Goodby to the 50-Cent Ride

Nobody likes having to pay more money for a vital service like public transportation, but sometimes it’s necessary. This is one of those times for bus riders in Los Angeles County.

The fare increases approved last week by directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District will undoubtedly pose a financial hardship for some--especially the young, the old and the poor who rely on buses to get to work, to school or shopping. The basic cash fare for a one-way bus ride will increase on July 1 from 50 cents to 85 cents. Freeway express-bus one-way fares, currently ranging from 75 cents to $1.75, will increase to a range of $1.20 to $2.60.

The RTD’s staff had suggested a base fare of 75 cents, but the board opted to add a dime on top of that in order to keep the price increase on monthly passes as low as possible. Half the district’s 800,000 daily customers now use bus passes, and it is hoped that this will encourage more bus riders to purchase them. But the increase in the cost of monthly passes was still hefty--from $20 to $32 for a regular pass, $4 to $12 for a student pass and $4 to $7 for passes sold to elderly or handicapped riders.

The fare increases seem large because for the last three years the cost of riding a bus in Los Angeles has been artificially low. When county voters approved a half-cent sales-tax increase in 1981, under Proposition A, most of the money was supposed to go for the construction of new mass-transit systems like the proposed Metro Rail subway and the Long Beach-Los Angeles trolley line. But, to make the proposition more attractive to voters, a provision was added allowing the RTD and other local bus systems to use part of the money to reduce bus fares for three years. That is why the RTD’s basic fare in those days--for those who don’t remember, it was 85 cents--was reduced to 50 cents. The three-year subsidy will end July 1, and it’s time to pay the piper.

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a leading backer of Proposition A, is trying to prod officials of the county’s 84 cities to use some of their surplus revenues from the proposition to subsidize bus fares a while longer. The City of Los Angeles has already agreed to spend $3 million to keep the cost of monthly bus passes for elderly and handicapped city residents at $4. But, while Hahn’s intentions are commendable, it is probably unrealistic to expect 83 other cities to come to a consensus on how their Proposition A money should be spent.