Two motions regarding fare media were unanimously approved today by the Executive Management & Audit Committee.
This first motion converts Metro calendar-based passes into “rolling” passes.
Current calendar-based passes are good for the specific week or month they are purchased (i.e. a monthly pass bought in May is only good during that month). The rolling pass system takes the calendar out of the equation and makes it so that duration of a pass begins upon first use (i.e. a 30-day pass bought and used on May 19th would be good through June 17th).
Rolling passes take advantage of the TAP card’s ability to track and intelligently expire fares and gives Metro riders more flexibility when it comes to pass purchases. Regular and reduced fare monthly and weekly passes would be converted to 30-day and 7-day passes, respectively. EZ transit passes are excluded due to regional fare issues. Here’s the staff report.
The second motion (here’s the staff report) reduces the price of day pass from $6 to $5 on a test basis with the goal of enticing new riders looking for transportation alternatives in light of high gas prices and a sour economy. Staff hopes that the dollar discount will make trips that involve transfers more agreeable for riders. A single ride fare on Metro is $1.50; the day pass allows for an unlimited number of rides in a day, so the fourth trip of the day would be discounted for riders.
Board members on the Executive Management & Audit Committee said these are the sort of measures that should be taken to benefit riders and visitors and to encourage more ridership. Staff was also instructed by directors to ensure that riders can purchase day passes on buses even if they don’t currently have a TAP card.
The day pass was created in 2004 with a price of $3. It was raised to $5 in 2008 and $6 in 2010.
Pending approval of the full Board at their regular meeting next week, rolling passes would go into effect on July 1 and $5 day passes would come later in the summer.
Categories: Inside Metro, Policy & Funding
As Metro is planned to move toward 30-day and 7-day passes rather than the current passes for a specific week or month, the EZ Pass should definitely be expanded into week and day passes as they’ve only sold month passes for an EZ Pass
The use of a transfer as an emergency day pass shoul be stopped. In some parts of the city people take advantage of this transfers and the drivers can not do much about it.
Aww, look at TAP finally becoming like every other contactless transit pass in the world. Maybe in the next few decades, they’ll figure out how to provide actual incentives for people to start topping up on TAP by providing discounted fare rates for TAP riders (i.e. Boston’s CharlieCard, Seoul’s T-Money card) and extra money credits for loading up large cash values onto the card (NY MetroCard).
[…] Metro Looking at Rolling Passes, Not Just Cheaper Day Passes (Blog Downtown, The Source) […]
Metro , needs to get rid of the day passes and like most other cities , day passes are exactly what they say they are , day passes , they need to be valid for 24 hours not just the day , so a person gets a full 24 hours ” ie. day ” to use it , no matter when it was purchased.
Great to see Metro making these changes to entice new riders!
The visitors aren’t going to have much of a chance at the TAP pass system until bus drivers carry them.
Hard to believe TAP is finally getting it’s act together. Basically every other transit system in the world allows for 30 day passes. Thank you Art Leahy and whomever else was responsible for making this happen
How about posting bus schedules and fare info at all bus stops? This would definitely increase ridership and speed up loading time.
Actually monthly passes are now on TAP cards not paper passes. It is a great deal if you ride metro a lot and need to get a pass but picked it up later in a month, your pass is good for 30 days instead of till the end of that month.
It would be nice if the weekly pass could be bought online. Five dollar day pass is a fair price and should entice more people to ride. This is another pass we should be able to purschase online and store them on the card. A rolling monthly and weekly pass is great for people visiting and takes all the guess work out of when to buy the pass.
At a metro rail station, will it be possible to load one’s TAP card for a one-day pass by just inserting the EXACT minimum currency amount of %5.00 (or $1.80 for seniors)?
Or would it be necessary to buy a one-day pass in the form of a PAPER ticket for a denomination below what the vending machine accepts?
Even though I use the EZ Pass, this sounds like a great deal for those who strictly use Metro passes.
I don’t think I fully understand the Rolling Pass, but it sounds sort of like a bad deal for Employees that are enrolled in a Metro Program with their employers who use monthly bus passes. Plus, monthly passes are basic pieces of paper you just flash at the driver or the metro fare-checkers. How would one establish first use?
Wow! The day pass is going to be $5 soon. That’s a good deal for summer vacation.
are the weekly and monthly pass prices also going down? or is that for later?
More happy about the rolling calendar than the lessened day pass, though I use either depending on work situation.
Thank you Metro!
(not even going to snark, howz about that?)