Free bus rides for keiki? So much for that

Other cities like San Diego and San Francisco started offering free transit for youth after the pandemic, as did Washington state. Abbey Seitz, director of transportation equity at Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, said she’s disappointed the initiative didn’t pass here given that it could reduce people’s cost of living.

It didn’t help that supporters couldn’t come up with a specific dollar amount for the needed funding, she said. Programs already exist that give some youth free or reduced transit fares, she said, but not everyone who’s eligible takes advantage of them, making it hard to estimate how much fare revenue would be lost if a blanket program began. 

Still, she was heartened to see a strong foundation of support for free youth transit. 

“These bigger efforts do typically take a few years,” Seitz said. “I’m excited by how much engagement there already was in the first year.”