Editorial: Fareless Square

Anyone with a measure of rationality will agree that limiting the hours of Fareless Square would be a dim-witted blunder.

Limiting Fareless Square’s hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.–one step closer to dispelling an immeasurable public service-is part of a long line of worthless resolutions that Portland public transportation mogul TriMet has offered over the years to resolve its safety and fare-skipping problems. With any luck, this will be the last excuse in a years-long endeavor to abandon Fareless Square, and it will fail like every other attempt.

Realistically, this most recent push to remove Fareless Square seems more like an effort to expand profit margins than a service to the Portland public. It will do nothing but provide TriMet with minimal additional profits and hinder public life downtown.

Fareless Square provides a safe ride for the drunks who stumble out of bars late at night, too inebriated to drive. It grants convenience and opportunity, not just for Portland State students but anyone who has no other means to travel away from campus, or even across the river. And it brings economic growth through tourists and visitors who use it to wander around downtown.

TriMet’s reasons for proposing the limitations are shortsighted. Along with TriMet, anyone who uses the fare-free zone knows that there are rarely any criminal problems on the downtown transportation systems–the violence that has happened far outside of downtown’s limits should not be the reason that the public loses a great service. To some extent, the issue of curtailing the amount of ride-and-runs that happen has already been resolved. TriMet has already hired more transit security and fare checkers.

It seems obvious to everyone but TriMet that Portland wants and needs a Fareless Square. It’s time that TriMet once and for all give up this thoughtless idea.