Fare-Free Northwest: Should Seattle-area passengers ride public transit for free?

Advocates in Seattle have called for eliminating the $2.75 fare for King County Metro buses and the $2.25 to $3.25 fares for Sound Transit light rail.
Those calls grew louder after Sound Transit data showed black passengers get cited and punished disproportionately for evading fares compared to other racial groups. Sound Transit is reviewing its fare-enforcement policies. (You can share your fare-enforcement experiences with Traffic Lab at st.news/fareenforcementsurvey.)
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In 2013, the Estonian capital of Tallinn, with a population of 400,000, made its transit system free. Paris began researching a free-transit plan last year.
The Chapel Hill Transit agency in North Carolina has been fare-free since 2002, and the idea has been floated in Denver and Salt Lake City. In Washington’s Thurston County, officials at Intercity Transit have also proposed to make bus rides free starting Jan. 1.