LA Metro Board to vote on pilot program for fareless rides for students and low income families

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board will vote Thursday morning on a pilot program that would make rides free, starting with students in August.

Under the proposal, Metro buses and trains would be fareless for students in August, and then fareless transit would be offered to qualifying low-income residents in January of 2022.

The pilot would end on June 30, 2023, and if the pilot goes as planned, board members would decide on whether a fareless system where everyone rides for free would be sustainable.

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Currently, about 70 percent of Metro's riders are considered low income with an annual income of less than $35,000. According to LA Metro officials, surveys suggest that about 75 percent of the county’s community college students who ride transit are also low-income.

The pilot program comes in response to the sharp decline in ridership at LA Metro stations during the pandemic. Current daily ridership is about half of the 1.2 million daily boardings from 2019. The cost for the pilot program alone is $250 million, and there's no current financial plan in place to make up for the cost of lost fares from free rides, though Metro is hoping to pay for the program through a combination of state and federal grants. Congress is considering new legislation to support fareless transit initiatives across the country.

A spokesperson from LA Metro said if the plan is approved Thursday morning, board members will move forward with implementation plans to decide how to monitor the free rides, and would also request a monthly report to evaluate security concerns during the pilot study.

Zoe Muntaner is a frequent Metro rider who has concerns about safety.

"I do not have a car. I use public transport and I use my bicycle. I support public transportation, but more and more, I'm feeling less safe. I think the component of safety is a component that I would really like to see at the forefront of all this very important and very necessary evolution of our public transport system," said Muntaner.

Muntaner said the mental health crisis has impacted rides too.

"The syringes that you could see, people doing drugs inside, food all over, the lack of hygiene. Some of these travelers are not well. They're not well and it's not their fault either. They do not have the control and the presence of mind to be a good passenger," said Muntaner.

Muntaner said she supports a plan to ease the financial burden for families, but has witnessed several crimes and incidents on the Metro and believes that is the number one concern.

"Everyone wants to normalize and everyone wants to do equity measures and diversity measures that propel us towards a fair society and an equal society but sometimes we are too fast in creating it, and we are not seeing all the elements together and if we cannot integrate all the elements then sometimes we do more damage than good," she said.

Muntaner said she wants elected leaders to listen to riders' viewpoints.

"My whole thing is about safety because I've been exposed to the lack of safety. I don't have the financial resources to do the organizing necessary to put pressure on our elected officials. I hope that our elected officials listen to the plight of those of us who are supporting public transportation but who are exposing ourselves to the dangers of public transportation and that is an element that we would really like our officials to consider within this pilot program," she said.

The full board will consider the proposal at their meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

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