Janeese Lewis George, who is all but sure to become the D.C.’s next mayor, wants to make the Metrobus free for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“A bus system that’s free for people on SNAP would mean residents in all eight wards, no matter their economic status or background, would be able to get to jobs, grocery stores, medical appointments, community gatherings, and social events,” her campaign told NOTUS in a statement.
If that comes to pass, Lewis George won’t rule out eventually expanding “the universe of people receiving free transit” if and when revenue is available.
“I see SNAP recipients as a good place to start but it doesn’t need to be where we end,” her campaign wrote.
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It’s not the first time the District has floated free bus access for residents, more than 70% of whom already evade the fare, a Metro board member said during a May meeting. Mayor Muriel Bowser once made the Circulator service free, but that didn’t stick.
The city already offers kids free rides and gives discounts to government employees and those receiving SNAP. Neighboring cities like Baltimore and Alexandria, Virginia, have figured out how to make buses free for all residents — so, why not D.C.?
For starters, Alexandria and Baltimore receive state money to operate their buses, while the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is a multistate agency without a dedicated revenue stream. When D.C. Council member Charles Allen, chair of the District’s transportation committee, proposed a monthly $100 credit on every D.C. resident’s Metro card in 2022 to fund city transit, Maryland and Virginia nixed the idea.
Allen’s bill passed without the credit, but did implement 24-hour bus service. He told NOTUS that he had hoped the credit could remedy D.C.’s “upside down” transit-benefit system.
“The overwhelming majority of people with transit benefits have high-paying jobs,” he said. “The majority of low-wage workers do not have a transit subsidy.”
That’s the demographic Lewis George is targeting with her proposal, which her campaign told NOTUS does not yet have a revenue source. Still, Allen called the idea “incredibly achievable” given that SNAP recipients already get a 50% discount.
Some transportation advocates argue that free buses should not be the focus of transportation reform. Alex Baca, the D.C. policy director at Greater Greater Washington, said increasing bus frequency and reliability are better targets.
“It doesn’t really matter if the bus is free if it doesn’t show up,” she told NOTUS.
Though bus fares accounted for 10% of WMATA’s total passenger revenue in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, the agency says fares are a key part of its ability to deliver services. Fare evasion leads to around $50 million in lost revenue annually, Metro estimates.
While Metrobus ridership has largely recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic, fare payment has not. The bus saw 10.4 million boardings in May, but only one in four of those trips were paid for. Compare that with May 2019: 10.9 million boardings, but three in four trips paid for.
To boost revenue, WMATA introduced a policy in May requiring bus drivers to quote the fare as riders board. Operators aren’t happy.
“Chasing down fare evaders isn’t going to solve the systemic budget shortfalls that WMATA or other systems in the country face,” said Ben Lynn, a spokesperson for the local union representing more than 15,000 regional transit workers.
Quoting the fare can lead to disputes, which sometimes end in violence, Lynn said. D.C. recorded 152 assaults on bus operators this past fiscal year and 194 the year prior, according to data a WMATA spokesperson shared with NOTUS.
Al Clements, an operator who lives in southeast D.C. but drives Alexandria’s DASH bus, almost quit his job after one such confrontation. It was 2017, and he’d just quoted a rider the fare.
“He talked to me real crazy, he called me all kinds,” Clements said. “We was going down the road, and he just kept verbally abusing me. Sitting right there in that first seat.”
Since DASH went fare-free in 2021, Clements said he doesn’t have to worry about riders getting embarrassed or agitated and confronting him.
“It went from ‘F you,’ and ‘you an A-hole’ to ‘I appreciate you,’ ‘thank you,’” Clements said. “It makes the job a lot more tolerable.”
DASH ridership has increased from 3.77 million boardings in 2019 to 5.67 million last year. Assaults on bus operators have fallen “dramatically” in that time, said Raymond Mui, DASH’s chief infrastructure and development officer. There were two incidents recorded last year, as compared to nine in 2022.
“We made public transit as easy to use and as carefree to use as a public sidewalk, or as an elevator, or as a park, or as a library,” Mui told NOTUS.
But going fare-free didn’t come at the expense of frequency or reliability, Mui said. The city has been able to get people on and off the bus much faster, meaning the bus travels faster, too.
“We were able to speed our buses up, increase our services and get more bang for the buck for the community,” Mui said.
Alexandria is a fraction of D.C.’s size and serves a fraction of its population, but leaders in the District think there’s a way to eventually roll out free access citywide. The route to that reality will begin if and when Lewis George is sworn in and makes her push to bring free transit to SNAP recipients.
“It’s absolutely a goal that she and I share,” Allen said. “It’s something I want to do. It’s something we’ve been working on different ways to get at.”
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