I think it's highly unethical that Trimet officials give no leeway to riders that do not have the correct pass on the 1st of the month! Checks don't come in till the 3rd of the month for many riders! People that have passes for years but didnt get them on time for the first have gotten ticketed!
SHAME SHAME SHAME!
Time for a 31-day pass then....
ReplyDeleteYou gotta cut these people some slack Chad! Damn this ain't Iraq!
ReplyDeleteNo, what I am saying is, if TriMet offered a 31-day pass, people could buy the pass when they get paid, and thus would last until the next (month or so away) payday, which if you get paid bi weekly, or even weekly, is 28 days. You could structure to your paydays, instead of the 1st of the month.
ReplyDeleteIn your example, if you get paid on the 3rd, you could buy your pass for the 4th, and would ALWAYS be good THRU the 3rd of the following month, longer when the month is shorter. Offers flexibility.
ReplyDeleteGotcha Chad!
ReplyDeleteRight on!
30-day passes are coming. But for now they will only be available at the ticket office.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I don't see a real reason why they couldn't replace monthly passes from TVMs and maybe other places (they at least were talking about giving sellers print-on-demand devices) with those. The only downside is TriMet wouldn't get the "extra" money from someone purchasing a month pass partway through the month. And maybe the programming beyond changing prices being costlier. But it could improve TVM reliability by spreading out the purchasing.
I should add that ideally, people would budget and be able to have a cash flow that doesn't constrain them to buying things on certain days. As in they would be able to buy a given month's pass with the previous month's money if their money doesn't come by the 1st.
ReplyDeleteIdeally people wouldn't have to literally live paycheck to paycheck (or SS check or whatever) and would be able to budget for a cash flow with no unexpected expenses ever coming up, but since when is the world ideal? The reality is that if you don't have some sort of savings already backed up, it's freaking hard to magically accumulate some.
ReplyDeleteUnderstood. But all they would have to do is come up with enough money to, for one month only, purchase two passes--one for that month and one for the next month. In following months, they would purchase a pass each month as normal, but purchase the next month's pass.
ReplyDeleteI think SMART gives you a day or two grace period on passes.
ReplyDeleteOf course if you ride smart enough then they just stop looking at your pass altogether because every single operator knows you have a pass. ;-)
"I should add that ideally, people would budget and be able to have a cash flow that doesn't constrain them to buying things on certain days"
ReplyDeleteJason, why don't you actually get outside your little inner circle and see how the real world works.
I deal with this kind of question every day working for the power company. In an ideal world, TriMet would have brand new buses every 12 years, not one bus would have a crush load, every bus stop would be fully developed, buses would always be on time, every 15 minutes or better, and everyone would ride the bus.
Reality sets in, and you see the folks whose social security checks don't cover rent (much less the electric bill, the doctor's bill, the grocery bill, the water bill, etc.) The hot water heater breaks and they get a $400 electric bill as a result; or the water line breaks causing both a high electric and a high water bill. The foundation cracks. The roof leaks. The window breaks. The car breaks down. The folks haven't had a job for two plus years, can't afford to move, can't afford to stay.
Believe it or not, coming up with an extra $75 isn't as easy as you make it out to be. I talk to people who have to resort to selling personal possessions in order to make the electric bill. And we're pretty generous with payment arrangements and making "one-time" exceptions unlike some other companies that'll shut you off for being five days late.
It must be nice to live in a subsidized Portland condo. For the rest of the world it isn't that easy. Come to my work and hold down a real job, dealing with real problems. With your unsympathetic, "I'm better than you", "know it all" attitude, you wouldn't last one hour in the first-day orientation. (And in my class we had someone with that attitude who somehow made it through the first, but not the second, day.)
Ideally, people like flexibility, and TriMet has taken one more step to helping out that crowd. Not everyone can have that perfect financial situation.
ReplyDeleteI fully understand what the real world is like, and how some people are on a very low rung. That's why I used the word "ideally".
ReplyDeleteAnd they would only have to come up with the cost of a pass for a few days, since when they get their just-after-the-1st payment, they wouldn't need to use it to purchase a pass. Maybe they have thing(s) that aren't so time sensitive and can be purchased with that next payment instead.
But, bottom line, I agree that if the passes are already being printed on-demand, converting to 30- or 31-day passes is reasonable. As I said, it could help TVM reliability, as well as maybe lines at the ticket office.
They don't need to send fare inspectors onto the trains on the 1st of the month when the last day of the month falls on a Sunday.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned that is despicable behavior towards the very people this damn transit agency is supposed to be serving.
See Cameron Johnson's comment, "you are supposed to be public servants not our masters!"