Price or frequency or something else: why people don't ride transit?

Mostly, people don't ride transit because for whatever reason it's less time efficient or seemingly or in real terms more costly than other forms of transportation, usually a privately owned automobile.

If you live relatively close to where you work, and you enjoy rich transit connections, and if you have to pay for parking, and you don't make a lot of money so a car is expensive, then you're more likely to ride transit.

If you don't live close to where you work, transit is less frequent, you get free parking, and the high cost of car ownership is no big deal, then you're less likely to ride transit.

Some people, for various reasons prefer transit even if they enjoy mobility alternatives. (Less stress, ability to multi-task -- read, do other things, etc.)

So for people who are not transit dependent, cost of transit is less of an issue. Frequency is an issue, and of course, so is the fact that driving is subsidized, in terms of:

-- cost of roads (50% paid for by general tax revenues)
-- military protection of relatively cheap oil supplies (billions of dollars annually, plus dead U.S. soldiers)
-- free parking in many places (work, school, shopping)
-- environmental degradation.

Since these costs are not likely to be paid for by drivers any time soon, transit will be competitively disadvantaged in comparison, although I do think opportunities to increase familiarity are key, but so is the link between land use and transportation planning, even if the likely DC Zoning Commission Chair seems to be completely clueless about this necessary linkage.

In any case, campaigns such as this one by the Los Angeles County transit system, "Metro to Offer 50-cent Fares on 18 Bus Lines for One Full Week Effective Sunday, February 18," aren't likely to result in a significant increase in usage, at least in my opinion.

There's more to marketing, and creating an environment that supports transit than 50-cent fares.

I vote for great explanatory marketing materials, such as this sign for the MTA Metro Rapid service. I am advocating for similarly straightforward transit wayfinding systems in various WMATA subway stations along the route of the Downtown Circulator.