City council has this morning voted to approve free all zones transit travel for 9th to 12th grade students in Portland Public Schools. The new “Youth Pass” program for students will be funded with $800,000 from Portland Public Schools, and using up to $2million in tax credits from the state’s department of energy, which has a Business Energy Tax Credit program, that gives state money for transportation projects that decrease environmental impacts.
The ordinance was proposed by Mayor Sam Adams and afforded an opportunity for his fellow city commissioners to offer big-ups. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she had been shocked for her years as a public schools parent that children were required to pay, in one form or another, to get to school. “Sam Adams is an education mayor,” she said. City Commissioner Randy Leonard said both he and mayor Sam Adams had attended public schools, although “unlike me, Sam has kept his hair.” Leonard then praised Adams’ efforts to ensure that all public school students could participate in the system.
Trimet recently axed its “fareless square” program in downtown Portland, in a move calculated to save just $800,000.
This is an extraordinarily good idea.
Wait, they completely axed fareless square? I thought it was just the buses, the MAX is gone too?
Just the buses. My apologies.
This is just what we need, more hooligans riding the buses and MAXes and Trams(does this cover the Tram too?) and street cars. At least technically, they’ll be paying customers now or something.
DAMN KIDS GET OFF MY LAWNS!! (I actually had kids on my lawn on Sunday. They had kicked their ball into my backyard and needed to go back there to retrieve it. I really wish I had yelled at the kids to get off my lawn now. What a missed opportunity)
Does this only cover students of public schools or are charter schools covered too?
Also does this require the kids to get a pass or will a student body ID work?
I see that the other birdcage liner in town has answered my questions:
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2009/08/26/a-f…
This includes all PPS high schools and Alt ed. schools are included. A Trimet sticker will be attached to student ID. This pilot ran last year at, I believe, 4 PPS area high schools with no reported incidents.
Boy they sure can find money when they want to can’t they.
It’s a good thing in this case however.