Public transit as a public good: Three local approaches to fare-free transit

The era of bus austerity in the United States is over, Steven Higashide, Director of Research at TransitCenter and author of the book Better Buses, Better Cities, recently claimed–thanks to passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

While Higashide was focused on the flow of billions of dollars to meet the nation’s public transit capital needs, the declaration can arguably be applied to the growing number of states and cities that are putting more dollars into operations, as well.

One of the clearest examples of this bubbling investment is the growing list of transit systems adopting zero-fare, low-fare, and other similar policies, and the Washington region is no exception.

In March, GGWash hosted “The Cost to Ride,” a webinar exploring efforts in our region to bring transportation costs down for millions living in the I-95 Corridor. The webinar covered Richmond’s adoption of a fareless system, Montgomery County’s Ride On fareless initiative, and Ward 6 DC Councilmember Charles Allen’s proposed Metro for DC transit benefit legislation.

Watch the recording here.

Julie Timm, CEO of the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC); Christopher Laskowski, legislative director to Councilmember Allen; and Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager at the Coalition for Smarter Growth spoke on the panel, which was moderated by Ron Thompson, policy officer at GGWash.

The discussion was robust and engaging–so much so that we couldn’t get to all of the audience questions in an hour’s time. We’re grateful to one of the panelists, Jane Lyons, for taking the time to answer additional questions afterward. Her responses are below, lightly edited for grammar and clarity.

Ron Thompson: What do you think is contributing to the wave of transit agencies saying plainly, “We want low or no fares”?

Jane Lyons, Coalition for Smarter Growth: Agencies tried it and it worked. During the pandemic, transit agencies wanted to protect their workers as much as possible, so a number of them stopped collecting fares, and then we all realized that a world without bus fares was something within reach. It’s also very popular — people don’t like to worry about whether or not they have enough money on their SmarTrip card and transit operators don’t like to enforce fares. However, right now the official position of Ride On and the Montgomery County Executive Branch isn’t necessarily free fares — they are pushing for permanently $1 fares.

What do you say to skeptics who say free fares are at odds with improvements to frequency and reliability?(Note: While we discussed this during the webinar, it’s a point that comes up often enough that it seems worthwhile to capture thoughts here, as well.)

I say that they’re right! We absolutely must prioritize frequency and reliability over free fares. But I think transit advocates need to think in the long term, and in the long term we need to get out of an austerity mindset. If we’re going to get the mode shift we need to combat climate change, then we need to do everything we can to get people on the bus.

Recognizing that we do live in a resource-strained environment at the moment, the Montgomery Better Buses coalition is now asking for the County Council to extend free fares until the county’s new “Ride On Reimagined Study” is complete. The Reimagined Study has been the other big push of the coalition, and it would be a comprehensive redesign of the entire Ride On and Metrobus system to be more efficient. It should be completed in October 2023, so that would be another year and a half of free fares. After the Reimagined Study, the Council should have all the data it needs to make good judgment about the best use of resources. But in the long term, the goal should still be free fares.

Metro for DC as an idea pre-dates the pandemic and has become a policy associated with a strong COVID-19 recovery, while Ride On and GRTC’s free fares arose during or in response to the pandemic. What do you see as the relationship between the need for free fares and the pandemic?

The pandemic laid bare to myself, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and the groups who would end up forming the Better Buses coalition who is really riding the bus. It’s essential workers, and those workers were essential before COVID-19, but the pandemic really brought their services to light and made many people reexamine fare policy. At a time when people were just trying to stay in their homes and make ends meet, we realized it was unfair and inequitable to charge folks over $80 a month just to get around to the places they needed to go, and the places we needed them to go.

GRTC and Ride On’s pilots were initially made possible through federal COVID-19 relief. GRTC’s initiative will be continued for an additional three years under a state grant. DC’s proposed program would be funded locally with surplus revenues. What do you see as the advantages and challenges of these different funding models?

Ride On’s free fares program was made possible through federal stimulus funding, and that’s certainly one of the big challenges — that funding isn’t going to last forever. Although, Montgomery County had previously made bus fares free for students through its Kids Ride Free program and mostly free for seniors and people with disabilities. Kids Ride Free saw huge success, with a 57% increase in student ridership in only six months. And in 2021, the county made fares permanently free for seniors and people with disabilities as well. But to permanently make fares free for everyone will require sustained funding that the county can rely on, whether it comes from the federal government, state, or from the county.

Richmond, Montgomery County, and DC all have some experience with zero-fare transit. What cost savings did you observe since going fare free?

In MCDOT’s Fare Equity Study, it is estimated that going permanently fare-free would save the agency $2.2 million annually.