If you’ve used public transportation in the past few months, you may have seen signs about youth riding free on King County Metro! The new free youth fare comes from the recently passed Move Ahead Washington transportation package, providing youth 18 and under access to free public transportation across the state.
The OYPC team recently had the opportunity to talk with Jennifer Covert from King County Public Health’s Community Health Services Division and Dani Hurula from the King County Metro Mobility and Market Innovation Team. Dani and Jennifer discussed how free youth transit came to be, how youth can ride for free, what the impact has been, and future plans to promote transit accessibility.
Free Youth Fares – How it Started
Seeing the great benefits free youth fares provide to youth and their families across King County, we wanted to learn more about how this program came to be. It started with a vision of transit accessibility. “Providing reduced fares to priority populations has been something King County has really been investing in and trying to do for a long time,” said Dani. This investment is reflected in Metro’s ORCA Lift program and subsidized annual passes, which have already greatly expanded transportation access to low income individuals and families. Building upon this, the free youth fare removes financial barriers for the thousands of youth accessing Metro services.
Prior to the statewide establishment of free youth fares, King County was already ahead of the game. Metro has implemented summer pass programs and programs aimed at creating easier access for low-income students in recent years. “We do small campaigns that are really focused on specific groups or customers or audiences and do really targeted interventions to address their barriers to mobility options,” said Dani. While these programs were well-received, scaling free youth fares to a countywide level presented a greater challenge. With more than 350,000 youth in King County, a great amount of funding was needed to implement free youth fares while still maintaining the quality of Metro services across the board. “Short of a ballot measure, there wasn’t a great way for us to offer that benefit countywide.” This is where Move Ahead Washington comes in.
The Move Ahead Washington transportation package was introduced to the state legislature in February. This policy package saw a great amount of support and received an expedited trip through the legislature, getting signed into law in late March. “We were pretty surprised when it passed, very pleasantly so,” said Dani. “We were like, ‘What, this is on the table?’” The quick run through legislative processes shows the overwhelming support for this policy package. “Pushing anything through the [county] council usually takes a long time, but the enthusiasm for this policy put it on the fast track because every single councilmember was like ‘I want to be a cosponsor. Let’s do this’” said Dani.
Move Ahead Washington provided King County with the resources needed to fund free youth fares. It also set an October 2022 deadline for rolling out this massive change, meaning a tight turnaround window for Metro to overhaul its services. Despite the short timeframe, the people of King County Metro rose to the challenge. Coordinating with numerous school districts, working around supply shortages for ORCA cards, updating existing school ORCA cards that were set to expire, all while also managing a complete technology overhaul of the ORCA payment system, Metro was able to roll out the new youth fare program this past September. Dani described the quick turnaround as “a perfect storm that was a challenge for us.”
Riding Free! – How to Access Free Youth Fares
Now that we know where the free youth fares came from, it’s important to know how youth can utilize these benefits. While there are many options, the best riding experience is obtained by using a youth ORCA card. “We think ORCA cards are the easiest way for young people to have a smooth and sort of seamless boarding process,” said Dani. ORCA cards allow youth to access their free ride with the simple tap of a card, and also allows Metro to gather ridership data to inform service decisions.
ORCA cards also eliminate the need to verify age and the potential for fare disputes with Metro drivers. “Ideally, we don’t want to have any sort of fare disputes between operators and people getting on the bus,” said Dani, adding that “we do have messaging of like, even if you don’t have a card, just get on, and operators aren’t supposed to stop young people.” Metro has noticed some fare disputes, particularly with youth towards the end of the age range who may appear older. What should youth do in this situation? Dani suggests using Metro’s reporting system. “We encourage people to take detailed notes and go through our standard customer reporting system of the bus number, which bus it was, the time.” While not a widespread issue, avoiding fare disputes is another reason why it is recommended to have a youth ORCA card.
Fortunately, there are multiple ways to obtain a youth ORCA card. Metro has already partnered with several schools across the county to provide ORCA cards, allowing youth to sign up for a card at school. Another option is to sign up for a card online using the ORCA card website. More ORCA options are coming, with Apple Wallet and Google Pay compatibility preparing to launch in the coming years!
Even if you don’t have an ORCA card, there are still ways to access free youth transit fare. Youth may show Metro drivers their school ID or other forms of ID to verify age. And again, King County has encouraged Metro drivers to allow youth to board even if they don’t have any ID, aiming to create a welcoming and safe experience for all youth.
Benefits for Youth and Families – The Impact of Free Youth Fares
We interviewed Jennifer and Dani a couple of months after the roll out of free youth fares. They were happy to report that the reception has been overwhelmingly positive! “The response to this initiative has by and large been positive. It’s definitely one of the most popular things we’ve ever rolled out” said Dani. “Customers have been really excited,” added Jennifer. “Oftentimes when we are enrolling someone in [ORCA] Lift or in the subsidized pass they’re asking ‘Well what about my child?’, so it’s great that they don’t have to take that extra step.” Jennifer and Dani have seen enthusiasm for this program both in the legislature, which put these services on the policy fast track, as well as within the general public, who appreciate youth’s easier access to important transportation services.
One of the largest positives to come from this new service is the financial relief it provides to families. Jennifer cited the previous youth fares, $1.50 per ride for ages 6-18 or $54 for a monthly pass, noting “It really helps the families’ budget, not having to be concerned about, you know, paying for that youth fare.” Eliminating these expenses means families that have been using Metro are saving money. Other families who may have been unable to afford to ride before are now starting to use Metro more, with youth ridership increasing in recent months. Reducing financial barriers has increased youth access to Metro services, meaning youth have safe ways to get to places and activities that may previously have been inaccessible.
“This is also about getting youth access to other opportunities,” said Jennifer. “Just to be able to go wherever you want to go… just to have that extra freedom and not have to worry about the cost to get there and then to get home, we’ve heard that from some of our outreach that our team has done.”
Moving Forward – Goals & Partnerships for the Future
The new youth fare program has opened the door for greater collaboration between King County Metro and local school districts. With free youth fares, districts that were previously unable to afford ORCA contracts have easier access to these partnerships. If more youth use Metro buses, there is an opportunity in the future for school district transportation to focus on younger students and those with the greatest transportation needs. “The biggest impact we’ve seen so far has just been school districts starting to see the possibility of how partnering with Metro and our various services can have a benefit for them, and is now more affordable and accessible” said Dani. “I think down the line, a few years from now, we’re going to start to see better partnerships between Metro and K-12 schools in order to better serve their needs and also to get youth to start becoming commuters on public transportation.” Going forward, King County hopes to partner with more schools and also partner with schools in new ways, such as creating educational materials on transit safety and community care. “[A] big issue we hear with young riders all the time is just information, knowledge, so really pivoting to sort of education-based curriculum in schools to teach students how to use transit.” Metro hopes to teach young riders how to use helpful tools like the King County trip planner to find nearby routes and stops to get where they need to be safely. “As we’re coming out of the pandemic, safety has been top of mind I think for every transit agency in the country as inequality is really visible and present in our systems.” Free youth fares serve as an important step in promoting youth safety and creating equitable access within our transit system.
In terms of other goals, Dani hopes that increased youth access to Metro services will stir up excitement about public transportation. With job growth on the horizon as Metro shifts towards a fully electric fleet in the coming years, Dani said “There’s a lot of job types that trade industries really need to fill… so I think there’s a lot of opportunities for us to partner better with career programs and trade programs to get youth really excited about working a union, county job.”
Another shared goal from Dani and Jennifer is to see increasing connections between social work and transit services. “A lot of the things, you know the issues we see on our buses, could be better served by social work solutions probably than other solutions” said Dani. “The social work perspective really brings a different lens to transportation,” said Jennifer in agreement, adding that “transportation connects to housing, it can connect to health, it can connect to resources, to jobs. It’s not just about getting from point A to point B.” Bringing in a social work lens and growing connections between Metro, Public Health, and other departments going forward will hopefully create a greater continuity of services and care for King County residents.
Moving forward, Jennifer and Dani will continue to engage King County in conversations on further increasing transit accessibility. “There’s a lot of conversations that are happening about fares and fare payment and how we can continue to make our system more equitable while still also making sure that transit and our services are having the revenue they need to be able to run really good, efficient, quality services” said Dani. The conversation is moving beyond just youth, as free youth fares have created increased interest in free fares for other groups. Jennifer has heard seniors asking “So when’s my free youth fare coming?”, building momentum for potential changes down the road.
Thankfully, engaging in these important conversations and finding creative solutions are Dani and Jennifer’s favorite parts of their work! While there are many positives to consider, Dani shared that their favorite part of their job is having “the ability to be creative and inventive… to dig into the weeds and pull a specific audience, like youth, and really look into their barriers and pilot different ways to help address those barriers and reduce those barriers to increase mobility options.” Jennifer shared similar sentiments, adding that she enjoys working with clients as a Healthcare Navigator and seeing the tangible impacts of connecting clients with benefits. Another favorite of Jennifer’s is taking ideas from the big picture level, and translating them into plans for ground-level implementation. With passionate people like Dani and Jennifer on board, it is safe to say that King County is in good hands as we strive for continued accessibility and equity growth!
The OYPC team wants to give a big shout out to Dani and Jennifer. We are very appreciative of the time they took to meet with us and share all of their insight on the new free youth fares! For our youth program readers, please help out by spreading the word on this program! Free youth fares are still pretty new, so there may be some youth and families who haven’t been introduced to these benefits yet. For more information on youth fares and ORCA cards, be sure to check out the Metro and ORCA websites.