Incentivize Taking Transit More Often By Creating A Monthly Fare Cap

Idea:

The city transit agency has been implementing tech solutions to improve service, but I have not seen this over powered solution in their plans. Fredericton has been having issues with ridership, and costs of running the buses. An outstanding way to encourage people to fill in those empty bus seats is to create and advertise a fare cap for either a day, a week, or a month of riding. After someone goes over the monthly number of let's say 40-50 rides the rest of the month is free. This way the city will get a steady stream of income from a bigger base of people wishing to take advantage of the cap to get around for free at the end of the month for no cost. The city always has to run the buses, so having a fare cap overall will increase revenues by encouraging people to meet the cap every week/month, and the city could get rid of monthly passes to replace it with this system. With the increased revenue you could do more consistent service. This is done in many successful cities like London England, Edmonton Alberta, and is being recommended for Toronto. It could be done through the new debit tap system implemented recently (this I recommend. They're doing debit fare caps in Lethbridge AB a similar city). It would also be a gift to your most loyal customers, increasing overall happiness with the service. This comes at VERY little service cost to the city, so there are only upsides to not only revenue, but to the economic mobility of the poor living here once the initial investment is made.

Staff Feedback:

Thank you for your response and some really great ideas! Right now our goal is to implement technical tools and conduct research to ensure that we plan and provide the proper level of service for the city. At this time we are working to gather information through service technology data, ridership data, and public and business consultations. Once this information is gathered and analyzed, a service plan will be developed for Council’s consideration. Your thoughts have been shared with the team at Transit. Thanks again!