12 Aug Ride Free Area to end in October 2012

As reported by the Seattle Transit Blog:

The biggest change is the elimination of the Seattle’s Ride-Free Area, slated for October 2012. As we’ve written before, this change may be good for the system but there must be mitigation to ensure that buses can still move through downtown. The Ride-Free Area is supported by most social justice advocates, but the RFA has non-trivial costs: the pay-as-you-leave system on some routes but not others can confuse riders and Metro loses some revenue by not charging fares. The County estimates that it costs $2.8 million in lost fares to provide free service through downtown but that it only receives $400,000 from the city, or just 18% of the cost.

According to Metro studies, about half of all riders traveling in the RFA carry a pre-paid bus pass. Another 18 percent have paid for their trip and are making transfers in the RFA, and about one-third are making trips as unpaid riders.

This will have an effect on Pioneer Square as we know of many human service organizations who have chosen to move to our neighborhood because the rents are the lowest in the ride free area, and the ride free zone enables the individuals who use their services to get there easily. The city is trying to mitigate these changes by providing “discount ticket programs to low income & homeless groups.”

Our neighborhood will also potentially be affected by slow-downs due to riders having to “pay as you enter” in the downtown core.

For more info on these changes, check out Metro’s fact sheet.