Is Big Blue Bus being fair about new bus fares?

Nobody will argue that Santa Monica City's Big Blue Bus offers a fantastic service to the community. Despite the problems that BBB has encountered like the rash of accident reports in the past few years, the rising operating costs and operating at a net loss, BBB has been a consistent transportation option for Santa Monica residents, travelers and commuters. Now that the city of Santa Monica is finally set to instate a rare fare increase next week you would think there would be a more concerted effort to spread the word on the streets so daily riders can avoid a shock Monday morning on their commute to work. Santa Monica, as a community, really doesn't know the fares are scheduled for an increase on August 29th. The BBB, while doing a good job informing people on the internet of the rate changes, is not getting the word out quickly enough to most of the people who use the system most.

Last week in my article I noted, “On August 29th Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus riders will be paying more money to get to their destinations. The decision was introduced in a press release by the City of Santa Monica on August 17th giving passengers less than two weeks to prepare.” To which I'm sorry for not having acknowledged that this information was already out there in the public domain and deemed “common knowledge” by the community at large in Santa Monica. While the information is certainly out there, on the internet, it is not common knowledge to daily riders. A Santa Monica City official contacted Examiner and asked for me to edit my story because she felt the article was misleading. After speaking with her she asked me to correct my story to include the following information in an email she sent to me:

"Could you please post the information below about the Big Blue Bus regarding the upcoming fare change on August 29? Your article made it appear that the Big Blue Bus did not properly inform the public about the fare change, i.e. "The decision was introduced in a press release by the City of Santa Monica on August 17th giving passengers less than two weeks to prepare."

I'm all ears.  The email continued....

"Regarding your August 19 online article about the upcoming Big Blue Bus fare change, the comment that the Big Blue Bus did not inform the public about the fare change until August 17 is incorrect. The Big Blue Bus did extensive community outreach via community meetings held around the Big Blue Bus service area in January and February of this year, and also conducted presentations at over 16 different community forums including every neighborhood association in the city of Santa Monica, the business improvement districts, and the senior commission and disabilities commission, just to name the few. In addition, we issued a press release announcing the City Council's approval of the fare change in a May 26 press release, which in turn received a great deal of media coverage, and we have included detailed information about the upcoming fare change on our website for some time now. Hope this clears up any confusion."

Ok, lets be fair. The rate changes were introduced back in January, though nothing was even close to being finalized for several months later.  In April, the new fees were still being debated by city counsel members. Additionally, a lot has happened since then regarding the new fare structure, the implementation date and a bunch of online bulletins. If I may inquire, who really follows bus news anyway? We're talking about the Big Blue Bus fare increases that go in to effect August 29th of this year. That is next week. So when I wrote an article last week spreading the news about the hike, I was a little less informed than those who read the Big Blue Bus announcements on their website. Besides, if someone already knows his or her route why would anyone visit the BBB site to check for such updates? The final fee structure and implementation date was not revealed until the August 17th announcement on the BBB website.

To say the prior announcements received extensive media coverage might be an exaggeration. Considering the discussions that "introduced" the fare hike was revised more than once, and the actual date the fare hike was to be implemented was delayed and nothing official was released until the May 28th press release, it would be hard to declare the BBB efforts to be as helpful and clear as they should be. What the city official does not address is that there were delays in the months leading up to the May 28th press release that helped muddy the waters.  And though the announcements and updates were circulated on websites and discussed in several public forums (all helpful) there is still a vast majority of riders who still do not know about the changes because they either don't spend enough time online, reading the local papers or attend community meetings. To test this theory, I thought I'd ride my bike through Santa Monica last Sunday to see just how this extensive exposure has translated to rider awareness.

It was not complicated, I brought a flier with the fare hikes, as posted on the BBB site, and asked three questions:

• Do you know about the BBB fare hikes effective August 29th?
• How long have you known?
• Where did you find out?

I started the journey at the BBB stop at the Santa Monica pier and proceeded by bike all the way down Lincoln Blvd. stopping at every BBB stop where there were one or more person waiting on the next bus. And only one person out of the 21 bus riders I asked (all travelers were excluded from the survey) made it to the second question meaning they had no idea fares were going up or when the new fare was to take effect. 

Many of the folks I spoke with even gave me their name and expressed their gratitude for sharing the information.

While standing at the busy bus stop near the Santa Monica pier, I spoke with a woman, Denise, who is a Santa Monica resident with a Master's Degree in Spiritual Psychology from Santa Monica University. After a lengthy discussion about Stanislov Grof and transpersonal psychology, we discussed the new cost of riding the Big Blue Bus. She commented, “I only know about the new fare structure because I visited the Big Blue website this morning, but since I only ride the bus on rare occasions, I never would have had any idea about the new rates.”

Then I headed up Broadway to Lincoln, passing the Big Blue Bus headquarters (223 Broadway, Santa Monica) where I stopped to take a picture and to see if there might be any public notices posted indicating the changes in the fares.  No such luck, but I did get a nice picture.

Anna is a Santa Monica City College student relieved that her bus rates were remaining in tact. However, she adds, “it would still be nice to have something posted somewhere else besides the internet.  There's going to be a lot of people surprised next week without a doubt."

Over on Lincoln and Ocean Park, I met a teen named Darren. He is a SAMO high student who uses the bus daily to get around. "This will definitely make an impact on how I use the bus, why don't they have this posted on any of the stops? Better yet, why don't they just flash it on the bus so when it drives past people who use the bus will know?" Darren's voice, like many of the people I spoke to was that of disappointment. Non UCLA and SMC students face a fare doubling which raises the cost from 50 cents to $1.00.

Sure, BBB did make the announcement on a press release and held the discussions at counsel meetings throughout the year and made several posts on the internet, but the final details, including the date for new fare rates are not being spread on the streets yet. For a majority of the riders, this rate hike will come as a surprise on August 29th, and had the BBB taken some simple steps to disclose the rate hikes out on the streets where bus riders are walking around right now (some even * gasp * without computers) unaware of the increased bus prices that take effect Sunday, August 29. The cheapest advertising would be to put the information where we can see it, on the bus!