Income-based fares

In 2019, Metro will be developing a new income-based fare program to make transit more affordable for those with the lowest incomes.

This effort builds upon recent efforts to review and improve fares, including simplifying fares, developing youth pilot and promotional programs, and reviewing options for serving college students, residents of subsidized housing, low-wage workers, youth, and very-low income riders.

King County Council directed Metro to deliver an implementation report about the income-based fare program by September 2019 and implement the program by March 2020.

The income-based fares program must:

Adhere to Metro’s fund management policies, including maintaining a farebox recovery minimum of 25%
Have low barriers to enrollment
Be coordinated with human service provider agencies in order to streamline participants’ access to a range of income-based services

Metro's overall goals:

Everyone can afford to ride transit. Metro believes that the cost of transit should not be a barrier to use.
Everyone can get where they need to go, safely and easily.

The following survey is an opportunity for your organization to provide feedback on the materials and questions presented at workshop 1 on March 6. Your organization's feedback in this survey will be used to inform what program options Metro develops.

What type of organization do you represent?

Non-profit / community-based organization

Government agency

Human service provider / social services provider

Labor union

Advocacy organization

School, college or other educational institution

Other (list below)

Click to view results

How do most of the people in your community pay their transit fare, if they ride transit?

ORCA LIFT card

Cash

Employer or college ORCA pass (i.e. U-Pass)

Human Service Ticket

Regional Reduced Fare Permit (RRFP)

Access Paratransit

I don't know

Click to view results

Picture someone in your community who cannot afford to ride transit. What is their life like, what is the importance of public transportation for them?

For that same person, are they aware of the existing reduced fare options and what is their view or experience with those options?

How aware would you say people in your community are about the existing reduced fare options?

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What does affordability mean in King County?

The cost of living in King County is very high. The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) threshold is set every year for the entire country and is used to measure poverty rates, including in the US Census information.

Currently this level is $20,780 for a family of four

The self-sufficiency standard looks at how much it actually costs in different areas and for different family compositions. It determines the amount of income required for working families to meet basic needs at a minimally adequate level that takes family composition, ages of children and geographic differences into account.

This chart shows a couple of things:

The cost of living is less affordable for families than for single adults
Only households at or above 400% of Federal Poverty, or $100,000 for family of four, would be able to meet the self-sufficiency standard. For single adults, those at or above 300% FPL would be able to meet the self-sufficiency standard

Based on this graph, we can see that those at the lowest poverty levels use the greatest percentage of their incomes on transit fares.

This explains the universe of people who are at or below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

Please enter any comments or questions on the data presented above around affordability and the cost of living in King County.

These are Metro's current fare systems. Metro has offered low income fares to make bus service more affordable and accessible. This table shows the different fares for different needs, but we know that the fares are still too expensive for some, which is why we are here.

More detail about specific reduced-fare programs:

Human Service Ticket Program

Metro provided 1.6 million tickets to 168 number of agencies in 2018, for a total Metro subsidy of nearly $4 million.
Enough tickets to provide the 23,000 people who are currently homeless in King County with approximately 6 rides per month.
In 2018, agencies requested almost double as many tickets as are available under current code
Most agencies report primarily serving homeless population and report serving an estimated 100,000 individuals

ORCA LIFT is a low-income fare program intended for those at or under 200% of FPL

ORCA LIFT cards are intended for those at or under 200% of FPL. Cards are registered to an individual.
They can load an E-purse value on your card to pay for trips one at a time, or load a discounted monthly pass that lets you take unlimited trips for an entire month.
Individuals enroll at various locations – when they’re enrolling in other service programs (for example, Public Health enrolls individuals when they’re enrolling in health care)
45,000 LIFT cards are registered in King County
1,347,123 boardings on Metro in 4th quarter 2018 and now totals
6% of all boardings in October 2018
56% load value at ticket vending machines, only 15% online and 15% at retail locations
Most (80%) load E-purse, not pass products
About 43% load with cash, 37% with a credit card

Accepted on:
- Metro Transit buses
- Kitsap Transit buses
- Sound Transit Link light rail
- Sound Transit Regional Express buses
- Sounder Trains
- King County Water Taxi
- Seattle Streetcar
- Soon to come – Community Transit & Everett Transit
78% of LIFT-eligible households have access to at least one car, and 80% do not rely exclusively on Metro
LIFT-eligible households reported similar levels of satisfaction with other elements of fare payment as non-eligible households, including when asked about ease of paying fare when boarding, overall satisfaction with ORCA Card/U-Pass, ease of loading a pass or an ORCA card, or ease of adding value to E-Purse

What we still don't know:

How many people still find LIFT unaffordable?
Would non-riders take transit if the fare was lower?
What do non-riders do instead of taking transit? Do they use Human Service Tickets, ride without paying, forgo expenses for other basic needs, forgo trip-making, use less expensive modes of travel, etc.?

Other barriers we have heard:

Not having enough information or familiarity with the system
Challenge of riding with kids or special needs
Inconvenience associated with fare payment
Service span and reliability

Leave any questions or comments here about Metro's current fare systems and reduced fare programs.

Do you think there are those who are not eligible for ORCA LIFT because their income is too high – but still do not make enough to afford the regular full-price fare?

Yes

Click to view results

If a segment of your community/population does not know about the existing reduced fare options, would they use it if they knew about it?

Yes

Click to view results

For those who don't know about the existing reduced fare options, what effective approaches/strategies are needed to use them?

For those who cannot afford our existing fare options, what approaches and strategies should we consider in designing a new fare option or changes to existing programs?

How should we best get feedback from potential customers in your community, or the populations that you work with?

Rank the following parameters in order of priority by dragging and dropping the parameters to the oval above "My Top Priority."

As Metro designs the program options for those who cannot afford the current reduced fare options, we need your input to prioritize these design criteria.

The next workshop is on Friday, April 5 at Centilia Cultural Center (El Centro de la Raza on Beacon Hill, 1660 S Roberto Maestas Festival St., Seattle, WA 98144). Please proceed to step 2 and RSVP.

Please see the documents section above for the materials used during workshop 1:

PowerPoint
Parameters ranking handout
Agenda from workshop 1
Notes from workshop 1 (what we heard)

Documents

Income-based fares - Workshop 1 slides.pdf Parameters ranking handout.pdf Workshop 1 Agenda.pdf

Contact the King County Metro Project Team directly:

Lindsey Greto, Income-based Fares Project Manager

Lindsey.Greto@kingcounty.gov
(206) 263-7886

Cindy Chen, Community Relations and Public Engagement Planner

Cchen@kingcounty.gov
206-263-8952

DeAnna Martin, Partnerships and Engagement Manager

DeAnna.Martin@kingcounty.gov
(206) 477-3835

Income-based fares

We are reaching out to your organization because we need your input and expertise to help us design the program to reach customers who cannot afford ORCA LIFT fares.

We are convening a group of stakeholders for three workshops in March, April and May of 2019 to provide input on the design and parameters of the income-based fare program.

Question title

What type of organization do you represent?

Question title

How do most of the people in your community pay their transit fare, if they ride transit?

Question title

Picture someone in your community who cannot afford to ride transit. What is their life like, what is the importance of public transportation for them?

Question title

For that same person, are they aware of the existing reduced fare options and what is their view or experience with those options?

Question title

How aware would you say people in your community are about the existing reduced fare options?

What does affordability mean in King County?

The cost of living in King County is very high. The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) threshold is set every year for the entire country and is used to measure poverty rates, including in the US Census information.

Currently this level is $20,780 for a family of four

This chart shows a couple of things:

The cost of living is less affordable for families than for single adults

Only households at or above 400% of Federal Poverty, or $100,000 for family of four, would be able to meet the self-sufficiency standard. For single adults, those at or above 300% FPL would be able to meet the self-sufficiency standard

Based on this graph, we can see that those at the lowest poverty levels use the greatest percentage of their incomes on transit fares.

This explains the universe of people who are at or below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

Question title

Please enter any comments or questions on the data presented above around affordability and the cost of living in King County.

These are Metro's current fare systems. Metro has offered low income fares to make bus service more affordable and accessible. This table shows the different fares for different needs, but we know that the fares are still too expensive for some, which is why we are here.

More detail about specific reduced-fare programs:

Human Service Ticket Program

Metro provided 1.6 million tickets to 168 number of agencies in 2018, for a total Metro subsidy of nearly $4 million.

Enough tickets to provide the 23,000 people who are currently homeless in King County with approximately 6 rides per month.

In 2018, agencies requested almost double as many tickets as are available under current code

Most agencies report primarily serving homeless population and report serving an estimated 100,000 individuals

ORCA LIFT is a low-income fare program intended for those at or under 200% of FPL

ORCA LIFT cards are intended for those at or under 200% of FPL. Cards are registered to an individual.

They can load an E-purse value on your card to pay for trips one at a time, or load a discounted monthly pass that lets you take unlimited trips for an entire month.

Individuals enroll at various locations – when they’re enrolling in other service programs (for example, Public Health enrolls individuals when they’re enrolling in health care)

45,000 LIFT cards are registered in King County

1,347,123 boardings on Metro in 4th quarter 2018 and now totals

6% of all boardings in October 2018

56% load value at ticket vending machines, only 15% online and 15% at retail locations

Most (80%) load E-purse, not pass products

About 43% load with cash, 37% with a credit card

Accepted on:

Metro Transit buses

Kitsap Transit buses

Sound Transit Link light rail

Sound Transit Regional Express buses

Sounder Trains

King County Water Taxi

Seattle Streetcar

Soon to come – Community Transit & Everett Transit

78% of LIFT-eligible households have access to at least one car, and 80% do not rely exclusively on Metro

What we still don't know:

How many people still find LIFT unaffordable?

Would non-riders take transit if the fare was lower?

What do non-riders do instead of taking transit? Do they use Human Service Tickets, ride without paying, forgo expenses for other basic needs, forgo trip-making, use less expensive modes of travel, etc.?

Other barriers we have heard:

Not having enough information or familiarity with the system

Challenge of riding with kids or special needs

Inconvenience associated with fare payment

Service span and reliability

Question title

Leave any questions or comments here about Metro's current fare systems and reduced fare programs.

Question title

Do you think there are those who are not eligible for ORCA LIFT because their income is too high – but still do not make enough to afford the regular full-price fare?

Question title

If a segment of your community/population does not know about the existing reduced fare options, would they use it if they knew about it?

Question title

For those who don't know about the existing reduced fare options, what effective approaches/strategies are needed to use them?

Question title

For those who cannot afford our existing fare options, what approaches and strategies should we consider in designing a new fare option or changes to existing programs?

Question title

How should we best get feedback from potential customers in your community, or the populations that you work with?

Question title

Rank the following parameters in order of priority by dragging and dropping the parameters to the oval above "My Top Priority."As Metro designs the program options for those who cannot afford the current reduced fare options, we need your input to prioritize these design criteria.

The next workshop is on Friday, April 5 at Centilia Cultural Center (El Centro de la Raza on Beacon Hill, 1660 S Roberto Maestas Festival St., Seattle, WA 98144). Please proceed to step 2 and RSVP.

Please see the documents section above for the materials used during workshop 1:

PowerPoint

Parameters ranking handout

Agenda from workshop 1

Notes from workshop 1 (what we heard)

Rank the following parameters in order of priority by dragging and dropping the parameters to the oval above "My Top Priority."

As Metro designs the program options for those who cannot afford the current reduced fare options, we need your input to prioritize these design criteria.