Last month I covered SEPTA’s Philadelphia operating and capital budget hearings for Next City. I’m not sure which were more depressing, but I’ll start with the operating budget 
hearings because they came first. They were packed with people, most of them pissed, most of them for good reason. But the policy choice that got the most flack, and for very goods reason, is the proposed trip limits on weekly (50 rides) and monthly passes (200 rides). And, yes, transfers count as a ride.
“Why call it a monthly or weekly card if it isn’t necessarily going to last that long?” one man asked.
“Installing a limited number of rides no longer makes it a viable alternative to a car,” said Jeff Kessler, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania who attended high school in Center City and regularly rides regional rail. “They don’t limit rides in New York City, or in Washington, D.C., or in San Francisco, or in Boston.” The decision to install ride limits was not explained during my time at either hearing, despite the fact that more objections were raised to this than to almost any other issue.
I questioned SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch about this later and he told me: “The intent would be to prevent pass sharing – to avoid situations where, for example, there is a single TransPass shared by multiple workers in an office.”
There are about a million better ways to handle that issue. SEPTA could, for instance, just ensure that you can’t use a card twice within a certain time limit. It could even be five minutes. Most people who are rushing to get somewhere won’t want to wait. And even if a few do, who cares? It costs way more to alienate a bunch of your riders with limited ride passes than it does to lose a few fares. In fact, this is the kind of thing that inspires people to drive, thus losing fares while increasing pollution, congestion, and my chances of getting killed on my bike.
Worst. Idea. Ever.
