80% of transit riders in LA live in households with $40K or less in household income. 50% are at or below poverty level. so LA Metro is planning to try out goin

80% of transit riders in LA live in households with $40K or less in household income. 50% are at or below poverty level. so LA Metro is planning to try out going fareless for all of its buses and trains for those 80%. i have mixed feelings about this. on one hand, reliable transportation is crucial to participating in the economy, so it helps level the playing field a little bit. on the other, this will counterintuitively devalue public transportation further, since ‘free’ has associations to ‘unvaluable’.