Could New York's Fare Capping Pilot be a Model for the Bay Area?
New York MTA transit officials are thinking outside the (fare)box with their new fare capping policy that goes into effect on February 28. Bay Area advocates are keeping a watchful eye on New York MTA’s new pilot program as a method to recover ridership from the impacts of the pandemic by making the cost of transit more affordable and predictable. The New York pilot period will span four months, ending on June 30, with the goal of enticing riders to come back to public transit. Under the policy, New York City’s bus and subway passengers will pay no more than $33 per week when they opt into the OMNY contactless tap-and-pay program that was first introduced two years ago. New York follows the Portland region which has offered daily and monthly fare caps since 2017.
Passengers currently pay the standard $2.75 fare when using their OMNY card. The new fare capping policy allows unlimited rides within a 7-day period, beginning at 12:00am Monday and ending at 11:59pm on Sunday. After 12 trips, equaling $33, every subsequent trip is free of charge for the remainder of the 7-day period.
An unfortunate limitation of the New York pilot is that it does not initially work with the city’s Fair Fares program, which provides half-priced trips for more than 260,000 low-income New Yorkers. Fare capping is beneficial for cash-flow-constrained transit users who don’t need to pay for a pass in advance, but it would be even better if people who qualify for the income discount to have the discount apply to the fare cap program. In Portland, the low-income fare program gives people who qualify a further discount on the capped fares.
On average, U.S. transit systems saw a 75% decrease in daily ridership since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and Bay Area ridership is recovering more slowly than elsewhere in the US. And while agencies have been sustained by funding from the FTA, those funding sources will run dry.
Across the Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies, passengers are coming back…gradually. Ridership numbers show that both AC Transit and BART are seeing more passengers aboard vehicles for both weekdays and weekends. As COVID hopefully becomes less omnipresent in our daily lives, ridership could continue to increase over time. The question is: will ridership return to pre-pandemic levels?
During the pandemic, the Bay Area has been looking to streamline rider experience - including fares - in order to help bring riders back. The Fare Coordination and Integration Study that began in 2019 made recommendations in 2021 including multi-agency fare offerings that may include caps. Learning from the New York metropolitan area can be helpful for the Bay Area in considering the next steps toward integrated, affordable fares.