I would love transit to be free for locals and a bit like the library where they can revoke your privleges if you are not behaving yourself. For non locals I would want them to do like a pretty good deal daily pass to encourage going to various places on their visit and not stay in one area.

just in time, as my city (Seattle) is suddenly ramping up its fare enforcement.

btw one thing about public entities is that it’s often easier to access their financials. i searched “Sound Transit Quarterly Report” and found this.

fun numbers: $59M of Sound Transit’s $2.9B annual budget comes from fares, i.e. 2%. in order to cover operating expenses solely with fares, the fare would have to be set to $10.43. and that’s assuming 100% of riders pay fares, v.s. the 56% of riders who pay fares today.