Kansas City, Missouri will be the first major metropolitan area to offer universal, systemwide fare-free transit. | Getty Images/iStockphoto

Can the Missouri city?s free bus system save transit ridership" Could offering free fares boost ridership on U.S. transit systems" Kansas City is about to find out.
This week, Kansas City, Missouri?s City Council voted unanimously to make the city?s bus system fare-free. The plan was a priority of recently elected Mayor Quinton Lucas, whose ?Zero Fare Transit? proposal was touted to increase transportation equity in the region, and endorsed by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, which services multiple cities in Kansas and Missouri.
Bus fares are currently $1.50 per ride or $50 for a monthly pass. Kansas City?s streetcar, which opened in 2016, is already free. Many U.S. cities offer free travel on certain transit lines or within certain zones, and there are entire ski towns and college towns with free bus systems, but this is the first large U.S. city to implement a universal, systemwide fare-free scheme. Several European cities have experimented with eliminating fares, and at least one country, Luxembourg, is moving forward with a nationwide free transit plan.
In the U.S., several cities including Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Denver have floated the idea, but haven?t put forth formalized proposals.

The City Council just took a monumental, unanimous step toward #ZeroFareTransit ? setting Kansas Cit...