Cap Metro we Demand Equity in your Fare Prices!
Cap Metro
Cap Metro is spending over 7 billion dollars to create a rail that will bridge various areas of Austin including East Austin, an area with remaining working-class communities of color. However, the cost of a daily pass to ride the rail $7.00, this is extremely unaffordable, especially in comparison to $2.50 for a daily bus pass. The extremely expensive fare price perpetuates race and class-based discrimination against those who rely on public transport in their day-to-day lives. Help PODER combat this injustice by signing our petition which we will take to Cap Metro!
Sponsored by
To:
Cap Metro
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Dottie Watkins,
As CEO of Cap Metro you are ultimately responsible for the decisions and actions taken by Cap Metro. Therefore, we are writing to you, to demand equity in fare prices.
On your website for Project Connect, Austin's new light rail, you state that your goal is to create "a comprehensive transit system expansion that will help transform Austin into one of the most sustainable, inclusive and innovative regions in the country." This project was created and funded on the rhetoric that it will center and expand equity in Austin. Additionally Project Connect is to be evaluated by the Equity Tools.
Using the equity framework it is important to evaluate who the rail is serving. Your rail fare prices are unaffordable, they are $7.00 for a daily pass, as opposed to the $2.50 daily bus passes, which means that working class communities of color are unable to ride the light rail. This is textbook definition of race-based discrimination, as the high cost is an inequitable barrier for low income and communities of color. It is also precisely those low income and communities of color in East Austin who rely on public transport for going to work, school, running errands etc and therefore need access to this form of transportation, more so than choice riders.
We are asking you to lower the rail price from $7 to $2.50 to match the cost of a daily bus pass. This is crucial in order for Project Connect to be accessible and inclusive.