By Chris Peak
NationSwell
For Andrea Smith, a Seattle resident who commutes to her job at a nonprofit theater daily by bus, the latest fare hikes for a monthly transit pass were making the trek unaffordable, particularly as business slowed after the Great Recession.
“I was paying cash, ride by ride, since I couldn’t afford a monthly pass,” she says. “I commute to work every day, often six days a week, and I was spending far more…, just because I couldn’t afford to pay all at once.”
A new pilot program launched three months ago by the King County Department of Transportation provided a fix that so many residents who rely on public transit (yet found they couldn’t afford it) desperately needed. The first of its kind in the nation, Seattle’s ORCA Lift offers fares directly tied to a person’s income. For anyone below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $23,340, riders only need to pay $1.50 a trip — reduced from the standard $2.75 fare (though that number changes based on distance traveled and time of day). That means a person who rode the bus to and from work, five days a week at peak travel times could save up to $910 a year.
Read full coverage here.