JTA Skyway to Remain Fare-Free for Another Year

[Ocklawaha]

Wow, JTA finally has an original idea... and it's ours!

[PeeJayEss]

However, I have noticed something different. In many trips that I have been on recently between Hemming Plaza and Rosa Parks there has been standing room only. During this trip, the Skyway car seems to tilt more than I remember it in doing in the past when there were less riders. In some cases, the tilt during the turn has become so severe that I actually became uneasy.

Might want to tell the people standing to lay on the ground instead...keep that center of gravity low 

[exnewsman]

Wow, JTA finally has an original idea... and it's ours!

Sorry to burst your bubble there Ock - but I heard Michael Blaylock talked about his desire to make the Skyway free long before there was a MJ. I think that that often times (and especially in local/state government) - politics gets in the way of a good idea. Just glad this free thing is working out as well as it is. I've always considered the Skyway a vastly underappreciated resource in Jacksonville.

[thelakelander]

If I recall, making the skyway fare free was included as a "project" in the Downtown TCEA. However, it was never acted on. It probably still wouldn't be free if the old fare collection equipment was working properly.

[Charles Hunter]

WJXT was taking credit for the free fare, due to their investigation of fare evaders.

[thelakelander]

WJXT never took the position that going free fare and terminating bus routes into it would significantly increase ridership without raising costs.  In the last six years, I've only seen that position openly promoted here.  WJXT's stuff was focused on people jumping the turnstiles.

[Ocklawaha]

Well I hate to be the 800 pound gorilla in the room, but um, I believe I might have a newspaper clipping from around 1990-95 where that suggestion was made. Though the concept might not have been so pure, something about FREE transfers if I recall.

[thelakelander]

Ever wonder why tollroads have lower auto trips in general than freeways?  There is no gorilla in the room.  It should be common sense that going fare free and reducing parallel bus routes would lead to an increase in ridership.  What's being discussed on this site isn't anything groundbreaking, if one takes a detailed look at these things outside of Duval County.

[Ocklawaha]

Exactly, it ain't rocket science. I've been pestering them about transfers for just a year shy of how long I've been hollering about streetcars. George Harmon did a story on this and the 'subscription bus' concept too. I think the idea of 'fare free' and 'free transfers' might have been confusing for some. The idea of a standard 2 hour bus ticket, usable on SKYWAY, BUS, MAX BUS, WATER TAXI, STREETCARS, COMMUTER RAIL AND POGO STICKS, is perhaps the easiest form of increasing both ridership and revenue.

[duvaldude08]

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority Board of Directors has approved a staff recommendation to continue the Skyway as a fare-free mode of transportation. The Skyway has been fare-free since Jan. 30, and will remain so for at least the next fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2013.

JTA’s latest report on the progress of the Skyway details the impact that the fare elimination has had on ridership. In the six-month period analyzed (February-July), Skyway ridership grew by 62.7 percent or 480,956 boardings, compared to 295,602 boardings for the same period in 2011.

The report also found that the fare-free Skyway has supported JTA’s transit redesign efforts, including the elimination of the Beaver and Bay Street trolleys, the truncation of bus routes into Skyway stations and the linking of additional bus routes to Skyway stations.

[spuwho]

Free is great and it really builds downtown transit use over time, but you have to have the will to maintain it.

Seattle Metro implemented a "free transit zone" in downtown since 1973, but unfortunately due to some significant costs of restructuring the area mass transit, they are eliminating the "free zone" this month.



Interesting that it only costs Seattle Metro $400k annual to maintain that subsidy, which is economical considering the number of buses that they run downtown.

The report is here:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019150572_ridefree14m.html

[thelakelander]

One thing going for us is to get rid of free, we'd have to invest big money up front in purchasing a new fare collection system.  The cost spent in doing that may not be worth the resulting drop in ridership at this point.

[Ocklawaha]

Now that we've proved the damn thing will carry hoards of transfer passengers if it was operated right as a downtown transfer/circulator, its time to finish this little railroad.

1. Get that stadium line done.

2. Head to Atlantic, west of the tracks in San Marco.

3. Brooklyn is about to bloom, SERVE IT.

4. That new VA clinic, the Public Health Department and Shand's would spell success for a northward line.

5. The farmers market expansion and the ability to leap over the railroad yards would make Woodstock Park a extension worthy of study.

[dougskiles]

The work that lies ahead will be in the funding.  There are two viable sources that I see:

1) Mobility Fee (if we ever start collecting it)
2) Value capture from the land development that occurs around the stations (in TIF districts) - which I am working to setup for the San Marco extension.  If successful, it could be the model for the other extensions.

[thelakelander]

^I agree with these potential revenue streams.  The concept of the mobility fee helps generate funds for long term capital improvement projects, plus redevelopment and infill around major transit corridors.  The concept of TOD on JTA owned properties and in TIF districts helps generate additional funds for annual maintenance.  I sat in a presentation a few weeks back where transit officials in Miami discussed how TOD around Metrorail's stations generates millions annually (and more built in riders) to help maintain transit operations.