HOW TO GET A FREE BUS PASS: FOR PEOPLE THAT NEVER RIDE THE BUS

Metro makes a big deal about its "employer subsidized transit passes."  This, according to their website, "reduces traffic congestion."

They don't readily offer any proof of this (how many companies participate, how many people that have the passes use them, etc.).  They also do not mention what restrictions or conditions they put on the use (or disuse) of these special passes. 

Washington University is one participant.  "Benefits Eligible" employees receive, for free, a permanent (hard plastic) one year transit pass.  They have to show their employee ID with it when they use it.

If they use it.  "Benefits Eligible" jobs are the ones that lead to free tuition for the employee and their family.

In my (granted, brief) survey of Washington University employees boarding the #2 at the school, if you have the kind of job that pays a wage where you can't afford a car and aren't going to get free tuition, you are not "Benefits Eligible."

I have only seen a few of these passes in use, and always on the train, and usually only at Skinker Metrolink and the Central West End Metrolink.

So, Metro, could you please provide some more (verifiable) statistics on this great program? Or is this just more free money for you and "Feel-Good" unsubstantiated boasting?

EDIT: The following comment was added by a reader on Google:

I would like to add a few comments. I am not sure what your point is and I think you are only looking at this one sided. WUSTL is encouraging Metro use and its environmental impact.I know many employees who use the park & ride lots and take Metro to campus. Do you know that employees have to pay to park at WUSTL? And its not cheap to park on campus.

My response: It is nice that Washington University is encouraging people to use public transit, especially people that would not normally ride it.  You can park for free at a Metrolink station and ride the Blue Line train to campus.  HOWEVER, they do not offer these passes to the worker's on campus that need it the most, and many of whom rely on public transportation completely.  And while the Metrolink will cut commuter time, the bus usually won't.  "The bus is not convenient," a Metro executive told me today. 

Metro puts no conditions on the passes.  They also do not disclose how much the University is paying for those passes.  It's nice money for Metro, and even nicer if the people DON'T use the passes.  They get the money, but don't have to take on any additional passengers, leaving more room for people paying full fare.

Wouldn't it be nice if Metro offered these types of discounted passes to other groups-- say, churches and community groups in low-income areas, where more people rely on Metro? 

What about discounted passes for unemployed people or families on SNAP?

Wouldn't it be nice if Washington University and other schools offered discounted Metro passes to the employees that ALREADY ride the bus and train, and likely don't make a wage where they can afford to buy a car?  (And it seems like it might even feel a little insulting, to work somewhere that gives people that have cars free bus  passes so they don't have to pay for on-campus parking, but does nothing to alleviate the travel time and cost of the employees that make less, aren't benefits eligible, and ride public transit because they have to.)

Metro boasts of "the benefits" of this program, but without any substantiated evidence that this program is making a difference to the community.  Without knowing how much is paid for those passes, and how often they are used, the boast is groundless.

I hope that clarifies it.

UNIVERSITY CITY TO MAPLEWOOD IS A ONE HOUR TRIP , ONE WAY

From fall of 2010 until the end of 2011 I rode Metro five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, to and from my home in University City near Midland and Vernon, to my job in Maplewood near Sutton and Manchester.

When I first started this job I had use of a car.  It was 15 minutes drive, door to door, in the mid-morning, and about 20 to 25 minutes home at night during the end of rush hour.  It was such an easy drive, and pleasant, down Big Bend most of the way.

Then the car died.

No matter how I configured it, the trip always took at least an hour on public transportation.  And that was when the sidewalks weren't piled with snow or slippery with ice.

I could get the #2 at Schnucks, and ride it the whole exhausting way-- all it's Washington University subsidized twists and turns, through the campus and down Wydown, through Wal-Mart parking, etc.  (See the link to the route map, below).  It was an hour ride, plus another 15 to 20 minutes on foot, to and from the bus stop.  And the 2 only goes down Manchester once an hour.  It runs every 30 minutes, but goes as far as the Maplewood Metrolink, and does not travel on Big Bend at all when it goes down that route.  (Big Bend is much closer to Sutton than the Metrolink.)

http://www.metrostlouis.org/Libraries/Metrobus_Maps/Map02121313.pdf

I could ride the 2 to Enright and Eastgate, get off, and jog two blocks over to Skinker and Delmar and catch the #16 to Bellevue and Manchester, and walk the rest of the way.  If I had missed the #16 I got back on the #2 as it came from the Delmar Metrolink, and either ride it to the Blue Line Metrolink at Skinker and Forest Park Parkway, and then walk from the Maplewood Metrolink or wait for the #32 if the weather was bad.  Sometimes the wait for the #32 was shorter than my walk, sometimes it was a 40 minute wait.

Usually I just walked, even in bad weather, and sometimes out in the street, on Manchester, when the snowplows had just gone through and piled all the snow on the sidewalks.

I could also walk 25 minutes over the hill from Midland down to Big Bend and Forest Park Parkway to the Big Bend Blue Line station, catch the Metrolink Blue Line to Maplewood, and, again, catch the 32 if the timing was right, or walk the rest of the way.

(The Hanley bus to the Clayton Blue Line station required I leave 15 minutes earlier than any other option, and I am not a morning person.  I did that route once. It still took over an hour.)

No matter how I travelled, it was an hour, minimum, if I made all the connections on time.  (You cannot be late at all if you are dealing with public transit.)

In the 1980's the bus used to run down Big Bend.  It was a 30 minute ride from Webster Groves to the University City Library.  Then all of the buses were re-routed to the trains, during the 1990's, and then in 2009 Metro mis-managed itself so badly, it had to cut 24 lines and many were re-routed to pick up the slack.

And, of course, Washington University was allowed to subsidize several bus lines to more suit its' students, including the #2.

They say service has improved, but I made the trip in July of 2013 and it took me the same amount of time, and it was the same travel options.