There is a certain happiness sighted when your bus comes along. It is of course a small specialized form of happiness and will never be a great thing.

-Richard Brautigan, The Old Bus

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Promoting transit: Ride free for a week

Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:49:09 -0700
From: "John Hughes"
To: CAD@sacrt.com
Subject: An idea to get more people to try RT services

I am a monthly pass rider of the Sacramento Regional Transit System. For my
needs -- commuting to and from work with an occasional side trip on the way
home -- RT meets my needs. But how to convince others that the system really
does work?

RT prints monthly passes without user identification that are good for
unlimited rides for the month displayed on the card.

Here's my proposal: During the last seven days of the month, give the
remaining cards away to people who express an interest in trying out the
service. For the remaining days of the month, these people get to ride as
much as they want.

The monthly pass is by far the best way to use RT, and giving people an
opportunity to experience that convenience would be an excellent way to
encourage more people to use the system.

John Hughes

UPDATE:

From: "Robert Beverly"
To: "John Hughes"
Subject: Re: An idea to get more people to try RT services

Mr. Hughes:

Thank you for contacting Regional Transit; your suggestion has been
forwarded to the appropriate supervisor in the Public Information
Department. If you need additional information please feel free to
contact me at the number listed below.

Sincerely,

Robert H. Beverly

3 comments:

Jon Q. RT Driver said...

Translation:

You will never here from anyone, and if you do it will be 6 months from now.

Jon Q. RT Driver said...

I meant hear, not here....

Oops

Unknown said...

Alas, I won't be surprised if you are right. But it would be neat promotion. At the most, it might cost a small drop in farebox revenue as people who were paying to ride one or two days a week took advantage of the offer, but surely that loss would be made up by the gain in monthly pass sales.