Seattle used to have free transit downtown. I'm not sure how much of it was about moving people around, and how much was just to move people around faster by not requiring them to go through the payment process. The free rides are over now. Literally.
When I lived in Seattle, and outside Seattle, I was always impressed that Sound Transit lived up to its mandate as a transit agency, and not a revenue source. Its mission was to move people around. To that end, if you didn't have any money (forgot your wallet, too drunk to remember where you left your Orca card, too poor to pay, etc...) the bus drivers would give you zero hassle and let you board.
In contrast, I can't count the number of times I've seen clearly poor people kicked off of the buses in Chicago because they couldn't afford to pay. That just seems wrong. There should be some sort of income line below which you are entitled to free public transit.
Do you mean Sound Transit (inter-city/county bus service) or Metro (king county)? I can’t imagine sound transit buses being that lenient at all, metro buses on the other hand could be.
Downtown Seattle has gone down hill since the 90s/00s. It used to be a nice place to shop and do stuff, but the last time I was downtown there was hardly anything to do beyond tourist traps. I guess a lot of this is amazon destroying in person retail, ironically enough.
It was definitely common for homeless and mentally ill people to be on the free ride buses, but I don’t know if I’d say it was a primary reason it was cancelled. Seemed more about costs.
Baltimore and DC have free buses called "circulators". There was a story that the buses are losing money but would lose more money if they charged because they're getting grants for being free and have ads which would be worth less with lower ridership.
I suspect they also make some of the money "back" from people taking the bus to/from a Metro (subway) stop, where you now have to buy a ticket since you no longer have a transfer.
When I lived in Seattle, and outside Seattle, I was always impressed that Sound Transit lived up to its mandate as a transit agency, and not a revenue source. Its mission was to move people around. To that end, if you didn't have any money (forgot your wallet, too drunk to remember where you left your Orca card, too poor to pay, etc...) the bus drivers would give you zero hassle and let you board.
In contrast, I can't count the number of times I've seen clearly poor people kicked off of the buses in Chicago because they couldn't afford to pay. That just seems wrong. There should be some sort of income line below which you are entitled to free public transit.