Professor, your points are well taken. I'm aware that a 33% fare increase would only help DDOT's bottom line in a relatively small way. But I also don't think that ridership would be affected more than minimally. The bottom line is that DDOT's farebox recovery rate is nearly the lowest of all major US cities. For the most part, only very small cities, the kind that provide services like free on-call van rides to senior citizens, have lower rates. Detroiters have no reason not to contribute at the farebox like residents residing in peer cities. If we're asking for subsidies from other sources, especially federal and state sources, we should be paying what other folks pay. Even if it only modestly improves the budget numbers.
Bookmarks