Fareless Square

Fareless Square is an area within Portland, Oregon where all TriMet bus, MAX Light Rail and Portland Streetcar transit rides are zero-fare (free). Prior to May 1, 2005, rides within the area on C-TRAN's express routes were also free. This free transportation area is similar to Seattle's "Ride Free Area" (served by King County's Metro Transit) and Anchorage's "Downtown Anchorage Short Hop (DASH)" (served by the People Mover), except that in Portland free service is offered throughout the service day. It includes all of the Portland Transit Mall, the hub of bus service.

Adopted in 1975, Fareless Square initially encompassed the area of downtown Portland between the Willamette River and I-405, north of Southwest Market Street and south of Northwest Hoyt Street. It was later expanded southward to the point where I-405 meets the river at the Marquam Bridge. A minor adjustment of Fareless Square occurred during the 1990s in order to include the stops for Union Station (Amtrak), by extending the northern limits of the area by one block to Northwest Irving Street.

In 2001 Fareless Square was extended again, this time across the river to the Lloyd District. Included were MAX stations along Holladay Street and bus stops on NE Multnomah Street from the Rose Quarter, past the Oregon Convention Center to the Lloyd Center shopping mall. In 2007, a pair of stops directly in front of Union Station, added with Portland Mall construction and north of Hoyt Street, were added to the zone .

Despite the name, the free service area is not shaped like a square.

Boundaries

The boundary of the westside portion of Fareless Square starts at the west foot of the Marquam Bridge, heads northwest along Interstate 405 to Northwest Irving Street, east to the Steel Bridge, then southward along the western shore of the Willamette River. The boundaries of the eastside section starts at the east foot of the Steel Bridge, heads northwest to North Interstate Avenue to Multnomah Street, then east to the 1400 block of Northeast Multnomah Street, south to Northeast Holladay Street, and west to the Steel Bridge. By implication the entirety of the Steel Bridge is within the Fareless Square.

Before its merger to Oregon Central Credit Union and Mountain View Credit Union, Fareless Square was also used by Oregonian Federal Credit Union for the purpose of determining membership eligibility in its charter; any individual person residing, working or attending a place of worship within Fareless Square qualified for the credit union membership. This policy has now been supplanted by a broader eligibility clause.

According to the TriMet Code, Fareless Square is created "within Zone 1" and does not constitute a separate fare zone.

Controversy

Some in the Portland area have caused for Fareless Square to be abolished; for various reasons.

As bus drivers do not require collection of fares on bus boardings within Fareless Square; critics of Tri-Met have alleged that the existence of Fareless Square enables fare evasion, and thus lost revenue, which must be made up by other means, such as taxation. In particular, by riders who board in Fareless Square, fail to pay any fare, and then travel outside the zone's boundaries--a trip for which a paid fare is required. While such fare evaders may be caught by the occasional fare inspector, Tri-Met does not systematically enforce fare collection on trips taken from points inside the square to points outside it.

No fares are collected by train drivers anywhere on the MAX Light Rail system, including Fareless Square. Fare enforcement on MAX is entirely through fare inspectors.

In 2008, a series of attacks against Tri-Met passengers, particularly on the MAX Blue Line in Gresham, led to increased public scrutiny of the security of the Portland transit system as a whole. Fareless Square was called into question as part of this inquiry, as it was alleged that the perpetrators of such offenses were often fare evaders who boarded Tri-Met in Fareless Square, and who then had traveled to Gresham (a city entirely outside the free-fare zone) without paying any fare; and that more stringent fare collection would keep such "undesirables" off the trains. TriMet scheduled two public hearings for January 16th, 2008 to determine the future fate of Fareless Square, including a proposal to limit no-fare operation to daylight hours. but decided to not make any immediate changes to the Square. [cite news|url=http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/01/trimet_backs_away_from_limit_o.html|title=TriMet backs away from limit on Fareless Square|author=Dylan Rivera|date=2008-01-18|accessdate=2008-07-15]

Other commentators have periodically called for abolishing fares altogether on Tri-Met, financing the public transportation system entirely through taxation.

References

External links

* [http://www.trimet.org/meetings/fareless/index.htm Public Hearings Schedule]
* [http://www.trimet.org/fares/fareless.htm Official Info]
* [http://www.trimet.org/pdfs/farelesssquaremap.pdf Map of Fareless Square] (PDF file)