Fresno council member: Making city buses free to ride will boost economy, clean the air

A single mother who lost her minimum wage job during COVID-19 boards the bus to go to a job interview downtown.

A 70-year-old man with no family, no driver’s license and a modest Social Security check takes the bus to the fairgrounds in the hopes of receiving a vaccine.

A young Black woman, the first in her family to attend college, hops on the 28 Line for her daily commute to City College, aware of the fact that she’ll have to pick between buying lunch or a bus ticket back home that evening.

These are not hypotheticals. These are the lived experiences of thousands of people in Fresno — a city that I am proud to represent as the District 4 City Council member, but also a city that has historically struggled with poverty, suffocating air and sprawling development. That’s why I’m introducing the “Zero Fare Clean Air Act,” a policy that would suspend bus fares immediately so that our city can address the dire consequences of COVID-19 and confront many of the social inequities Fresno has faced long before the pandemic began.

By eliminating bus fares we can get more people vaccinated, get Fresnans back to work, stimulate our economy, clean our air, and provide equity for our most disadvantaged residents. According to FAX’s recent ridership survey, the average Fresno bus rider is a young woman of color on her way to work or school, has no access to a vehicle, and almost certainly makes less than $20,000 a year.

Going zero fare also increases the safety of bus drivers by allowing passengers to board from the back of the bus, reducing repeated exposure to our frontline drivers. Similarly, the all too common altercation on our buses over fare collection (which often ends in police intervention) does not pose an issue in a fare-free system.

So, how will the city pay for this? Rest assured, it doesn’t require new taxes, bus driver layoffs, or service cuts. Our transportation department has an annual budget of about $165 million and receives on average about $5.5 million from bus fares annually, about 3% of the overall budget. Not a number to scoff at, but also not an impossible number to work with. By going zero fare, we save hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating costs related to fare collection: ticket machine maintenance, fare inspections, money counting rooms, and armored vehicle transportation. In the short-term, like many other cities, we will use our federal allocation of COVID relief dollars to offset costs. Post-pandemic we will continue partnerships with our bus ticket bulk buyers like Fresno State and partner with local healthcare providers and major local employers who have already expressed an interest in supporting this vital service.

Going zero fare is not a new idea. Several local cities, such as Clovis, Visalia, and Merced, have already pioneered zero fare. Based on the municipalities that have gone zero fare, bus ridership can be expected to increase by as much as 25 to 50%.

Fresno County’s unemployment currently hovers around 17%, a result of massive COVID-related layoffs. Similarly, due to large-scale business closures, our local tax revenue has taken a heavy hit. However, research has indicated that a switch to zero fare would increase a region’s overall GDP, tax revenue, and create local jobs. That’s because when financially constrained riders have newfound disposable income (that they would have otherwise spent on fare) they tend to spend it in the local economy — shopping, paying rent, enrolling in classes or refilling a prescription.

To deal with the crisis at hand and to get our city back on track, Fresno must suspend bus fares immediately.

This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 11:35 AM.