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Are free buses a tool for social justice? Boston wants to find out.
National
Are free buses a tool for social justice? Boston wants to find out.
By Joanna Slater
March 14, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
A bus heads down Blue Hill Avenue in Boston on March 1. A new two-year pilot program has removed fares on three heavily used bus lines in the city. (Lane Turner/Boston Globe/Getty Images)
BOSTON — On a recent raw winter morning, Barry Hurd was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus after a trip to the supermarket.
Hurd, 64, gets by on his monthly disability payment, but it’s not easy. “The food is high, rent high, everything high,” he said. “Unless you win the lottery, you’re not saving.”
The only thing that isn’t expensive is the bus: When the No. 28 pulls up to the stop, Hurd hoists his small metal shopping cart through the back door and steps in without paying a fare. “It’s a beautiful thing,” he said of the free bus service. “We need more of it.”
Hurd’s bus route is part of a bold experiment unfolding in Boston with echoes around the country. Michelle Wu, the city’s newly elected mayor, has made free public transportation a rallying cry and a personal mission, calling it a tool for social justice and tackling climate change.
{snip}
By Joanna Slater
Joanna Slater is a national correspondent for The Washington Post focusing on the Northeast. Previously she served as the India bureau chief based in New Delhi. Prior to joining The Post, she was a foreign correspondent for the Globe & Mail and a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Her postings include assignments in Mumbai, Hong Kong and Berlin. Twitter https://twitter.com/jslaternyc
Are free buses a tool for social justice? Boston wants to find out.
By Joanna Slater
March 14, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
A bus heads down Blue Hill Avenue in Boston on March 1. A new two-year pilot program has removed fares on three heavily used bus lines in the city. (Lane Turner/Boston Globe/Getty Images)
BOSTON — On a recent raw winter morning, Barry Hurd was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus after a trip to the supermarket.
Hurd, 64, gets by on his monthly disability payment, but it’s not easy. “The food is high, rent high, everything high,” he said. “Unless you win the lottery, you’re not saving.”
The only thing that isn’t expensive is the bus: When the No. 28 pulls up to the stop, Hurd hoists his small metal shopping cart through the back door and steps in without paying a fare. “It’s a beautiful thing,” he said of the free bus service. “We need more of it.”
Hurd’s bus route is part of a bold experiment unfolding in Boston with echoes around the country. Michelle Wu, the city’s newly elected mayor, has made free public transportation a rallying cry and a personal mission, calling it a tool for social justice and tackling climate change.
{snip}
By Joanna Slater
Joanna Slater is a national correspondent for The Washington Post focusing on the Northeast. Previously she served as the India bureau chief based in New Delhi. Prior to joining The Post, she was a foreign correspondent for the Globe & Mail and a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Her postings include assignments in Mumbai, Hong Kong and Berlin. Twitter https://twitter.com/jslaternyc
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