« Do over |
Main
| Johnson: I don't know if Holliday plans another run »
Higher fares for SCAT riders and water as a billboard fighter
Two items from our memos department:
First, we have a report from the city's transportation director proposing a new fare structure for the SCAT van service for disabled residents. In November, the council asked that the city discontinue a $35 dollar monthly pass that provides an unlimited number of rides. The idea was that if the riders paid by the ride, there would be fewer unnecessary trips and therefore lower costs.
In its place, Jim Westmoreland writes that the transit authority's board is suggesting giving discounts to riders that buy books of 10 rides at a time.
The short of it is that the average user of the monthly pass takes about 40 rides a month, meaning they pay about $.87 per ride. Under the new fare structure, the riders would pay anywhere from $1.40 to $1.54. That means the average rider will pay 60 to 76 percent more than under the current system.
The council will vote on the new rates at their Jan. 18 meeting. We'll have more on this before that meeting.
For tonight, the big issue for the city council will be a new policy aimed at discouraging billboards outside the city limits. I wrote about the policy for this morning's edition, but for those interested in the nitty-gritty, here's the entire resolution and explanation from the city's staff.
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.