Commuters board a Metrobus in downtown Washington on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022.
Pablo Martinez Monsivas | the countryside
Washington, DC, is on the verge of eliminating bus fares for city residents, joining other US cities that are working to make the Metro bus and rail system free to ride.
Already, Boston, San Francisco and Denver are experimenting with zero-fare. In late 2019, Kansas City, Missouri, became the first major US city to approve a fare-free public transit system.
The “zero-fare” movement has gained support among business groups, environmental advocates, Democratic leaders and others who say that public transit boosts local economies, mitigates climate change and is a basic means of transportation for many individuals. Needed. The idea gained traction during the pandemic, which underlined the critical role of public transport for essential workers who do not have the luxury of working from home.
But despite the growing popularity of the zero-fare movement, it has drawn political pushback in some areas where the policy doesn’t fit easily with budgets or local laws.
DC’s zero rent bill was proposed in early 2020, about two weeks ago covid-19 pandemic Began a downward budget spiral for transit agencies nationwide.
“I’m not going to charge you when you need a fire department, but we’re still going to make sure there’s a fire department when you need it. That’s what you need to think about,” City of DC Charles Allen, one of the council members who introduced the bill, said in an interview with CNBC.
The DC measure aims to get rid of the $2 fare for bus rides starting in July. The city council unanimously approved the measure, and it awaits a formal response from Mayor Muriel Bowser, who can either approve, veto, or return the bill without signing it.
Bowser initially expressed reservations about funding a zero-fare system that would also serve Maryland and Virginia without receiving funding from those states. The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. In any case, the unanimous support of the council is sufficient to override the mayor’s veto.
The bill would allocate $43 million per year to make DC Metrobus free for all riders and add more than a dozen 24-hour bus service lines. The money would come from surplus tax revenue. The DC Council is still considering whether to add a $10 million subsidy program that would provide each city resident with a $100 monthly credit to spend on DC Metrorail.
public transport crisis
Kansas City’s bus system, called RideKC.
Source: Kansas City Area Transportation Authority
In many cities, the coronavirus sent ridership on subways and buses to historic lows, largely because white-collar workers were working from home instead of coming into the office. As the primary riders of public transit, essential workers, who are generally low-income, have been left out.
As fare revenue fell and transit agencies saw their budgets shrink, federal COVID relief funds as well as state and local government subsidies became necessary to preserve transportation for essential workers.
Zero-fare transit has since also become a cause among environmental groups who want to get cars off the road, labor unions who want transit drivers to socially distance themselves from riders, and business groups who want to attract more customers. Huh.
Alexandria and Richmond in Virginia have successfully integrated fare-free transit into their annual budgets. Boston, Denver and others have tested pilot programs. Boston’s zero-fare experiment will remain in place for three of the city’s bus routes until 2024.
Meanwhile, Denver introduced temporary rent-free holidays such as “Zero Fare for Better Air” in August and “Zero Fare to Vote” on voting days in November.
zero rent trendsetting
Kansas City’s bus system, called RideKC.
Source: Kansas City Area Transportation Authority
In Kansas City, zero-fare transit has become a hallmark of life.
Matt Staub, a founding member of Kansas City’s fare-free streetcar and owner of a marketing business, said, “It feels more like a community space and I think that’s because it’s something you can freely participate in.” can enter and exit.” $60 to $70 on a monthly bus pass.
Kansas City first experimented with zero-fare transit in 2016 with the launch of its streetcar, a two-mile fixed rail line in the city’s downtown where riders can get on and off for free. The city is investing $400 million to expand the streetcar route by more than six miles by 2025.
Since streetcar construction began in 2014, $4 billion has been invested in downtown development, including hotels and restaurants. Downtown’s residential population is projected to increase from approximately 21,000 in 2014 to approximately 32,000 in 2022.
Donna Mandelbaum, spokeswoman for the Streetcar Authority of Kansas City, said, “At least from our perspective, the streetcar is more than a means of transportation. It’s much more than getting from point A to point B. It’s an economic driver.”
Zero fare bus was started in December 2019 as a pilot program. Then after Covid hit, the city’s bus authority put it on permanently as a safety measure, as it reduced physical contact between bus drivers and riders.
how to go to zero fair
Making an American city zero rent takes a combination of money and political support.
Both were in Kansas City. According to Richard Jarrold, vice president of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, fares accounted for only 12% of the buses’ operating budget, or about $8 million. Meanwhile, according to Morgan Said, the mayor’s chief of staff, the city was spending $2 million to $3 million annually on rent collection.
Likewise, DC fares account for less than 10% of the district’s transit budget. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, In Richmond, Virginia, where fare-free buses have been operating since the start of the pandemic, fare revenue made up just 8% of the overall transit agency budget.
Grant Sparks, a director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Transportation, said, “For some of the smaller transit agencies that don’t really collect a lot of cash … they spend more to collect fares than they actually get revenue.” Is doing.” ,
It made the economic argument easier to sell in those cities. Still, Allen, the DC council member, wants to eventually “move toward a fare-free system for all public transit.”
Why rent-free isn’t for everyone
Kansas City’s bus system, called RideKC.
Source: Kansas City Area Transportation Authority
Even when the idea gains traction, zero-fare transit in the US is the exception, not the rule.
In New York City, where a subway ride currently costs $2.75, officials are experimenting with ways to make fares more affordable. The city launched the Fair Fares program in January 2020, which provides transit discounts to eligible low-income residents who apply.
But the city’s transport infrastructure relies on fares for about 30% of its operating budget, a difficult amount to subsidize.
MTA spokeswoman Meghan Keegan said, “Until New York comes up with a new plan for funding public transportation that will allow the MTA to be less reliant on fare revenue, eliminating an important revenue stream There’s no way to think.”
Even in places like Virginia, which has had zero-fare success in individual cities, scaling the system to a statewide level has proven difficult. Virginia law limits how much the state can pay WMATA, the transit agency that runs bus lines throughout Virginia, DC and Maryland.
Denver also plans to stick with the fares for some time, even if it does deploy occasional rent holidays.
“In the absence of a significant new funding source, fares will continue to be a significant component of RTD operating revenue,” said Tina Jacquez, spokeswoman for the Regional Transportation District of Denver. Denver 2023 transit operating budget 10% is made up of rent.
Talks are also taking place at the federal level, although the debate has been divided.
As part of its Spring 2020 COVID relief package, the federal government provided $25 billion in public transport funding. That summer, Democrats tried to garner support for a federal increase. In June 2020, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Introduced by Ayanna Presley, both Democrats of Massachusetts freedom to move act, which would provide federal grants to states and cities to establish free-to-ride public transportation. It was referred to a Senate committee in April 2021 and did not move forward.
Republicans aren’t as bullish on the idea of going to zero fare. a budget proposal In Republican-heavy Utah a move that would make the state’s transit system fare-free for one year faced opposition from the state’s Republican House Majority Leader Mike Schultz. He added that transit systems are already heavily subsidized and that “nothing is free,” according to local station for TV.
Zero-fare transit has also drawn criticism from advocacy groups such as the nonprofit Transit Center for the City of New York. organization found in a survey of 1,700 public transit riders that people would have Improved transit reliability and frequency rather than zero fares,
The divided debate means a federal zero-fare policy likely won’t be established anytime soon.
“There may be some European countries that are doing it nationally. I don’t think we’re going to do that in the US with 50 states and many other local jurisdictions,” said Virginia state Sen. George Barker, a Democrat. “We have a long way to go to be in that league.”