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Subject: A severe loss of revenue is caused directly by broken Clipper machines across rday, September 12, 2026 5:12 PM
Crystal
A severe loss of revenue is caused directly by broken Clipper machines across both our fixed routes and our microtransit fast connect services.
Right now, these machines are frequently out of order. Our regular riders know the loophole: if their Clipper cards have no funds and our machines are down, they ride for free. Having our drivers ask passengers for alternative payment options consistently goes wrong on the customer side —it is not a seamless process and leads to unnecessary friction between the drivers and the passengers. We cannot penalize passengers for systemic equipment failures, every breakdown means we are actively handing out free rides and bleeding money.
Let me be entirely transparent: this is not an MV problem, this is a City problem.
MV manages the operations, but the City owns and is responsible for this Clipper infrastructure. Every day the City delays fixing these machines on our fixed routes and fast connects, public funds walk right out the door. We need immediate city intervention to overhaul this hardware and protect our transit revenue today. Instead of opening more areas to include more passengers and revenue you are talking about cutting routes to compensate for these budget shortfalls. This seems to be a self destructive strategy. Let's be clear: this destroys our passengers' ability to get to work, and school while simultaneously stripping our drivers of their livelihood, hours, and job security. We need immediate city intervention to overhaul this hardware and protect our transit system today.
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THE FALSE
PROMISE OF
MICROTRANSIT
The big picture: Microtransit is a fundamentally inefficient and expensive mode of transportation, claims of its supposed equity and environmental benefits are dubious at best, and it degrades industry jobs through outsourcing and the exploitation of gig workers.
Zoom in: Microtransit can be many times more expensive
than fixed -route bus service on a per -passenger basis because microtransit vans carry fewer passengers and they frequently drive without any passengers on board. This contributes to traffic congestion on our roads.
Bloomberg
"Unlike fixed -route bus service, microtransit's efficiency and service quality do not naturally improve as ridership grows.
The more passengers it draws, the more costly it becomes." — December 19, 2023
Here's the catch: One bus can carry more than 50 passengers, but microtransit requires more vehicles and more drivers to be put on the road to accommodate increased demand, rapidly increasing the cost of the service. Public officials can't scale microtransit without busting their budgets or destroying the customer experience.
What they won't tell you: Microtransit companies often cut costs by taking advantage of and possibly misclassifying gig workers who have no employment benefits, no wage and hour protections, no legal path to unionization under federal labor law, and who are often required to lease the vehicles they drive.
The bottom line: Transit agencies and government leaders should prioritize efforts to improve the quality of existing fixed route bus and ADA paratransit service to meet the needs of both current and future riders. A burdensome cost structure, questionable equity and environmental effects, and a reliance on exploitative labor practices make microtransit an unsustainable service.
O Prioritizing investments in proven
and efficient forms of mass transit.
O Reconfiguring fixed routes to better
serve passengers' needs.
O Ensuring microtransit is operated
by the existing transit workforce and
that public funds create good jobs,
not gig work.
O Preventing microtransit from
replacing or competing with efficient
fixed routes and accessible ADA
paratransit service.
O Public disclosure of key microtransit
performance data, including cost
per passenger, passengers per trip,
miles traveled with and without
passengers, trip request denial rates,
and customer wait times.
7TU
AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION
10000 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20903
Tel: 301-431-7100 Toll Free: 1-888-240-1196 Fax: 301-431-7117 www.atu.org