So when they finished building this giant boondoggle that has permanently disrupted traffic downtown... almost no one was willing to pay the money for the overpriced parking garage and the fare for the trams. To top it off developers started building more parking downtown further lessening the need for this idiotic project. It was far more convenient to park near the little shop you were going to and then leave. And the transients knew that the drivers of the cars actually parked in the garage were a mile or more away so it was open season. Every time we went responded to a call there was glass from broken car windows all over the place.
The transit authority started dropping the fare to attract more riders, but very few people wanted to put themselves in a situation with all of the aggressive pan handlers that hung around the stations. So they came up with a brilliant plan.
They made the tram completely free and instead of chasing away the panhandlers, derelicts and drug addicts they embraced them and let them ride around on these heated trams all day long. And they counted heads at every stop and called each of them a ride. So their ridership numbers went through the roof making the failure not look like a failure using their statistics. And watching a tram full of warm and comfortable freaky looking people go by every few minutes who would normally be on the streets bothering people … provided good entertainment for the people who actually work and park downtown.
The situation has evolved a little over the years, but I do still warn people not to take their kids on the trams no matter how good the publicity shots look.
See how happy all the young beautiful people look riding the trams. But how come the rest of the street looks like a ghost town in the background? Where did all the garbage and normal inhabitants disappear to? It is because they cleared the street and the sidewalks to take the pictures. It never actually looks like that ever. Not ever! The people you find at that stop typically used to look like zombies from one of those stupid apocalyptic shows or movies. It has improved somewhat over the years as more affluent people have moved in from Seattle to escape the high price of housing there.