As Metro contemplates service changes in its upcoming budget, here is the state of the system: Metrorail is starting to grow again, but Metrobus ridership continues to decline.

According to WMATA, bus ridership has lost nearly 100,000 weekday riders since 2013. And we have a pretty good idea why — WMATA just spent $2 million on its Bus Transformation Project report. Based on feedback from many, many riders and stakeholders, the report lists “frequent and convenient bus service” as its number one recommendation.

There’s no doubt that DC area buses are slower and less reliable. According to WMATA, buses are on average one mile per hour slower than they were a decade ago. Buses are off-schedule about a quarter of the time. Metro estimates that the decline in speed has increased operating costs by $30 million dollars.

Metro documents list the reasons for slow buses, including “increased congestion, on-street parking, proliferation of bus stops, curbside developments, lack of enforcement for deliveries, taxis, etc. in bus lanes and at stops, elimination of historical bus lanes.” Each of these issues is a complex, systemic problem involving multiple agencies. Addressing them will likely require years of persistent effort, some of which is already underway.

So in the short term, Metro is going for an easy scapegoat: cash.

The reasoning

Paying bus fare with SmarTrip is faster than paying with cash — a single tap (beep!) versus agonizing seconds smoothing out bills or dropping in coins. So in the interest of speed, Metro is proposing to charge an extra 25 cents to bus riders who pay — or reload their SmarTrip cards — with cash. The goal is to push all passengers to use SmarTrip and speed up boarding.

42 bus on Columbia Road. (Flickr/MrTinDC)

A budget for a complicated agency like WMATA is full of deliberate, cause-and-effect reasoning. Every choice in the budget is designed to achieve a specific end result: policymakers typically opt to incentivize riders with a “carrot” that encourages desired behavior or to punish riders with a “stick.”

Encouraging SmarTrip use for quicker boarding makes sense. But by focusing on riders who pay with cash, Metro is using the “stick” on some of DC’s most vulnerable residents.

Bus riders are on average, lower-income and more diverse than Metrorail riders. District residents who primarily use cash are also more likely to be low-income and African-American. According to a 2017 FDIC report, over 8% of DC is unbanked — one of the highest rates in the country—and more specifically, 16% of African-Americans in DC are unbanked. In 2015, over a quarter of District residents had no credit at all. Many more are “underbanked” and may not have savings accounts, but use services like check cashing. Two-thirds of the lowest income households — making less than $15,000 annually — were unbanked or underbanked. These groups are likely to be most affected by the cash surcharge.

A cashless case study

We’ve had this conversation before: some food and retail businesses have been experimenting with going cashless, sparking controversy in the local restaurant scene. This backlash has been gaining traction — At-Large Councilmember David Grosso introduced a bill barring businesses from “discriminating against cash as a form of payment.” More than two years after going completely cashless, Sweetgreen reversed their decision and acknowledged this criticism in their statement: “Ultimately, we have realized that while being cashless has advantages, today it is not the right solution to fulfill our mission. To accomplish our mission, everyone in the community needs to have access to real food.”

Sweetgreen. (U.S. Department of Labor)

Months later, Metro is now proposing its cash surcharge. There are other barriers between bus riders and SmarTrip cards. They can be reloaded with cash at Metro stations and some businesses like CVS and Giant, but that takes time, as well as convenient access to one of those locations. Many riders reload cards on the SmarTrip website, which besides a credit card, also requires advanced literacy and familiarity with technology — not insignificant hurdles for many bus riders. According to census data, nearly ten percent of District residents over age 25 haven’t completed a high school diploma, and over 22 percent of households lack a broadband connection. The poorest parts of the city are the least internet-connected. And while literacy statistics are hard to pin down, adult illiteracy is undoubtedly a persistent problem in DC.

Where to go from here

Realistically, charging passengers an extra 25 cents for using cash could just as likely slow transactions down by requiring another coin.

Instead, Metro could strategically invest in other methods to encourage SmarTrip card use that other transit systems have employed to great effect. Richmond, in their new bus rapid transit system, put kiosks at every stop, so anyone can walk up and quickly purchase a ticket. (They told me that they admire our SmarTrip cards and are hoping to implement something similar.) A few self-serve machines, placed in locations with high cash usage, could have a big impact.

But one of the best ideas comes from Metro itself. Their own Bus Transformation Project report recommends offering reduced fares to lower-income riders. “Lowering the cost of using transit has the potential to increase ridership and reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips,” it says. Seattle, with one of the only growing bus systems in the country, reduced fares by half for some lower-income riders and is now expanding its program. With cooperation from the city, Metro could offer a reduced fare based on income and administer it through SmarTrip. This kind of program could help vulnerable residents, increase ridership, and decrease cash use.

It could also be worth reaching out to people in new ways that are neither carrot nor stick — Metro could create a phone number for riders to text and order a SmarTrip card, paying for it through their phone bill the same way that they can make a donation or vote for “Dancing with the Stars.” And crucially, the retail options for buying and reloading a card could be greatly expanded. DC is geographically small, making it logistically easier to sell transit cards than in other cities. Several years ago, in Seoul, South Korea, I bought a cheap T-money card at a corner store and the cashier quickly loaded it for me despite the language barrier.

Metro clearly isn’t opposed to incentive-based “carrot” changes — this proposed budget restores some late night service, adds more buses, makes weekend rail a flat two dollars, discounts weekly bus passes, and funds service for special events. But the cash surcharge has the potential to uniquely burden low-income residents when other options are available. More carrots for people who need them, please.