RTD OKs Free Rides if Buses Are Late : Transit: The trial program is an effort to regain lost ridership. Undetermined is whether the driver or rider will determine if a bus is late.

A public relations experiment that would provide free rides whenever buses are 15 or more minutes late won the endorsement Thursday of the Southern California Rapid Transit District’s governing board.

The board’s 8-1 vote gave RTD officials the go-ahead to plan for the four-month program, which is slated to begin Sept. 1 and is designed to get people back on buses. Since the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, RTD ridership has plummeted by about 500,000 customers from a high of 1.8 million daily.

“This is a good and bright idea,” said RTD Director Marvin Holen, who supported the novel concept.

RTD board President Nick Patsaouras, who unveiled the proposal at a news conference Wednesday, told fellow board members that the RTD needs to do a better job of persuading consumers that public transportation is reliable.

The free rides, he said, are merely a way to provide an attractive alternative to cars and congestion.

RTD officials realize that many freeway commuters simply won’t give up their cars.

“We’ve tried different things in the past,” said one RTD official. “Maybe this will get them out of the car.”

In addition, the RTD has been stung by publicity about problems, ranging from violence on buses to late buses. Officials concede that a 60-cent fare hike in 1985, bringing the basic one-way fare to $1.10, drove off customers by the thousands.

The specifics of the experimental program, which may cost the RTD between $1 million and $2 million in lost revenue, have yet to be worked out. Among the unanswered questions is how the program might affect corporate-sponsored bus plans.

Also unanswered is who will decide if a bus is at least 15 minutes late--the driver or the rider. Patsaouras said he thought the often-heard axiom--”The customer is always right”--should prevail, even if a customer says the bus is 15 minutes and 1 second late.

“I believe the rider should be comfortable and depend (on the bus) to be on time,” he said.

RTD officials are expected to work out the details and bring them to the board for approval next month.

Not everyone on the board, however, favored the idea.

“This is an ill-conceived plan,” said La Puente City Councilman Charles H. Storing, who voted against it. “It assumes the buses are intentionally running late, but a lot of the reasons are traffic congestion, traffic accidents, road repairs, engine trouble or train crossings.

“For us to penalize the district is unacceptable.”

The leader of the RTD bus drivers’ union said he favored the idea as long as the drivers did not become scapegoats for poor on-time performance.

“A driver could get into a dispute on whether a bus was 15 minutes or 14 minutes or 12 minutes late,” said Earl Clark, general chairman of the United Transportation Union. “They got a lot of other things to deal with without getting into that.”

Several bus drivers in downtown Los Angeles said they supported the RTD board’s action.

“I want happy riders, not hassles,” said one Route 30 bus driver as he headed toward East Los Angeles. “If it’s my fault that the bus is late, the riders deserve a free ride.”

Another bus driver, battling to keep his schedule to the Eagle Rock Plaza shopping center, tersely told a reporter, “Can’t talk right now. You don’t want to make me late, do you?”