Disparishun
Active Member
Do people really think that? As a surburbanite, I agree with distance-based-fares completely. It aligns incentives with costs. If you want to take the subway train all the way up to North York Centre, you should pay more than you would for just a quick jaunt a kilometre away.
Now you're into another discussion, which is that of just who is subsidizing whom. When major businesses locate downtown, pay significant taxes to the City of Toronto, and bring in hundreds or thousands of employees who each spend money on lunches, snacks, business meetings, shopping, coffees, and everything else, without expecting a single amenity -- parks, schools, garbage, or other services -- it is not clear to me that it is these businesses and their employees who are getting subsidized by those who rent or own residences amongst them and the retail shopping they support. In fact, the opposite is more likely.
But, at the end of the day, that doesn't really matter. The point of fare-by-distance isn't to figure who is subsidizing whom. It is to align incentives with costs: it costs more to transport someone further, and they should pay more for it. And it is to align incentives with policy: all things equal, it is helpful to encourage people to stay local rather than go far.
For downtown, hopefully that means that people relocate to nearer their employers, rather than their employers relocating nearer to where they live. But that is more than a transit pricing issue!
