SEPTA does it that way, SEPTA General Manager Joseph M. Casey said, so it won't have to hit us with huge hikes every five to 10 years or so.
I'm not so sure whether you lose more blood from a series of paper cuts or the occasional gaping wound. But that's SEPTA's story and it's sticking to it.
The proposed fare hike this year is about 6 percent over the basic transit division fare of $2. You won't get villagers gathering with torches about a 6 percent hike.
So, the side benefit for SEPTA is that there will be less organized opposition this year than there was to the doomsday scenarios of 2006, when it proposed service cuts and fare hikes.
But there is a value in showing up.
"If you look at the history of these hearings, you do see success," said Lance Haver, director of consumer affairs for the city.
Before being hired by the Street administration, Haver was a consumer advocate and a pain in SEPTA'S back seat. He hasn't lost his chops or his memory.
"When SEPTA tried to eliminate night-owl service," Haver recalled, "it was defeated when a large contingent of third-shift workers showed up."
When riders in large numbers protested the elimination of transfers in 2007, SEPTA had to come up with other ways to raise fares.
"We're very interested in the public feedback," Casey told me yesterday. "You get your special- interest groups, folks from the chamber of commerce. But we always expect to hear from John Q. Public."
Hearings will be the week of April 14-20. The public hearing for city transit division riders is on April 19 at SEPTA headquarters at 1234 Market St.
A hearing examiner, hired by SEPTA, will conduct the hearings and issue a report to the SEPTA board, which will then adopt its staff recommendations, the hearing examiner's report or some combination.
SEPTA's recommendations must also pass muster in a "Title 6 review" to ensure that fare hikes do not affect one community disproportionately.
