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Riders and advocates press task force for fareless students, fare interoperability, accessibility and safety
Summary
Public commenters urged TAP interoperability across counties and Metrolink, statewide subsidies for fareless transit or student passes, stronger accessibility commitments for people with disabilities, and clearer safety measures to encourage ridership.
During the Transit Transformation Task Force meeting, multiple members of the public used the public‑comment periods to press the task force and agencies on four consistent themes: payment interoperability, expanding fareless or capped access for students and low‑income riders, ensuring programmatic and structural accessibility for people with disabilities, and improving rider safety.
Payment interoperability: Speakers from the Transit Coalition and residents of San Bernardino and other counties said the TAP card should be made interoperable with neighboring county systems and Metrolink so riders would not need multiple cards. A commenter from Chino Hills urged a regional purse like the Bay Area’s Clipper card or San Diego’s Pronto.
Fareless/affordability programs: Advocates and Move LA praised Metro’s GoPass and urged the state and task force to consider broader subsidies to enable agencies to go fareless or at least adopt fare capping (monthly or daily caps) statewide. UCLA ITS and other speakers noted prior state bills for fareless student programs were vetoed or held up for budget reasons and urged interim measures.
Accessibility and safety: Disability‑rights advocates asked that federal and state accessibility requirements be enforced programmatically and structurally — not left to advisory committees without code expertise. Other speakers raised safety and perception issues as barriers to ridership and urged the task force to include safety measures in workforce and operational planning.
What happens next: Task force staff acknowledged the public’s concerns and said they would factor interoperability, fare policy options, safety and accessibility into the research plan and future recommendations.
Representative quotes: “If we’re going to have folks coming in from other counties, they’re going to find out that TAP doesn’t work except for LA,” Bart Reid of the Transit Coalition said during in‑room public comment.
Context: Many of these public comments intersect with the task force’s research and recommendations on fare coordination, transit prioritization, workforce and TDA reform; the task force asked members and the public to submit additional evidence to the SB 125 inbox by Sept. 10.
