STAR remains concerned that if the City of Sacramento eliminates it contribution to the RydeFreeRT program, that other partners will too, and the program will fail. Some recent news articles have provide information about the program budget, though we have still not heard directly from SacRT about the budget.
RydeFreeRT is perhaps the most successful program that SacRT has ever implemented. One-quarter of total ridership is due to student use of the program, about 2.5M rider per year, at a cost of about 50 cents per ride, compared to $10 per ride for fixed route and about $45 for SmartRide. School attendance has improved. It has tremendous support from families who use it. $10M is a fraction of the cost of a capital project, and compares well with frequency or route enhancements that could be implemented. A SacRT staff member commented “Best program I’ve been a part of, hands down.”
- $10M total
- $1M City of Sacramento
- $350K Sacramento County
- $250K combined from Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Folsom and Elk Grove
- $8.4M from SacRT
SacRT
- RydeFreeRT webpage
- SacRT Blog: Sacramento Regional Transit’s Pioneering ‘Fare-Free Rides for Youth’ Program Offers Hope and Opportunity (2023-08-10)
- SacRT Blog: SacRT’s groundbreaking ‘free rides for youth’ program offers hope and opportunity (2022-08-25)
- RydeFreeRT Evaluation Study: User Demographics, Attitudes, and Impacts on Travel Behavior (2021)
News Articles
- SacBee: Sacramento just proposed a horrible budget idea that belongs at the back of the bus | Opinion (2024-05-06)
- CBS 13 News: Solving Sacramento’s budget deficit: Could SacRT’s free ride program for youth be cut? (2024-05-07)
- CapRadio: Could the Sacramento Children’s Fund cover proposed city budget cuts to youth programs? (2024-05-09)
- Fox 40 News: Program that provides free SacRT bus and train use to Sacramento-area students extended another year (2023-05-24)
- Sacramento City Express: Attention Students and Parents: RydeFreeRT Offers Unlimited Transportation for Young People (2022-08-24)
- Sacramento Observer: Youth Ride Free, SacRT (2022-08-15)
- SacBee: Sacramento Regional Transit offered students free rides. Here’s how it turned out (2020-02-12)
- Sacramento City Express: Three Reasons Why ‘RydeFreeRT’ is a Game-Changer for Sacramento and Its Youth (2019-10-01)
- SacBee: RT slashes student fares after seeing youth ridership plummet (2017-12-20)
- SacBee: Why are Sacramento student transit fares among the nation’s highest? (2017-12-08)
Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders (STAR) 