On a Monday, at 9:31 a.m., Metro's No. 7 bus slid to a stop on Rainier Avenue South and South Edmunds Street. Three side doors opened, but passengers, paying their fares as they entered, climbed on only through the front. The doors whooshed closed. The bus trundled down Rainier.
At South Andover Street, Joy Estill boarded, tapping her Orca card on the reader near the fare box. Walking down the aisle she passed a sign on the wall behind the driver, its first two words in reverse type on a field of orange:
RIDER ALERT Ride Free Area Open House March 29
Estill later told me she never noticed the sign, which informed riders of a public event outlining the elimination of Seattle's downtown Ride Free Area (RFA) in September, and seemed surprised when I told her about the change.
"In September?" she asked. "That early?"
To Estill, 58, the end of free rides is only the beginning. "Everything is going away," she said, shaking her head.
When she worked downtown, Estill enjoyed hopping on a bus to run errands within the RFA. Doing away with it would make the area less accessible for everyone, she said.
"I wanted to see [the RFA] extended," she said, "not cut."
Metro officials say free rides must be cut. The agency is facing a $60 million deficit, which forced a tough choice: either reduce service by 17 percent throughout the region or eliminate the Ride Free Area in Seattle. You can see which one lost the coin toss.
So, on September 29 the RFA -- a roughly 130-block section of downtown where passengers ride free from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week -- will become history. All passengers will have to pay on entry wherever they board.
In order to make this change, Metro has to clear two hurdles.
First, the agency must attempt to soften the blow to riders, particularly those who are low income. The agency must also contend with potential traffic delays the new pay-as-you enter system could cause downtown, particularly along Third Avenue.
As the No. 7 slid to a halt at South Eighth Street, the first stop in the RFA, riders streamed in through every door.
Plan A, B or C
Bordered on the north and south by Battery and South Jackson Streets, and on the west and east by Alaskan Way South and Sixth Avenue -- with a small triangular branch encompassing parts of Pine Street, Olive Street and the I-5 underpass -- the RFA accounts for 8.4 million boardings a year, according to Metro data.
Of those 8.4 million [RFA] boardings, Metro spokesperson Linda Thielke said that roughly 2.8 million were made by people who said they had no pass or transfer. Of that smaller, non-pass group, 60 percent indicated they would be able to pay, Thielke said.
While Metro wants to soften impacts to all riders as they experience the new pay-as-you enter system, deputy general manager Jim Jacobson said low-income riders are a particular focus.
Currently, Metro officials are considering three implementation plans to lessen the impact on this subset: operating a free downtown circulator or shuttle bus; implementing a vehicle donation program; or increasing subsidized bus tickets to downtown human service agencies.
Metro hasn't finalized any of these plans. When one is chosen, Metro officials said they will present it to the King County Council in early May.
Christina O'Claire, supervisor of long-range planning for Metro, said a circulator would function like other buses, although it would only move throughout the downtown core. But would it encompass locations important to numerous low-income people, such as the Urban Rest Stop, near Ninth Avenue and Virginia Street, and Harborview Medical Center, at Ninth Avenue and Jefferson Street?
"We're still working with folks," said O'Claire, to see if the circulator "would even move forward."
The second option, a vehicle donation program, would allow human service organizations to receive large passenger vehicles, she said. The organizations would then be responsible for operating them. Metro has yet to determine how that donation system would run, O'Claire said.
A third option, increasing the pool of subsidized bus tickets, seems to have gained some traction.
Ticket makers
For 2012, Metro will spend $1.9 million to subsidize tickets to agencies that serve homeless or low-income people. That dollar amount is distributed to agencies chosen by the city and county.
Twenty-nine agencies with zip codes in the RFA received subsidized tickets through this program. But Jacobson said some of these agencies may have multiples sites, so they could distribute tickets to clients in other zip codes.
Human service agencies pay a portion -- 20 percent -- of the tickets' retail cost. With that financial contribution, roughly a million tickets will be made available this year to agencies.
Alan Painter, human services, health and housing policy advisor to the King County Executive, praised an August 2011 county council decision: a congestion reduction fee that also allows car owners renewing their tabs to donate the price of eight bus tickets to this pool of subsidized tickets.
Painter said the fee was a good deal because it helped ensure that low-income people countywide had bus transportation for another two years, even though it meant the end of the downtown Seattle RFA, "So you've got to look at the big picture versus its impacts downtown," Painter said.
To formally implement the donation program, the county council had to pass further legislation to increase the number of tickets in the pool. According to Jacobson, the county council passed that legislation on April 2.
The April legislation will allow the donations to increase the number of tickets in the program pool by 10 percent in any given year. Those extra tickets would become available when car owners begin to renew car tabs in June, Jacobson said.
For those who live at the YWCA at Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street, the end of the RFA will present a big challenge, said Cathy MacCaul, YWCA's director of community affairs. Many of them rely on free buses to make use of different services downtown, she said.
MacCaul said she's heard clients talking about the system's demise. She hopes that women at the YWCA and clients of other organizations will get a chance to share their feelings and concerns with Metro.
"To have our residents involved" in the discussion, said MacCaul, "that would be great."
To speak ... or write
At an open house Metro and other transit agencies held March 29 at Union Station, riders had an opportunity to express their feelings, either in one-on-one discussions with county and transit officials or through written comments. There was no official presentation.
Upwards of 75 people milled in the station's Great Hall, walking among easels bearing placards that explained ideas for the new system. One handout detailing upcoming changes encouraged riders to "Tell us what you think."
Rider David Schwartz took that suggestion to heart. A volunteer at the women's emergency shelter Noel House, Schwartz said he felt eliminating the RFA would hurt poor people. He didn't believe cutting the program is a cost-cutting measure.
"If Metro really wanted to increase revenue," said Schwartz, "they'd make commuters pay more."
A one zone, non-rush hour ride on Metro costs $2.25.
Schwartz, who commutes from Shoreline daily, said that with a bus pass, he wouldn't feel the loss of the RFA. He wrote his comments on a handout, but wanted something more: "I was hoping they were going to have some open, public comments."
Speaking openly to just about anyone who would listen, Michael Dare had an idea that could replace the RFA: "Why not have a free route instead?"
Dare, currently living in a shelter, said Metro could decide what long route -- whether one traveling east to west, or north to south -- might make for a good test. If one free route worked, he said, more could be added. "What do I do [about it] now?" Dare asked.
Pay as you...?
Nearly every Metro and Sound Transit bus that motors into downtown on a surface street passes through the RFA. (All buses that use the Transit Tunnel enter the RFA.) Riders who begin bus journeys outside of the RFA pay their fares when entering the front door.
It's when the bus heads out of the RFA that things get tricky.
If a rider began a trip inside the RFA, heading to an outside destination, he pays when he leaves. If a rider began a trip outside of the RFA, then passes through the free zone to an outside destination, she doesn't pay when she leaves.
The subsequent confusion on whether to pay now or pay later can create bottlenecks in the bus aisle. Drivers routinely stop riders from paying, while cycling through a series of fare box placards -- "Pay As You Enter," "Ride Free Area," "Pay as You Leave."
But one perk of the RFA is speedier boarding times. To understand how September's new pay-as-you-enter system will influence traffic patterns, Metro has conducted simulations on surface streets, O'Claire said.
She said Metro is considering increasing the size of bus loading zones along Third Avenue, the agency's busiest surface street, to offset increased boarding time. "We want to speed up that process as much as possible," she said.
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen's Third Avenue Transit Corridor Initiative also raises this issue.
One of the things the initiative seeks to do is examine how the RFA's end will influence tourism, development and social equity. Bill Laborde, legislative aide to Councilmember Rasmussen, said that the initiative could kick in funds for one-time capital improvements. Metro could increase the amount of curb space available to buses with such funding.
But when the RFA began, it was hailed as an improvement for the environment.
Carpet liquidators
According to "Routes: A Brief History of Public Transportation in Metropolitan Seattle," written by local celebrity and historian Walt Crowley, the office Wes Uhlman, who was then mayor, gave Metro a directive in 1973: "let people ride the bus in downtown Seattle for free."
In a 1973 New York Times article previewing the changes, Uhlman praised the ecological benefits of a free system. "Every major city in the country will be providing free transit within two years," Uhlman said.
Seattle, then the largest city to offer such a program, contributed $64,000 to Metro to pay for one year of free downtown service to start on September 10. The fare had been 20 cents. To herald its promise, the program enjoyed a mystical name: the "Magic Carpet" zone.
But even as the Magic Carpet took off, some people, voicing valid complaints, sought to bring it down. The NYT article reported skepticism from residents who complained the city hadn't provided parking spaces so car owners could use public transportation.
In 1993, a Seattle Times article reported that, even while business owners liked the system, Metro was considering cutting the RFA: Bus drivers found that when some riders didn't pay upon leaving the RFA, it led to fights.
And even today, money and the RFA are woven together. Metro officials estimate the RFA costs the agency roughly $2.2 million a year in lost revenue.
Metro's Jacobson said Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) paid Metro $400,000 a year to help offset running the RFA. He said one of the key questions for Metro is: "Whether or not the city of Seattle's $400,000 ... is going to be continued."
Rick Sheridan, communication manager for SDOT, said he didn't know what, if any amount, the department might hand over in the future.
"At this point, we're still in the middle of discussions," Sheridan said. The department hopes to have a solution prior to the elimination of the RFA in September, he said.
Jacobson said the agency really wants to ensure low-income riders don't suffer when the RFA ends. He said Metro planners are asking, "What are the other kinds of things that can be done to help them travel?"
So far, Metro is still formulating an answer.
Metro will be taking comments on eliminating the RFA until Fri., April 6: metro.kingcounty.gov