free_LUNCH

Some time back I had written a piece about my experience with Atlanta’s transit system – Marta. Recently I had an opportunity (or should I say, misfortune) of travelling on Marta again. Because of current economic conditions Marta had decided to make some changes in its fare structure. And guess what, in my opinion, they took the wrong step. The fare has been increased from $1.75 to $2.00 and if you don’t have a breeze card (that costs $5.00) then you don’t get a transfer. C’mon!!!

But instead of complaining again, I want to look at Marta’s fare structure from a different viewpoint – fairness.

As I had spoken in my last writing, I do not find it correct that Marta charges everyone the same fare. If I have to travel 1.5 miles to school, I pay the same amount as someone who has to travel 15 miles to the other end of the town. It seems that because of simplicity of operational implementation, Marta decided to adopt this fare structure. But I feel that I am actually subsidizing the passenger who wants to travel longer distances. This assessment can be done by looking at some principles of fairness. Is the fair equitable or proportional? Definitely not. Is it efficient? Possible and will require further analysis. Is it envy-free? H**l no! So why does Marta have to adopt such a pricing structure?

Are there other solutions to this problem? Check out fare structure of Singapore’s transit system, one of the best in the world. It has a tiered pricing scheme that works well and hopefully caters to all the fairness requirements much more than that of Marta’s. It is important that Marta plays around with the supply demand curve much more intimately than just moving up the curves.