One reason President Biden is in Kansas City? Our free buses. Here’s why that matters
President Joe Biden is in Kansas City to talk infrastructure. He’ll speak at the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority in his first trip to the city as president. It’s the latest stop in his tour to tout the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law to improve roads, bridges, public transit, water and broadband access across the country, which he signed last month.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said Kansas City is ready to move past its late 20th century infrastructure and into areas including zero fare transit. That goal is part of why Biden is here.
RideKC bus rides have been free for some Kansas Citians for years, and starting during the pandemic, they’ve become free for everyone.
What is ZeroFare KC?
As of February 2020, RideKC service has been free, through a program called ZeroFare KC. That means you can hop on a bus to get where you need to go in the city without needing to pay. Bus fare used to be $1.50.
When did buses become free?
RideKC started offering zero fare to veterans in the Kansas City region in 2017. Then it extended zero fare to high school juniors and seniors and safety net providers like domestic violence shelters.
Once the pandemic hit, the city’s transportation authority took away fares for everyone to reduce touch points when paying, and fares have stayed free.
How’s it working?
So far, pretty well.
“When everybody else’s public transit agency went down to to 20% ridership, yours didn’t go below 60%,” Kansas City Area Transportation chief executive officer Robbie Makinen said at a press conference over the summer. “We’re still doing 30,000 to 40,000 trips a day.”
Makinen wrote an essay for The Star last year about why he thinks fare-free buses are so important in Kansas City. He said it has boosted ridership, and has eliminated a cost of up to $2,000 a year for lower income families who could use that cash for things like food and housing. You can read it here.
Will it stick around?
RideKC’s site says that buses are fare-free through 2023, and Makinen, the head of the transportation authority, said it will continue through 2022.
City council funded the program in its last year’s budget, but sustained funding for the long term is not guaranteed yet. The federal infrastructure bill that President Biden is here to promote could help with that.
Mayor Lucas said the money could go toward not only making zero fare buses more permanent, but extending the practice beyond Kansas City to the entire metro.
“I love Kansas City, Missouri of course, but I also believe in regionalism, and one of those things is expanding zero fare transit to a region wide system outside of just Kansas City, Missouri,” he told The Star leading up to the president’s visit.
How to ride the bus for free
The easiest way to plan a trip is using the Transit app or go to the ridekc.org website. You can also call 816-221-0660.
Do you have questions about transportation in Kansas City, or about how the city will use the federal infrastructure money? Ask our Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com or using the form below.
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 1:08 PM.
