Farewell Free-Ride Zone: Compromises Bring Change to Downtown Transit

magic carpet.jpg By now it's been widely reported that the King County Council has negotiated a deal to pass the $20 car-tab "Congestion Reduction" fee. Republicans Jane Hague and Kathy Lambert were convinced to switch their votes in favor of the fee after hearing from constituents on the impact transit service reduction would have on their lives. Their votes provide the supermajority of votes needed to pass the fee. The actual vote is expected on Monday.

This saves King County Metro from having to commit a 17% cut in service, including the elimination of multiple routes, and the reduction of service on dozens of others, for a total loss of 600,000 hours of transit service.

We didn't just dodge a bullet with this vote, we dodged a full-on transit atom bomb. But like any negotiation, the deal includes some significant compromises. Every purchaser of a the car-tab fee will receive $24 worth of bus fare vouchers which, if they do not plan on using them, could be donated to a pool for human-services uses. Less popular routes will be serviced by smaller, more efficient buses, and so on. These are rather innocuous and even beneficial addendums. The biggest, and by far the most misguided, is the elimination of the Ride Free Area in Seattle's downtown.

First implemented in 1973 as the "Magic Carpet Zone", in the area of downtown Seattle from Battery St. on the north, to S. Jackson St. on the south; the eastern border is at 6th Avenue, while the west extends to the waterfront -- in this area, fares are not collected between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. The policy is widely popular with bus riders, downtown workers, business owners, and with Metro for keeping the buses moving swiftly and relatively on-time in the downtown corridor, as well as reducing traffic in the downtown and the included social justice benefits of providing no-cost transportation through the retail and business core.

Every year more than 10 million people board the busses in the Ride Free Zone. It purportedly costs the County $2.2 million dollars to operate the program and $400,000 (roughly 18%) of the cost is covered by the City of Seattle.

The elimination of the Ride Free Zone is a bad policy decision sure to gum up the already questionable efficiency of the urban core transit situation. Implementing the pay-as-you-board policy will significantly increase the time it takes for busses to move between stops and reduce the incentive for people to choose transit over other options, like driving, when getting around downtown. This vital service isn't meant as some Mr. Nice-guy handout so people can ride without paying, it is a specifically designed measure to make it incredibly easy to get around the economic engine of our county. It saves business money, it keeps the city running on-time and reduces congestion.

What is troubling about this change, set to be phased in starting in October of 2012, is that it is not providing for any ways to mitigate the melee it will surely cause. Unless Metro starts taking the ORCA program more seriously (like with accessible infrastructure), infrequent bus riders will be left scrambling for exact change or getting into time consuming squabbles with bus drivers over fare. Metro should provide easily accesible and visible ways for riders to pay their fare before boarding, like on the South Lake Union Streetcar and the Link Light Rail.

City councilmember Tom Rasmussen, chair of the city transportation committee, says that the $400,000 investment the city makes in the area will continue, possibly with a free daytime circulator on Third Avenue. It's still just an idea and there are no further details, but it is clear would it have significantly reduced coverage and, to be frank, $400,000 is a pittance.

To be clear, we don't mean to come off like ingrates, we're glad there isn't going to be a blood-bath on our transit timetables, but not all compromises need to fix something that wasn't broken. Since nothing is set to change until October of 2012, there is still a lot of time to make the most out of this policy mess. Till then, soak up fast-moving, efficient, useful downtown transportation while it lasts because it's not long for this world.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Alex Hudson in Miscellaneous, News on August 14, 2011 3:00 PM

Comments [rss]

tr4ns1tw0nk

Will you share your source showing that charging fares will significantly increase travel time between stops, that fewer people will ride, or that the Ride Free Area is "wildly popular" with riders, Metro, etc?

Hanna Brooks Olsen

1.) This is an editorial. For the record, I'm in favor of eliminating the ride free area, because it does cost the County a lot of money. However, it's true that it's very popular with riders.

Here are some: 10 million borders in the RFA each year: http://www.nwcn.com/news/No-Fr... some info from Metro, regarding the number of riders in the RFA each year:www.kingcounty.gov/.../ne..., there haven't been any studies conducted to find out how much longer boarding will take in the downtown core, because the RFA has been in place since the 1970s. However, anyone who's ever watched someone who got on in the RFA attempt to count out their change after leaving the area knows that people are really, really bad about having their fare ready, and that all of that wait time will translate into downtown waiting.

tr4ns1tw0nk

Thanks Hanna. I want to address the effect on dwell time (delays) due to fare collection downtown and the supposed popularity of the RFA.

Metro has studied collecting fares downtown as recently as this year, and Metro's Deputy GM doesn't seem to think it will be a problem. He bases this assertion on testing conducted on 3rd Ave and in the tunnel: http://seattletransitblog.com/...

In terms of popularity with riders, there are a large number of boardings within the RFA -- but the same is true dense urban cores without ride free areas. Metro estimates that 75 percent of boardings are pass-holders or riders with transfers -- so those are individuals who will be riding the bus anyhow. What about trips taken entirely within the RFA? The fact sheet you linked to from King County says that 28,000 trips were taken entirely within the RFA in 2010 -- but that figure includes those who have passes or transfers, too. As the fact sheet points out, only about a third of those riders (or less than 9,400) riders per year used the RFA who hadn't already paid for a pass or ticket. That comes to an average of about 26 people per day.

In terms of the popularity of the RFA at Metro, they want to get rid of it. The STB article states Metro's official position that it won't be a problem, but operators support eliminating it, too. Metro found that 50 percent of operators surveyed (1,224 of around 2,800 total operators) indicated that eliminating the RFA was favored as the best way to reduce fare evasion, more than any single other action Metro could take: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am... (pp. 8-11.)

Additionally, Seattle commissioned Nelson\Nygaard to conduct a series of focus groups and surveys last year in order to help guide the Transit Master Plan. Participants included 41 individuals "representing neighborhoods, businesses, and transit agencies, including planning and operations personnel" (http://www.seattle.gov/transpo... Nelson\Nygaard found that while human services advocates favored continuing the RFA, that other groups including "Operators, business owners and user groups" are more concerned about negative impacts of the RFA, and that operators favored eliminating it due to negative impacts on efficiency, attractiveness, and the ability to collect fares (p. 8.)

Expanding the ticket program to include additional agencies and more tickets is something I support as it should help reduce the impact to vulnerable populations and will also allow those riders to travel beyond the boundaries of downtown within the hours of 6am and 7pm.

I am interested to see what happens in the tunnel, but there is no reason that ORCA readers couldn't be installed and the tunnel stations converted to proof-of-payment. (Also, a day-pass/multi-day pass product would be help to speed things up.)

(Edited for spelling, formatting.)

Alex Hudson

The Ride Free Zone is not about giving people free rides, it is about keeping the buses moving swiftly through downtown by reducing load-in time in the densest transit stops. The crazies will remain when it's eliminated, they'll just be standing around longer, and begging for bus fare more frequently.

Jose Amador

Should the ride free area go away, you should let us know if those stories actually decrease. I could be wrong, but my money's on 'no.'

elise o

I am a user of the free ride zone everyday (3rd and Bell to 3rd and Main, the first and last stop on 3rd) but am willing to shell out the fee for a bus pass if it means the free riders won't be hanging around my stops. Those two stops are horrible and I have a plethora of "This morning while waiting for the bus... or this morning when I got off the bus..." stories that would haunt your children's dreams.