Want to travel for free?

[dan_bgblue]

Seattle is the place to be

Seattle's transit system struggles as riders refuse to pay
Almost 70% of passengers ride for free

[CitizenBBN]

Is it fun for anyone else when leftists come up against human nature?

Let's see, you have an honor system, you don't punish anyone for cheating, and you're surprised people act in their own interest and not pay?

This is the problem of decriminalization. They seem to think people will just behave themselves in the absence of any punishment for NOT behaving oneself.

it's stunning they think this way.

[dan_bgblue]

When you spoke of criminals and the way they behave when not punished, I actually thought that was great a discussion point. I have to assume that the vast majority of the 75% 0f the non payers on the subway trains are normally law abiding citizens who would normally pay up rather than climbing over the turnstiles, if they were there, but since there is no longer any barrier, they just politely walk thru without tipping the government.

[dan_bgblue]

Hmmm, do I pay or don't I? Look like they assume that the senior citizens with walkers will pay up.

[PedroDaGr8]

I'll chime in on this one since I live up here.

First, yes, Seattle is filled with some absolutely nutso crazy politicians but mostly just left-wing politicians get voted in. While many here would consider me staunchly left-wing, I am center to center-left (worldwide politics I am center-right to solidly right). I mention this to state that this area is less left-wing than you would think but there aren't great options. For example, my wife (who is Viet) often will tell people that this area is far more racist than Danville, VA. As a result, many of the rightwing politicians are often just as crazy as the left wing ones AND racist to boot. Pretty hard to win when you are racist and 35% of the voting population is non-white. As further evidence of this, look at the number of people/groups arrested in Eastern King/Snohomish counties in relation to race-related attacks. This is something I never encountered in the South. Did the KKK exist? Yeah. Were they dropping fliers in people driveways to recruit? Nope. Yet, because these people hardcore vote R, the Republican party here has done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot time and time again. Ignoring a number of areas which wouldn't mind voting R if the options were more rational.

Getting back to the article, despite the way this article is written (a single quote from the most liberal person on the Transit Board), this has very little to do with liberal politics and is an issue with the light rail system here. What isn't obvious to people outside of metro-Seattle, at this time, there is a single light-rail line (if you ignore the gimmicky monorail). This single line, while relatively long, doesn't really go many places besides the airport. In general, outside of UW/SeattleU students wanting to hit up CapHill or Georgetown or extremely low income individuals trying to get to work, the light rail doesn't have very much ridership.

Further obfuscating things, there are actually two different public transit groups in the area: Sound Transit and King County Metro. Despite the way the article makes it sound, Sound Transit don't represent much of the public transit ridership in the area. SoundTransit only oversees this one light rail line and a handful express bus lines in the area (most of which cross county lines). The vast majority of public transit is handled by King County Metro Transit. They operate the majority of the bus lines (besides the few SoundTransit express lines) and don't have this issue (fare evasion runs around 4-5%).