The bus rolled past quaint cottages and rolling fields on Whidbey Island. Maybe the best part of the trip, however, was that it was free. There's no fumbling for quarters on Island Transit buses, no transfers, no fareboxes at all, just a blank floor next to the driver. That concept could be of more than idle curiosity to countless Seattle-area drivers. Sound Transit is facing major problems in building a light-rail system, leading some people to wonder if there could be another way to cope with traffic jams.
Free buses are one suggested solution.
Known as Ride Free Express, the idea's backers include such influential supporters as two former governors and a former head of Metro, King County's bus system. Ride Free Express promoters argue that by adding 100 express buses and 4,000 vanpools and making existing bus routes free, about 192,000 more people would ride transit daily. If they came out of single-person cars, that's about twice the number of drivers crossing the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge every day. Free riders also say the buses could be running in two years, while Sound Transit's Link light-rail system won't operate until at least 2009. People running existing bus systems don't think it would work that way.