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endlessly_apollo t1_iu49y0g wrote

> Obviously, we haven’t provided the level of service that we’ve wanted to over the last couple of years…

Ok. So boom! Don’t raise fare prices— one flat rate to go anywhere should be the norm. $2.1 off-peak, $3 peak.

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jednorog t1_iu5pn7d wrote

As a DC resident, my instinct is that I'm not all that interested in paying $3 to go my 3 miles to work when my colleague rides an hour in from Reston for the same $3. My colleague is getting a very different level of service than I am for the same price.

Maybe I'd be interested if we also had a congestion tax on out-of-District cars. We could then use the revenue from that to subsidize the long-distance metro fares. But that idea is beyond WMATA's mandate.

I guess I'm in the minority but I actually think the current fare structure - where each pair of stations has its own cost - is fine. Not great, but not so terrible that it's worth all the hassle.

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ac9116 t1_iu6gu88 wrote

From an externalities perspective, that's way better though. We would be subsidizing reducing the largest amount of car miles and preventing more cars from driving into the city center during work days.

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jednorog t1_iudr3ps wrote

Sure, but we could do this with a carrot and stick model. Carrot of lower Metrorail prices, funded by the stick of congestion pricing for those who insist on driving into DC.

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CaptainObvious110 t1_iu6y44i wrote

As a person born and raised here I honestly don't think the fares for the metro are too expensive as they are.

Frankly, even if it was a dollar flat fee the people that are currently hoping the pay gates would still do it. They aren't doing it because they are impoverished. They are doing it because they can. There is a certain thrill that comes from breaking the rules and that's what a number of these folks are going for.

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