Opinion Piece 2 - Free Public Transport
Thinking Ahead Nutchey March 22, 2020 In the height of a global pandemic, we are rethinking the way we do things. One of which is public transportation. Last week, the city of Victoria unanimously voted to make public transit free, along with other cities across North America (Bell, 2020). The reasoning was to allow passengers to load through the back doors of the bus, preventing the spread of COVID-19 by distancing bus drivers from passengers. Free transit has other positive effects, such as removing financial barriers for essential workers to get to their jobs. Since many workers our economy depends on such as grocery store workers and health care workers have low incomes, fare free public transit eliminates some of their financial burden. Extending free public transport after the pandemic would provide relief for those with low incomes hit hardest financially by the pandemic, and would help fight another crisis: the climate crisis. Many cities around the world already