DC council votes to eliminate bus fares

There’s finally going to be a free activity in Washington, DC, that isn’t looking at a statue: riding the bus. The DC council voted Tuesday to waive the city’s two-dollar bus fares starting in July.

DC is joining a growing fare-free movement. In 2020, Los Angeles and Kansas City, MO, suspended bus fare collection, and KC’s zero-fare program has no planned end date. Politicians in NYC and several other cities are also trying to get your bus ride down to $0.

Fans of the newly passed measure in DC think fare-free rides may incentivize more people to take the bus instead of driving cars, speed up stops (since no one is swiping or tapping), give lower-income residents a break, and reduce confrontations between riders and law enforcement. One data point: KC officials say they have seen a 13% increase in ridership since they ditched fares.

The other side: Fare-free opponents argue that, among other things, scrapping fares takes money out of already cash-strapped transit systems and that the money used to cover riders (DC may spend $43 million for it in 2024) should go toward improving the sometimes unreliable systems instead.—MM