As such, I have a two-year pass that allows me to take the bus free (my employer is paying a pittance for us all to get the passes. Based on our use, we will pay more two years from now). As such, I ride the glorious 18 (or 18G) once a week in the winter. The rest of the time, I drive the three miles from my house to Downtown, where I have a free parking space at our new offices.
My pattern changes dramatically in the spring, summer and fall. I walk to work three days a week and drive the other two, when a schedule compressed by daycare makes speed of the essence.
I didn't have the MetroPass last year, so I will probably replace a walk one-way with a bus ride one-way on occasion.
For what it's worth - spouses having extreme influence on a journalist - my wife buses to work three of four days a week.
David Brauer Kingfield Editor, Southwest Journal and Skyway News
For workers, Metropass is a steal on bus wheels Some can ride buses free for two years, if employers say yes
By Robyn Repya
A Metro Transit Metropass program that allows a company's employees to ride the bus for two years at significantly discounted rates -- even free -- is gaining popularity. Currently, 74 companies, with a total of 15,000 employees, participate.
Workers get Metropasses that allow unlimited regular-rate bus service. Employers can pay Metro Transit as little as $768 a year for their entire workforce to ride free.
Sound too good to be true? Metro Transit said that sacrificing fares in the short term creates long-term relationships and revenue.
How the program works
Before joining the Metropass program, businesses must survey employees to see who already rides the bus. That number -- times $64 a month -- determines how much employers pay for Metropasses for their entire workforce.
That means if a company has just one employee riding the bus before joining the program, they could get Metropasses for all employees for $64 a month, or $768 a year.
Metro Transit says many employers divide their cost among all employees who get passes, which usually works out to $30 or less per worker per month. However, some companies also pay for the passes themselves, offering them to employees as a benefit.
The cheap-to-free rate sticks for two years, even if more workers start riding the bus during that time. When the two years are up, the business again surveys how many workers ride the bus, to determine a new monthly cost.
The Metropass will also work for Light Rail Transit fares, which will be considered regular route service when service begins next April. Metropass riders do have to pay for special express service, such as the State Fair shuttle and the express route from Downtown Minneapolis to Downtown St. Paul.
Isn't Metro Transit losing money by giving away free rides? Bob Gibbons, customer service representative for Metro Transit, says yes -- in the short term. However, he said, they would gain more riders right away, and more revenue down the road.
According to Gibbons, Metro Transit already receives $8.4 million per year from its 74 participating companies, and when the Metropass contracts are recalculated after two years to reveal new riders, the agency will collect even more revenue.
Metropass's goal
Gibbons said the Metropass program started in 1998 and copied a similar program in Denver called the Ecopass. The concept has now gone nationwide, he added.
Instead of marketing to potential new bus riders individually, the Metropass program scoops up new passengers by the armful, via employers, Gibbons noted.
He said the program's main goal is to increase ridership; even if revenue-neutral, the program gets more people and polluting cars off congested roads. He said Metro Transit can't pinpoint how many new riders are captured by the program, but 4.8 million of the 69.6 million Metro Transit rides taken last year used the Metropass.
"They account for a nice and growing portion of our ridership," Gibbons said.
He added that aligning Metro Transit with business interests helps at the Legislature, where mass transit is always battling for funds.
Some businesses make free passes a benefit like health and dental coverage. TCF Bank lists its Metropass involvement on its Web site as an additional benefit for full-time and part-time employees.
Metro Transit's pitch also trumpets tax savings for participating for-profit companies, who can then claim a $100-per-month federal and state tax deduction per employee.
Businesses already participating include the University of Minnesota, the city of St. Paul, numerous state agencies and large Downtown employers, as well as Southwest Journal, Inc., publisher of Skyway News.
The honor system ... almost
Since a company's initial cost is based on how many -- or how few -- employees already ride the bus, what's to stop employers from lying about that number to pay less?
Gibbons said Metro Transit expects the companies involved in the program to be honest about the number of riders through their surveys. However, in case they're not, Metro Transit has found ways to verify some counts.
He said many of the 74 current companies signed up for a previous program called Transit Works, in which employers sold bus passes in exchange for a slight discount.
"The beauty of that is that we know their Transit Works sales," he said, establishing a baseline to compare Metropass counts.
Gibbons said a third-party company also collects and analyzes employee surveys that are filled out after a company signs up, which Metro Transit deems reliable.
For more information about the Metropass program, call 349-7545 or check out www.metrotransit.com.
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