Transit Access and the Ride-on Fare Holiday
To benefit the County’s most economically vulnerable and low-income residents and based on the findings from the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Fare Equity Study, the Council extended the County’s Ride On fare holiday through July 2, 2022.
Extending the Ride On fare holiday is step toward improving transit access, growing bus ridership and helping the County’s workforce travel to and from their jobs. The Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight’s (OLO) report 2020-10, showed that 47 percent of Ride On customers have an annual household income below $30,000, 47 percent are people of color and 42 percent speak a language other than English at home.
Many transit systems around the U.S. are examining whether zero-fare or reduced-fare transit programs can be expanded as a tool to promote more equitable mobility, reduce barriers to access transit and increase ridership. Although Ride On enacted fare elimination as a temporary public health and safety measures in response to COVID-19, there were already several examples of transit systems across the country considering or implementing zero-fare transit service prior to 2020.