In Olympia, Washington, transit officials went live with a fare-free pilot program on Jan. 1, 2020, shortly before coronavirus would upend life in the United States. A few months before, the city, which has a population of about 53,000, held public hearings about the proposal. If you’ve never been to a municipal public hearing, people typically attend when they’re upset about something. So it took Eric Phillips off guard that so many people attended this meeting to express relief and gratitude for the program.
“It’s remarkable how many people didn’t understand because they don’t use transit, how much of it is subsidized,” says Phillips, the development director of Intercity Transit in Olympia. “Like most of our public infrastructure, [funding for public transit] comes from broader support.”
