The Multnomah Youth Commission is working with TriMet to establish free transit passes for all students in the region in 6th-12th grades, with a goal of beginning a pilot program for students in Portland Public Schools (one district) in September of this year. They’re seeking community support in the form of letters of encouragement to Fred Hansen, General Manager of TriMet:
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS – Please mail your support letter to the Multnomah Youth Commission (not directly to TriMet). We’ll collect all of the letters and present them to Mr. Fred Hansen of TriMet. Our intent is to support, encourage and thank Mr. Hansen for his work. Your letter should be addressed to Mr. Hansen (as shown in the sample below) – but please actually mail it to the MYC at the following address as soon as you’re able:
Multnomah Youth Commission
c/o Youth Engagement Program
1221 SW 4th Ave., Suite 340
Portland, OR 97204Or email it to multnomahyouth@gmail.com
Thank you from the MYC Co-chairs Jack MacNichol (Grant HS) and alice Kersting (Portland State University) and MYC YouthPass Committee Co-chairs Sarah Meyerowitz (Wilson HS) and Katherine Westmoreland (David Douglas HS). If you have questions, please call Nate at 503-823-4027.
Key points for letters of support:
- Thank Mr. Hansen for working with top education and government leaders, and youth from the Multnomah Youth Commission, on a project to explore free access to public transportation for local youth.
- Following national models, a free youth pass program could address many positive outcomes in our community, including: reducing car traffic around schools; building current and future ridership for TriMet; reducing carbon emissions; reducing barriers to youth participation in school, enrichment opportunities and employment; and increasing school districts’ flexibility for academic programming. PLEASE ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC WAYS THAT FREE YOUTH TRANSIT COULD BENEFIT YOUR ORGANIZATION & THOSE YOU WORK WITH.
- Thank Mr. Hansen for pursuing the available funding for free youth transportation through the Oregon Department of Energy’s Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) program. The State of Oregon’s BETC program currently funds free public transportation for youth in Lane County (http://www.ltd.org) – and we’re excited to bring the same benefits to our community!
- Recognize TriMet’s need to establish a program that is sustainable and manageable. Encourage Mr. Hansen to continue working toward a September 2008 start date for a pilot program to offer free passes to all 6th – 12th grade students in the Portland Public School district, with the intention to evaluate program success and expand the program throughout the city and county in the near future. (Pilot would serve approximately 25,000 youth in the ‘08-‘09 school year – a number comparable to the successful Lane County program.)
0 responses to “A Good Idea For Youth”
I did a study last fall of university transit programs; part of the study compared the fares that ‘youth’ paid compared to university students in the same town.
Portland came out as having some of the highest discrepancy (in terms of jump in fare) between HS and University students.
I’d like to see the ‘FlexPass’ program improved and moved from PSU control to a monolithic “university student” program managed by Tri-Met. The current transit inducements at PSU are hamstrung by the dysunctional student fee committee, and amount to something like a $10/month discount with only ~3,200 students/term participating.
I rode the local transit[Portland Traction Co.] from 80th and Glisan to Washington High School every day for 4 years, the fare was 4 cents, they issued a photo pass which was not valid in rush hour [4 to 6 pm]… they restocked their pennies big time, and worked very well…
My company pays for 1/2 of my TriMet pass, but previously I was paying full price for it. As it is my main transportation, I haven’t a problem doing so. When I was growing up in the south San Francisco bay area, we used the city busses to get to school, and thus received youth passes from the school district. I know that my dad could have afforded to purchase a youth pass for me, but there were a lot of kids in my neighborhood especially who couldn’t afford one, and for whom the only transportation was the bus. I think this is a fantastic idea.
Why did they draw the line at 6th grade? That means that 2nd through 5th grade kids will have to pay for passes.
(age 6 and under ride free, so usually 7year olds are around second grade).
And why only public schools? Why not all students? Wouldn’t transit passes for kids in private schools or homeschool benefit from transit passes as well? Those parents pay taxes too.. I can think of several private schools that could use transit passes for the students….
Is it about transportation, or economic subsidy? If it is to encourage transit use than it should include ALL students. If it is an economic subsidy then there should be income restrictions.
John, I don’t know why 6th grade was selected as the cutoff, perhaps the organizers are reading and will reply (although as a parent, I don’t think I was ready to have my kids using transit unaccompanied before that age).
On the public school question, I think you’re confusing the district name (Portland Public Schools is one specific district) for the PILOT program with public versus private. As I read the manifesto, the ultimate goal is all students.
I wouldn’t send my young kids unaccompanied either, probably until at least middle school – but that doesn’t mean they can’t ride with me before that age!
I often take my child to school on the bus.
This sounds like a promising program.
Cheers!
I’m Caroline Brinster and I’m a MYC member and on the Youth Pass committee. I’m glad that you’re all in support of this project to have free bus fares for 6th-12th grade PPS students. The MYC really appreciates your support and feedback, I personally do. I have rode Tri-met every day to school since the 6th grade and this would be a great change for Portland to give students free bus passes.
Question 1:
How much revenue will be lost by TriMet?
Question 2:
If the answer to Question 1 is significant, what is the response to recouping that lost revenue?
Question 3:
If the answer to Question 2 involves a fare increase for everyone else, explain why I should pay yet another fare increase when my fares have already gone up several times and my current level of transit service provided by TriMet has gone down.
The idea sounds great, until you actually start working on the mechanics. And then, shouldn’t Senior Citizens get free transit? (Who is a Senior – over 55? Over 60? Over 62? 65? 68? 70?) How about disabled persons? (What constitutes a disability?) War veterans? Active-Duty Military? (Do Reservists count?) Low Income citizens?
Now you’ve just created an argument over which class of citizens is more worthy of free transit than other citizens. Why are kids more deserving of free transit than senior citizens?
I’m sorry, but fair is fair. Kids (and Senior Citizens) get DISCOUNTED transit fare today. Unless you can promise that I won’t get another fare increase and suffer through more service cutbacks, I can’t support this proposal. Maybe if there is a proposal to reduce the “student” fare to a $1.00 (which is 40 cents less than the current fare), maybe. But free?
“Why are kids more deserving of free transit than senior citizens?”
Two reasons: a) they’re children, Uncle Scrooge!
b) School is compulsory. The government makes them go.
But I think the real reason is that HC passes aren’t necessarily trying to talk senior citizens into “bus”sing instead of “car”ring. It’s an acknowledgement that they’re frequently on fixed incomes and it’s not as expensive to give them a discount as it is general fare because there are fewer of them and fewer of them commute during peak hours.
With a youth pass, we’re trying to talk people out of driving their kids to school. I live next to a middle school. At 8:50, ten minutes before the bell rings, traffic is so bad on my street I can’t get my bike through there. Please, please put those kids on a bus.
It’s important to understand the difference between an incentive and a subsidy. I work for the one state agency that doesn’t discount passes at all – DEQ. Seem ironic? Not when you consider that the policy’s goal was to decrease car commuting to work – without the subsidy, DEQ had already met all the goals. No extra benefit for the cost.
It’s not a question of who deserves free fare, but who we can talk into riding by giving them free fare.
Allison,
In the case of Older Adults and People with Disabilities, it would probably be more cost effective big-picture wise to provide them with free transit. Especially with the projected population over 60 increases, it would be best to give them every incentive to be choice riders as soon as possible.
With a youth pass, we’re trying to talk people out of driving their kids to school. I live next to a middle school. At 8:50, ten minutes before the bell rings, traffic is so bad on my street I can’t get my bike through there. Please, please put those kids on a bus.
I don’t think that giving away free TriMet passes will solve the problem.
I grew up in a community that had free school transportation up to high school – and no local transit. As long as you lived at least one mile away from the school, you had access to free transportation.
There was still a LONG line of cars at elementary and middle schools, because many parents did not want to put their kids on a school bus. (I was not one of them, I got my rear end on a bike or walked – 1.25 miles from my house to my middle school; .85 miles to my high school.)
It’s important to understand the difference between an incentive and a subsidy
An “incentive” is when someone voluntarily provides a reward, gift or payment to encourage someone to do something.
A “subsidy” is when someone is required to pay someone else to do something.
So, if you want to create an “incentive”, the solution is not to take TriMet funds that I pay into (through income and property taxes and my annual pass) and expect a certain level of service (that TriMet already does not provide) and provide an enhanced service to another group of transit riders while degrading my level of service. The solution is to create a non-profit fund that accepts donations from various individuals and companies that is then used to enter into a group pass purchase with TriMet that is then used to pay for the passes for kids that want them.
That way TriMet gets more ridership AND does not lose revenue; I as a taxpayer and a TriMet rider doesn’t have to unnecessarily pay for a special group to get better service while I see my service continue to go downhill.
As one of the adults supporting this amazing group of young people I wanted to chime in and answer a few questions people have. The program is funded through the State Department of Energy’s Business Energy Tax Credit or BETC (Betsy). That program allows a business or businesses and a local transit district to work together to provide free public transportation for students as a way to decrease the environment impacts on our communities. The business applies for the tax credit and forwards the majority of the credit (keeping a small cut for themselves) to the transit district, Trimet in our case, to pay for free student transportation. This program is currently running and working well in Lane County (Eugene). The BETC is where the 6-12 grade limitation came from, the Youth Commission was orginally interesed in something that would apply to any student under the age of 24. Trimet’s fears are that they have to run the program for a year before they get the tax credit so if the reimbursement isn’t timely or as large as expected it might open them up to some financial liability. This has not been the case in Lane County. We are working with the City/County/School district to help protect and support Trimet and avoid any unintended consequences. Also, to answer Erik’s question- one reason why Portland Public School students especially deserve free bus passes is because PPS, unlike every other district in the region, does NOT provide yellow buses for their students. The majority of students must use Trimet or personal transportation to get to school. Thanks for everyone’s support and the questions and concerns too. The Youth Commissioners don’t expect everyone to agree with them and they are trained to work with adults to find solutions, not just press their own position so these questions make their proposal stronger. Thanks for hosting the blog and starting this thread Chris.
Erik’s question- one reason why Portland Public School students especially deserve free bus passes is because PPS, unlike every other district in the region, does NOT provide yellow buses for their students.
OK, but why is TriMet (read: myself) having to subsidize this?
Or let’s try the argument this way: PPS, like every other school district, gets funding specifically for pupil transportation. PPS, unlike every other school district in Oregon, pockets it and puts it into the general fund. Which means students who “pay” for transportation (since they are entitled to it like any other student) subsidize other District programs while they have to pay additional for transportation.
If, and I mean IF, PPS was required to turn these funds over to TriMet which fully funded free pupil transportation during the school year (essentially a student’s valid school ID would be a valid TriMet fare within zones one and two (because it’s paid for by Portland public schools there is no reason for a student to need to travel to zone 3 which is entirely outside of the PPS district) from September 1 through June 30), then that’s not a problem (since TriMet isn’t subsidizing it, it is a funds transfer from PPS to TriMet).
With the ongoing meta-discussion regarding fares and if they’re enough to cover current operations, I personally don’t think this is the right time for free public transportation for anyone.
If anything, the businesses that claim they “demand” all these things out of high school graduates should be mandated to hire a certain number of them to permanent positions after their high school education… or back from that table entirely. That would help the kids a lot more than free public transit (that they have the chance to get a job after they’ve graduated high school), as well as increase the payroll tax coffers.
Has anyone thought that an unintended consequence could be that the kids think they have the right of public transit vs. the privilege of public transit (and this “right” continues beyond their school years)?
BTW… when I was a student in PPS in the 90s, I walked a mile and a half to middle school most days because I was the kid that was constantly beat up and the district refused to do anything about it, despite repeated efforts by my mother and I to do something. As a HS student, I walked a mile down the road because family didn’t think it was safe.
When I moved and transferred to another district halfway through my Freshman year of HS, I still walked 1+ miles each way… and TriMet never did (and still doesn’t) have any service to that high school! This is at the same time Passadore is suggesting Oregon raise the minimum driving age.
“I personally don’t think this is the right time for free public transportation for anyone.”
I second that motion……
AND…….
It’s about time to get rid of fareless square too….
I go to an alternative school, that is run by PPS, but we’re not eligible for the free bus passes because of the fact that we’re an alternative school. There have been times that I could not get to school because of money. I should not have to suffer, have my education be taken away from me because I can’t pay the bus fare to go to school.
I am totally for the free bus passes for PPS kids.
Mind you, it takes me 45 mins on a bus to get to my school, I live in the NE part of portland, and my school is in the SE…so I can’t walk or take a bike there every day, and my dad, who is a single parent, certainly can’t drive me because he has a truck, and it cost over $100 to fill up the tank with gas.