By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

January 7, 2016 -- Like rents, food and nearly everything else, rides on Santa Monica's bargain-basement Big Blue Buses are going up this year, starting Sunday when a completely new rate structure kicks in.

Although one-way fares are increasing, the restructuring will bring savings to the BBB's heaviest users, riders who take the bus 40 to 45 times a month on average, said a City staff report presented to City Council members in October.

As of Sunday, the basic fare increases to $1.25, the express cash fare goes up by 50 cents to $2.50; the 13-ride pass jumps $2 to $14; and the express 30-day pass goes up by $9, to $89.

On the bright side, the regular 30-day pass will go down by $10, to $50, which is good news for riders who take the BBB to work and home every weekday.

In addition, the cost for a 30-day youth pass drops by $2, to $38, which will benefit students. The rate restructure also created a new seven-day local pass priced at $14.

City Council members authorized the restructuring in October, based on a staff report that essentially said the City's mass transit expenditures overall went up from the cost of having to link the bus system to the new Metro Expo Light Rail stations.

Fare hikes were needed to offset some of those costs, said staff.

If they're apartment dwellers, BBB riders also will be spending about 8 percent more on average this year on rent, according to projections by the USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Food will be more expensive this year, too, supermarket prices will rise 2 percent to 3 percent in 2016, U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts say.

In Santa Monica, many of the old Big Blue Bus fares lagged behind the rest of the Los Angeles region, where the average one-way fare is $1.25, said staff in October.

Where BBB fares where higher than the regional average, as with the old $60 fare for a 30-day pass, sales were “soft,” said staff. For heavy users of the system, those who ride round-trips every weekday, the fare wasn't “seen as a good value.”

“Although many riders uses BBB services every weekday of the month, only 2 percent currently use a 30-day pass,” said staff.

BBB one-way fares, even with the increase, are still a bargain, compared to L.A. Metro, which charges $1.75 for a single ride. A bag of 10 tokens, each good for one ride, costs $17.50. Metro's 30-day pass is $100.

Santa Monica officials are optimistic that by adding 25 cents to the $1 fare for a single one-way ride, people might feel more inclined to purchase pre-paid passes instead of having to finagle with all that change, City staff said in the report.

Increasing the use of passes will greatly speed things up and improve travel speeds overall on the lines, said staff.

Where a cash transaction takes roughly 23 seconds, which staff refers to as “dwell time,” swiping a pre-paid pass takes just 4.

Encouraging people to switch to the passes might be, tough, considering nearly half of riders, 49 percent, prefer paying cash.