only required gas, quarts of oil, filters, a rear wiper blade and two tires. Plus, I get to write off around $.56/mile - which I didn't take into consideration, so at this point the car is actually making me money. I could sell it today for more than I paid for it 2.5 years ago. Dave Ramsey changed my car buying habits years and years ago.