A city councillor believes that charging transit riders by the distance they travel is a step in the right direction. “It’s a more fair way,” Nathan Pachal of Langley told the Straight in a phone interview as TransLink embarks on the second phase of its fare review.

The long-time advocate of public transportation explained that a shift to distance-based fares will address equity issues related to the current three-zone fare structure, which has been in place since 1984. (A temporary one-zone fare was adopted in October 2015 for bus-only and HandyDART trips to facilitate the introduction of the Compass card.)

According to Pachal, riders pay more when they “go through an arbitrary zone boundary” even if it’s just a distance of one kilometre. Others get to travel several kilometres within a zone and don’t get charged extra.

Pachal is encouraged that there is strong public support for distance-based fares, judging by the feedback during the first phase of TransLink’s fare review.

In a report released last month, TransLink noted that most riders consider the current SkyTrain fare structure for short trips across zone boundaries “expensive” and “unfair”.

Based on survey data gathered by the transportation authority, 46,000 daily two-zone trips are less than 10 kilometres, while 2,800 daily one-zone trips are more than 20 kilometres. According to the report, this suggests that the “problem of short trips crossing a zone boundary is a very real one for many people”.

TransLink plans to deliver a new fare system in 2018.