Opinion: Free Transit Opposition Is Tone Deaf

In an excerpt from a conversation for Streetsblog’s The Brake podcast, Kea Wilson and Dr. Destiny Thomas discuss why the arguments frequently made against free transit programs are “missing the point.”

Thomas addresses the claim that free transit may not reduce driving or emissions, calling the construction of free transit as a climate change solution “a construct of inequity in and of itself.” According to Thomas, “We need free transit because people can’t afford it, because of how our societies have become rooted in capitalism and the monetization of basic needs and commodities. And that’s a very different point of juncture.”

For Thomas, “putting the burden of resolving our climate change crisis on people who are already suffering and struggling — I think that is morally disastrous.” Free transit may not be a silver bullet, Thomas says, but “You have to be willing to take approaches that are reparative for a small number of people who are just suffering, and we have to be okay with those measures not benefiting everyone at the same time.”

Hear the full conversation on The Brake.