Metro’s board of directors voted Thursday to send out for public comment a fare-increase plan that could drive passengers away from the transit system and into their personal vehicles.

Under the proposals, which riders will have a chance to weigh in on next month, daily parking fees could go up by as much as $1.15. Rush-hour rail fairs would grow by 30 to 80 cents each way, depending on the length of the trip.

The cost of riding Metro would jump almost $15 per week for some passengers. The maximum amount a passenger who drives to a station and then pays the maximum rail fare each way would go to $14.55, a $2.75 daily increase.

Regular bus fares would climb only 10 cents per trip for passengers paying cash and nothing for riders using SmarTrip cards. District of Columbia board members forced the large parking increase by refusing to go along with any plans to raise bus fares more than a dime.

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“This is a victory for bus riders,” D.C. Council Member Jim Graham said. “Many bus riders are poor. We are protecting those who can least afford to pay.”

Graham’s victory, however, could spark thousands of Metro passengers to quit the system and drive to work from their suburban roads, clogging roads that already are among the nation’s most congested.

“It would be cheaper to drive,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend. “They may be putting more people back into their cars. ”

The proposed increases are so high that the chairman of Metro’s Riders Advisory Council said he would consider driving to work twice a week if the increases are enacted.

“This is a huge increase, the largest in Metro’s history,” said Michael Snyder, who commutes from Rockville to Rosslyn every weekday.

Snyder said he would drive on Mondays and Fridays, when rush hours are not as ghoulish for commuting drivers.

Graham is counting on fears of nightmarish traffic jams to keep passengers from bolting Metro if the higher parking fees take effect.

“We may lose a few people, but the Plan B is so unacceptable and so unappealing,” Graham said. “Anyone who has come into the District of Columbia on [Interstate 66] or I-495 knows how bad it is.”

Suburban representatives on Metro’s board said they allowed the proposal to go to the public hearings so they could hear rider response, not because they approved of the stiff parking increase.

Several of those board members said they would not vote to implement a significant increase in parking fees after the hearings. The board can implement lower increases than were proposed Thursday but cannot increase the hikes without another round of hearings.

“Raising the daily fee by $1.15 is too much,” Montgomery County’s Peter Benjamin said.

A summary of increases Metro’s board voted to send out for public comment:

» Bus fares: To $1.35 from $1.25 for cash customers

» Rail fares: Minimum peak fares to $1.65 from $1.35; Maximum peak fares to $4.70 from $3.90

» Parking: Up to $1.15 increase

jrogalsky@dcexaminer.com

dc examiNation and poll: What do you think about the cost of riding Metro potentially increasing to $15 per week?