Morris said sometimes a group may consider taking MARTA to a sporting event or dinner downtown but realize with a large party driving and parking would be cheaper, incentivizing cars over transit. He also noted when you consider the costs of free-to-use streets — to build and maintain roads, police them, and manage signs and signals — the government subsidizes car users far more than it subsidizes transit users.
Suarez pointed out in his note that the cost to the county would be small: “Given the fact that total revenues from buses and Metrorail barely exceed $100 million, which is less than two percent of the operating budget for the county, the time has come to induce the use of mass transit by any and all means.”
...Suarez has asked the county attorney’s office and the county transportation planning organization to study how both Kansas City and Salt Lake City approached the issue of free public transit. Two candidates in the Utah capital’s August mayoral primary pushed the idea of free citywide transit, and while the ultimate winner in the November runoff election pledged to work on improving the quality and frequency of service first, she has also proposed expansion of free transit to more local residents. Salt Lake City already has a fare-free zone in its downtown.
Currently, 32 cities and towns in the United States operate free transit systems. All of them are significantly smaller than Salt Lake City, Kansas City or Miami-Dade County.
I just want to be able to ride the bus without risking the driver not allowing me to board
— Dani (@MiamiSeda) December 16, 2019
I've collected evidence over the last 2 years to show its systemic. I've reported it 311, directly to my commissioners, and now I'm preparing to file an ADA complaint.
City Councilman @EricWBunch talks about the improvements coming to @kcmo in the next year, including #zerofaretransit and ways to move buses faster. #ProspectMAX pic.twitter.com/Uv2TZiOGIW
— RideKC (@RideKCTransit) December 8, 2019
In The Appeal: Political Report in April, Daniel Nichanian wrote about obstacles to mobility for people living in North Carolina. Driver’s licenses were revoked for 1.2 million people in the state for failing to pay court fees and fines, without any opportunity to demonstrate their inability to pay. The inability to legally drive, in a state with poor transit options, can have disastrous consequences for people’s access to employment and make the same fees and fines that led to their license suspension even more impossible to pay.
Nichanian wrote: “Poor transportation, whether it stems from difficulties in acquiring a car or accessing transit, can harm the reentry of people who are involved in the criminal legal system, independently of whether they are eligible to have a driver’s license.” This also underscored “the pernicious nature of ideas like a New York proposal to ban people from using the subway for life if they have been convicted of certain offenses.”https://theappeal.org/kansas-city-chooses-free-public-transit/
Did you know that this year's KCMO budget took $3.7 million from the Public Mass Transportation Fund and spent it on repaving streets? We should use that for #ZeroFareTransit instead.https://t.co/uz47g1MfMM
— Josh Boehm (@JoshBoehm) November 13, 2019
The @KCMO Transportation Infrastructure & Operatoons Committee unanimously passes resolution 190951 for transit priority and #ZeroFareTransit.
— David Johnson (@kclightrail) November 13, 2019
