Woo hoo! Fare-jumper tickets on MAX.
Tri-Met's acting all rough and tough on the legion of scofflaws who don't pay money to ride Portland's wonderful, turnstile-free rail network. Those tickets are $175 apiece!
Yes, but Tri-Met actually nets only $69 of that -- the rest goes to the state and the county. And so, to pay for the six new fare "supervisors," who probably make $100,000 a year including benefits, it would take 8,696 citations that actually get paid every year to break even. That's 24 new paid citations every day, including weekends, above what Tri-Met's already been collecting. Think that's gonna happen?
They don't have this problem on buses -- at least the ones on which the driver actually enforces the fare rules.
Yes, but Tri-Met actually nets only $69 of that -- the rest goes to the state and the county. And so, to pay for the six new fare "supervisors," who probably make $100,000 a year including benefits, it would take 8,696 citations that actually get paid every year to break even. That's 24 new paid citations every day, including weekends, above what Tri-Met's already been collecting. Think that's gonna happen?
They don't have this problem on buses -- at least the ones on which the driver actually enforces the fare rules.
OK another numbers game here. So from what I am reading here is what I come up with:
ReplyDeleteOne Fare Inspector/Supervisor would cost about $100,000.00 a year (including benefits)
If this inspector gave two tickets an hour for an eight hour shift
TriMet =$1,104.00
Portland =$1,696.00
A five day work week that inspector
TriMet =$5,520.00
Portland =$8,480.00
In one year
TriMet =$287,040.00
Portland =$440,960.00
This would be a total of $728,000.00 that one fare inspector could possably generate back into our economy just by giving two tickes and hour, eight hours a day, five days a week and fifty two weeks a year.
Ask any bus driver if they see at least ten fare evations in a shift. To ask the operator to put themselves at risk for a fare is asking alot. Inspectors are trained, have direct communications with police and travel in pairs. Operators are alone and the few minutes it might take for help to arrive is not worth the risk.
Even if only half the tickets given was collected it would still not only pay for that inspector it would increase city revenue. Do the math.
So is Jack B.'s aside about "citations that actually get paid" a red herring or is there a large percentage of tickets that are never collected?
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