Quote:
Originally Posted by Vantage
I live in Coquitlam and would support a mix of distance based fares and mode specific fares. Distance based applying to Skytrain only, with a flat rate for busses. I'd happily pay more for a faster and more comfortable journey on Skytrain. If I didn't want to pay the higher fare then I'd just take a bus.
I think a switch to distance based fares would be beneficial to many residents in Metro Vancouver.
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Distance based fares actually work out better in the long run because people don't feel ripped off when they go between two neighbouring zones frequently.
To put it in context, someone who shops or works at Metropolis at Metrotown but lives at Joyce station is paying two zones to take a 3 minute skytrain ride (that takes 10 minutes by car), while someone who coming all the way from downtown (instead of say Nanaimo which is 2.7km) to Joyce only pays one zone, despite being 8.3km (and a 20 minute drive, or 13 minute train ride.) In both cases the train is faster than driving, but the shorter distance is charged more.
The same also applied to the bus system when it was still in the zone system. So from a fairness point of view, people who live near zone boundaries are discouraged from going into the neighboring boundary as part of a work commute unless they want to pay for a monthly transit pass.
A similar issue exists between New West/Surrey, and Richmond/Vancouver and North Vancouver/Vancouver, the only part of the transit system that is distance based is the WCE, owing to the fact that it has 5 zones and a return-ticket system, of which zone 4 is everything after the Pitt River, and zone 5 is Mission which isn't even in the Metro Vancouver transit area(and can't transfer to it, because CFV doesn't have Compass readers.) People currently between the Pitt River and Mission are still in zone 3 as far as the transit system is concerned.