Long-time Seattle resident and transit rider here. Seattle's erstwhile "Ride Free Zone" was instituted with the aim of promoting tourist activity and applied so

Long-time Seattle resident and transit rider here. Seattle's erstwhile "Ride Free Zone" was instituted with the aim of promoting tourist activity and applied solely to rides that began and ended within a tiny part of the city center; for example, if you were a homeless person in the U District making a trip downtown, you would still have to pay, each way. So - except for very short trips - it was not necessarily something that meaningfully benefited poor people nor low-income people. More recently Seattle's Transit Riders Union (among other groups) has advocated for more substantial free transit. Some baby steps in this direction have been realized with such things as free transit for high school students.