Photo: MJW15 | Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-4.0
Ever since Canek Aguirre was elected to Alexandria City Council in 2019, he wanted to make bus transit service free in this city of 160,000 in northern Virginia. But thinking the political will wasn't there, he first proposed reduced fare or exemptions for some groups of people. Then, while rail ridership fell off a cliff during the pandemic but the city’s buses were still saw heavy use because essential workers in grocery retail, food service and health care kept going to work, the city eliminated bus fares. Today, the 11 DASH bus lines are at 95% of pre-pandemic ridership and remain free. But increased bus frequency has been just as important. On some lines, buses show up every 10 or 15 minutes. While state funding runs out in three years, Aguirre is confident that Alexandria will be able to continue funding frequent and free bus service.
|
|
More:
