Free Transit

Philly’s Zero Fare Transit Program Has Been Extended

July 6, 2026 Pryce Jamison, Next City. Create! Free Transit, Philadelphia, Poverty, Transportation

In 2020, the City of Philadelphia found that 39% of residents living in poverty pointed to transportation as their biggest challenge when finding and sustaining employment. Three years later, the city allocated $62 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to subsidize a two-year pilot of the new Zero Fare Program. The program, which became the country’s largest low-barrier transit program for low-income riders, distributed 25,000 SEPTA Key cards to low-income Philadelphians, allowing them unlimited free rides on SEPTA buses, subways, trolleys, and regional rail lines.

What Free Transit Looks Like In Albuquerque, Nearly Two Years Later

July 21, 2025 Erin Rode, Next City. Create! Albuquerque, Buses, Free Transit, Homelessness, New Mexico, Transit, transportation equity

Sabina Wohlmuth’s days used to include long, hot walks across the city of Albuquerque, sometimes two or three miles at a time. Wohlmuth relies on the bus, but when she was short on cash, she walked instead of paying the fare. “It was only a dollar for a one-way trip, but still, if you’re homeless and you’re poor that’s a lot of money,” Wohlmuth says. Wohlmuth now takes the bus every day, to her job at McDonald’s, to the store, and to the sober living facility where she stays. And each of those bus trips cost Wohlmuth zero dollars.

Building A Collective Movement Could Be A Solution To Transit Woes

December 25, 2022 H.G. Watson, Ricochet. Organize! Canada, Free Transit, Ottawa, Transportation

Ottawa, Canada - Ottawa’s light-rail transit system has made headlines in the last years — but not for any good reasons. Trains don’t work in the cold. There are frequent delays caused by technical problems. And a derailment once led to all the trains being taken out of service for weeks. On top of all of this, Ottawa’s city council voted to increase fares. But as these events unfolded, a grassroots group was beginning to fight for better transit. Free Transit Ottawa (FTO) had its first meeting in February 2020, bringing together transit users and workers, union members, students, and climate activists. Their goal, at the time, was to get people to sign a petition supporting both free transit and adding members of the public to the board of the OC Transpo transit agency. That’s when COVID-19 hit.

Experiments In Free Transit

September 15, 2020 Joshua DeVries, The Bullet. Create! Free Transit, Public Good, Socialism, Transportation

Among the few positive aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some localities have taken the impressive step of implementing free transit. Several cities in Ohio, including Akron, Canton, Toledo and Youngstown announced free fares as of March 16. Towns in Vermont and Nevada have done so as well. Unfortunately, local officials are quite clear that these are only temporary for health purposes and will be reversed once it is “safe.” Over the last several decades, though, many cities around the world have experimented with free transit.

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