colglover t1_iu46oox wrote on October 28, 2022 at 12:53 PM

Reply to comment by C0333 in Metro Exploring Short-Term Fare Hikes And Long-Term Fare Overhauls by Maxcactus

This. The people relying on metro are the people least able to afford fare hikes. The people most able to afford to subsidize this system are the lobbyists and business owners driving into the city in Mercedes E class sedans.

Introduce a congestion charge on every vehicle entering the city or a flat fare on the bridges over the Potomac and watch the cash to fund Metro pile up.

mcsul t1_iu5v4in wrote on October 28, 2022 at 7:49 PM

I'm not super-sure about how much DC could get from a program like that. The London congestion pricing program ends up increasing their transportation system's total funding by only ~3%. The various NYC proposals have all eventually been modeled around the same, I think. Cost to administer is roughly 25% of revenue brought in.

The money would obviously help, but only if it doesn't increase downstream costs like even lower office-worker spending downtown.

Now congestion pricing is good if your goal is to reduce traffic at peak times, but that's sort of a separate issue.

bakedpotatopiguy t1_iu47e4q wrote on October 28, 2022 at 12:59 PM

Does DC have any way at all for getting money from MD/VA drivers? If we can’t enforce collections on cars with $40k in tickets, how can we do that with every MD/VA car? This is an issue that only the conservative governors of MD and VA can help solve, and they have no reason to do so.

colglover t1_iu4ijj6 wrote on October 28, 2022 at 2:23 PM

Literally a fare collection station on the entry points would do it