In The Left Chapter

The policy has been tested in cities from Richmond and Alexandria, Virginia to Kansas City, Missouri and Olympia, Washington. And last fall, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority — which operates the nation’s largest public transportation network — announced a fare-free pilot program of its own.

The logic is simple: if most roads are toll-free, shouldn’t public transportation be fare-free?

I spoke recently with Christopher Ramirez from the group Together for Brothers, which led a coalition backing free fares in Albuquerque.

“We had a couple sessions with the young men of color we were working with,” he told me. “We were asking: What are some of the biggest problems and root causes in our community? Without a doubt, in all the sessions, it was access to transportation.”

As Ramirez recalled, “During one of the strategy sessions, one of our high school students said, ‘Why don’t we just make it free for everybody?’ and we laughed. By the next week, we realized he wasn’t joking. By the end of the month, we decided to include it in our campaign.”