OR: Editorial: Is charging for the bus a step forward or a step back?

Riding the bus is not a thing most people in Bend do. Cascades East Transit seems trapped in a cul de sac. The bus service isn’t omnipresent enough for many to consider taking the bus as an option.

Bend doesn’t have the density of some metro areas. Finding the money to upgrade the system is not easy.

What if the system raised fees? Is that a solution? Or would it create new problems?

Riding the bus in Bend is free today. A draft plan is to start requiring riders to have a transit pass on Sept. 1 and to start paying a fee on Oct. 1.

The proposed fee per trip for Cascades East Transit would be $2 with a maximum daily rate of $6. A monthly pass would cost $60 and an annual would be $500. Reduced fares would be available for seniors and disabled people at 50% off.

Those numbers are just initial proposals. If there are rates, they would be set by the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council board.

Many people who ride the bus in Central Oregon don’t have any other means of reliable transportation. Switching from being able to ride for free to paying for every ride could be a substantial change for some.

The concept proposed by staff of Cascades East Transit is not to shift the cost of the system to bus customers. If the new fares raised $400,000 a year, that might, though, enable the bus service to buy more buses over time or hire more drivers – offer a little more.

Most city transit systems across the nation do not rely on fares to pay the full cost of the service. The American Public Transit Association said that in 2021 only 12% of transit systems’ operating costs were covered by fares.

It’s not clear what charging a fee would do to ridership rates. Would it create disputes for drivers and customers over fares? How many people that rely on buses to get around Central Oregon would not be able to? Would the fees charged improve the product enough to counterbalance any problems?

There was some decidedly troubling language used during the Regional Public Transit Advisory Committee meeting in February that charging fares might “clean up the clientele.” Before you get out your pitchforks, that was not why anyone at the meeting was advocating charging a fee.

There is a bigger question: Is it right for Central Oregon to focus on a strategy of a fare-based, fixed-route system?

Even with some increases in service from a fee, we can’t imagine the fixed-route system is going to be transformed into something many more people would want to ride, at least in the near future. Wouldn’t more people consider using the bus if it was more of a demand-driven micro-transit system, instead of a conventional, fixed-route system? People used to services such as Lyft, Uber or taxis might be more willing to use it. And if the rides could be coordinated through data, that would be impressive. It would almost certainly be more expensive per mile than a fixed-route service. But it could be a way to supply something that would get more people demanding transit.

We don’t think there is a unanimous verdict about microtransit’s potential. Not every new, shiny idea is the right answer. Other communities are experimenting with such strategies. We hope it will at least be weighed here, as well. Central Oregon seems headed down the well-traveled road to doubling down on fixed-route buses.

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