SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Intercity Transit Bus 902 on Route 12 to downtown Olympia. (Photo: Bluedisk/cc)
Move by Olympia, Washington to Create 'Zero Fare' Public Transit Called a 'Beautiful Thing'
City is latest in the country to offer publicly-funded transportation for residents and visitors.
Jan 08, 2020
Public transit in the Washington state capitol Olympia and surrounding areas is free at point of service as of January 1 as the region's Intercity Transit pilots a "zero fare" program through the next five years.
"It's a beautiful thing," bus rider Nate Hooks told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).
The change reportedly came after the transit system mulled over the best way to continue to collect fares and found that the cost of upgrading collections machines outweighed the benefits of the revenue.
According to the Olympian:
[Intercity Transit] says fares currently net less than 2 percent of its operating revenue, while replacing an outdated fare collection system would cost at least $1 million.
Instead, the system decided to fund the "zero fare" approach to riders by increasing sales taxes in the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater tricity area serviced by Intercity Transit.
"It costs a lot of money to collect money, which is surprising to a lot of people," the system's general manager Ann Freeman-Manzanares told OPB. "Looking at the broad list of things the community wanted us to address--in terms of access, equity, speed, reliability, addressing the environment, making sure that we're as efficient as possible--the combination of those things actually led us to zero-fare."
All services by the transit system save vanpool rides are fare-free.
Intercity Transit says that it is using the term "zero-fare" because the rides are already paid for by taxes, including a bump for the purpose of providing free-at-point-of-service approved by voters in 2018.
Olympia joins a number of other cities and municipalities in the U.S. experimenting with fare-free rides. As Common Dreams reported, Missouri's Kansas City approved a measure to that effect on December 5.
Mitchel Patrick Irons, a transit rider, told OPB that the new policy would be materially helpful to him.
"It will make a big difference in a lot of ways," said Irons. "I'm used to not having what you need in life, let alone what you want. I think it is great having a little more money."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Public transit in the Washington state capitol Olympia and surrounding areas is free at point of service as of January 1 as the region's Intercity Transit pilots a "zero fare" program through the next five years.
"It's a beautiful thing," bus rider Nate Hooks told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).
The change reportedly came after the transit system mulled over the best way to continue to collect fares and found that the cost of upgrading collections machines outweighed the benefits of the revenue.
According to the Olympian:
[Intercity Transit] says fares currently net less than 2 percent of its operating revenue, while replacing an outdated fare collection system would cost at least $1 million.
Instead, the system decided to fund the "zero fare" approach to riders by increasing sales taxes in the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater tricity area serviced by Intercity Transit.
"It costs a lot of money to collect money, which is surprising to a lot of people," the system's general manager Ann Freeman-Manzanares told OPB. "Looking at the broad list of things the community wanted us to address--in terms of access, equity, speed, reliability, addressing the environment, making sure that we're as efficient as possible--the combination of those things actually led us to zero-fare."
All services by the transit system save vanpool rides are fare-free.
Intercity Transit says that it is using the term "zero-fare" because the rides are already paid for by taxes, including a bump for the purpose of providing free-at-point-of-service approved by voters in 2018.
Olympia joins a number of other cities and municipalities in the U.S. experimenting with fare-free rides. As Common Dreams reported, Missouri's Kansas City approved a measure to that effect on December 5.
Mitchel Patrick Irons, a transit rider, told OPB that the new policy would be materially helpful to him.
"It will make a big difference in a lot of ways," said Irons. "I'm used to not having what you need in life, let alone what you want. I think it is great having a little more money."
Public transit in the Washington state capitol Olympia and surrounding areas is free at point of service as of January 1 as the region's Intercity Transit pilots a "zero fare" program through the next five years.
"It's a beautiful thing," bus rider Nate Hooks told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB).
The change reportedly came after the transit system mulled over the best way to continue to collect fares and found that the cost of upgrading collections machines outweighed the benefits of the revenue.
According to the Olympian:
[Intercity Transit] says fares currently net less than 2 percent of its operating revenue, while replacing an outdated fare collection system would cost at least $1 million.
Instead, the system decided to fund the "zero fare" approach to riders by increasing sales taxes in the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater tricity area serviced by Intercity Transit.
"It costs a lot of money to collect money, which is surprising to a lot of people," the system's general manager Ann Freeman-Manzanares told OPB. "Looking at the broad list of things the community wanted us to address--in terms of access, equity, speed, reliability, addressing the environment, making sure that we're as efficient as possible--the combination of those things actually led us to zero-fare."
All services by the transit system save vanpool rides are fare-free.
Intercity Transit says that it is using the term "zero-fare" because the rides are already paid for by taxes, including a bump for the purpose of providing free-at-point-of-service approved by voters in 2018.
Olympia joins a number of other cities and municipalities in the U.S. experimenting with fare-free rides. As Common Dreams reported, Missouri's Kansas City approved a measure to that effect on December 5.
Mitchel Patrick Irons, a transit rider, told OPB that the new policy would be materially helpful to him.
"It will make a big difference in a lot of ways," said Irons. "I'm used to not having what you need in life, let alone what you want. I think it is great having a little more money."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.