It’s cheaper for me to buy a monthly @Translink bus pass
This past month (June 2011) I did a little experiment of my own. I knew I would be travelling over 60% of the time throughout the month, so I did not buy a monthly bus pass ($81 for One Zone), and instead I only bought packs of 10 bus tickets ($21 per book of 10 FareSavers). As of the time of writing (June 26th, Sunday) I can confirm this was a really stupid idea.
Despite the fact that I was in Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Parksville, and Montreal for the better part of the month, I am so incredibly dependent on public transit (Skytrain, Seabus and Canada Line) that I will need yet another 10 pack of FareSavers given how frequently I use transit. That will make it equivalent (well, in fact more expensive) than having just bought a monthly pass ($84 vs $81).
You almost always need to do this kind of exercise to see if you are getting any value out of the transit system. I am, and quite a lot. I bus back from the gym to my house, I bus to the university, to my office downtown, I shuttle quickly on the Canada Line and do short trips (e.g. Waterfront to Yaletown and back) to meet with clients, or all the way to Broadway/City Hall. So, overall, I get more value for my money, even if I’m travelling out of Vancouver, if I buy a monthly bus pass. Guess what I’m going to do next month when my Mom comes to visit?
I work out the tickets vs pass quite a bit.
When I am at school I get the FastTrak sticker for my BCIT student ID which allows me to use a 1-zone monthly as a 3-zone which is great beause I am out in White Rock now.
For June, I would be commuting about 14 days out of hte week by Transit. It was cheaper for me to buy the 1 month pass ($81) than the 2-zone tickets (for which i would use 2 tickets each day). This works out to be $10 a day to get to and from work. So for me the 1 month pass was worth it.
When school comes around, I hope BCIT gets their ducks in order so I an get the U-Pass. $30 vs $81 is a BIG savings for me.
I’m on the Employee Pass Program thru UBC. It’s great:
– one plastic card for entire year
– slightly cheaper than monthly pass
– $ comes off my paycheque so I never need to find monthly stack of cash to buy pass or see cash leaving my wallet
– get some money back as tax credit
Win-win-win…IMHO
I’m happy it works for you, it doesn’t work for me.
Commuting from North Van (2 zone), the pass is a bad deal. I only take the bus to work, population density in North Van is not large enough to support anything close to a decent bus service so I don’t use it on the North Shore. It sucks. That means for a 2 zone pass to break-even I need to commute every day at the rush hour fare. It’s an odd week when I don’t stay downtown at least once, so 4 to 6 trips/month are 1 zone fare instead of 2. And once or twice a month I bring my car into work if I’m going to someplace like Surrey for an evening meeting.
If Translink dropped the 2 zone pass down so it was the equivalent of 2 trips/day for 3 weeks it would be worth it. (Or maybe did better than once every 30 minute evening service on most routes).
It really depends on how you use the system. If we assume one zone for everything, then you’d need 39 “rides” via the ticket system to break even with a monthly pass. If there are 20 working days in the month, then you should *at least* break even, assuming you’ll also go on other rides on weekends, during the day, etc.
Yup, as Michael said, if you ride more than 39 times in a month, you start seeing “savings” in using the bus pass. And if you ride enough, then those extra add-fares are effectively paid for by these “savings.”
There are also a couple of other perks/benefits to the pass that most people don’t know or forget about. First is that you get a federal tax credit for the pass (http://www.transitpass.ca/about_e.asp), which you don’t get for the Faresavers. Working out to about 12 bucks for a single one zone monthly pass, you get about $145 in non-refundable tax credits for the year. Also you can take up to another adult and 3 children with you on transit all on one bus on Sundays. I’ve found this to be super useful, as my mom and I make use of it and ride transit on Sundays instead of driving around (unless we are going to be carrying a lot of stuff and absolutely need the car).
And another minor, but additional point, is that with a pass, you’ve got less garbage/waste to dispose of. =)
I usually buy a FareCard each month, but during months that I take off a week or more for vacation, I am unsure whether or not to buy one because I want to save money, similar to what Raul mentioned. But then I hate not having the freedom to take the bus everywhere without the cost piling up with FareSavers so I guess if I am taking a week or less off from work, I will keep buying the FareCard.
Way to go Raul for promoting transit use. Now if they would only start checking fares, that would help keep the system safer/more fair etc. đŸ™‚
I’m not paying for the 99 Free-Line until I can get a seat on more than half my trips. Just saying. It’s books of tickets for me.