Ride Free Area - Public Engagement Report

621. I have an ORCA card so I am not affected, but I am concerned that ending the Ride Free program will negatively impact our low income population, and I am opposed to this change. To help pay for this program, I recommend a toll on all vehicles in the downtown area, similar to the 520 bridge toll system.

622. How will you enforce against riders entering through the rear door (to avoid fare payment) in the (former) Ride Free Area (or in any situation where boarding is supposed to take place through the front door, for fare payment, and especially in the former Ride Free Area or in other high-traffic, busy situations)?

623. Good morning, It is vital that boarding times are considered when eliminating the ride free zone. After 7pm it takes longer to board the bus than at rush hour. Now extrapolate this to include rush hour commuters. I would implore the city to study the time it takes to board at Macy's 3rd and Pine stop after 7pm and calculate the extra time, for each bus, at rush hour. This decision should be fully investigated and the public informed of the additional time needed to board. We should be encouraging people to use public transit, not making it more painful that it already is. Kind regards, John Linehan 624. Suggestions for faster-boarding within the CBD: 1. Pushing for ORCA more aggressively Metro ought to have a promotional period where ORCA cards are free. This would encourage cash-paying riders to make the switch. Also, Metro should eliminate paper transfers; providing another reason to switch to ORCA. The more ORCA riders there are, the faster boarding time is. 2. Clear and loud advertising for enter-front/exit-back in multiple langauges. Metro wants riders to exit the back. So do I. But this must be made LOUD and CLEAR to all riders in every possible way: on-board announcements, bilingual posters, flyers, onboard ads, banners in the tunnel, etc. 3. Eliminating the Front-Door-Only-after-7pPolicy. Ridership is still recognizably high within the CBD after 7p; especially on popular routes. This would allow riders who travel within the CBD to exit via the rear and maintain a smooth flow of riders entering via front. Also, the original motive for this policy was for safety. Most of Metro's incidents occur without having anything to do with the back door. And other agencies in larger cities do not have this policy. Please allow riders to exit the back at all times.

FROM COMMENTS RECEIVED BY PHONE, EMAIL, OR MAIL (without the comment form) 625. I was unable to attend the ride free zone elimination open house on March 29th. I am very supportive of eliminating the ride free zone. Thank you for taking this step. However, I am concerned about the speed of loading Sound Transit express buses during the afternoon rush hour. There are a limited number of Sound Transit stops in downtown Seattle where riders are loaded.* (Probably barely 2 dozen total.) It would seem to be pretty straight forward and relatively easy for Sound Transit to imitate what it does with Sounder and LINK and put those yellow fare card scan machines at these stops (what – maybe 2 at each location?). This would obviously speed up loading – and then we could load through both doors. I can understand fare violation could be a concern under this scenario. But ST seems willing to trust this method with very minimal enforcement on Sounder and LINK. I’d love to hear what the rationale would be for treating ST Express any differently. This also has the virtue of not even having to maintain the illusion or pretense of the driver being the gatekeeper for fare payment on the bus. IF it is just a pretense or illusion in the first place, please don’t string us along – just eliminate it, or just foster or reinforce the cynicism that many of us who do honestly pay the fare have for the current system where drivers aren’t allowed to stop non-fare paying riders. However, if