Boston’s fare-free bus pilot program sets the stage for transit equity, advocates say
Following Boston City Council’s approval of Mayor Michelle Wu’s $8 million free bus expansion proposal last month, transit advocates Jim Aloisi and Stacy Thompson joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to share how the two-year pilot program could spur change across the transit sector.
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Jim Aloisi and Stacy Thompson talked about Mayor Michelle Wu’s transit agenda, including free fare pilot programs, and the problems with parking in the city. Aloisi is the former Massachusetts transportation secretary, a member of the Transit Matters board and contributor to Commonwealth Magazine. Thompson is executive director of Livable Streets.
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Now we’re getting somewhere with free public transit
“Two years ago, we put out a paper saying it’s cheap and makes good economic sense to make buses free, and everybody thought we were crazy,” said Stacy Thompson, head of the safe-transit group Livable Streets Alliance. “Now we’re seeing it happen.”
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Riders of the 23, 28, and 29 buses are primarily people of color who have low incomes, according to a 2019 report from LivableStreets, a public transportation advocacy group.
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Stacy Thompson, Executive Director of community group the Livable Streets Alliance, said: “We are thrilled to hear about the expansion and extension of the free buses pilot in Boston – and we are proud that Boston has become a national leader in the free transit movement.
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“This is not pie-in-the-sky. These are reasonable, achievable, affordable steps to improve transit service and make us a national leader in transit,” Thompson said. “We need to dispel the myth that we need to choose between free service and great service. We can have both and we are implementing both.”
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A 2019 report from the transportation advocacy group LivableStreets found that more than 59 percent of riders on the 23, 28, and 29 buses were low income and more than 96 percent were people of color.
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“The ridership on that route is almost up to pre-pandemic levels and is now the most popular bus route in the entire MBTA system,” said Stacy Thompson of the Liveable Street Alliance.
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