[sauravc]

Live in downtown Seattle here. Although I enjoyed not paying for bus rides while it was free, I'm much happier with the service now that payment is required.

As a side note, the wait time for paying was reduced drastically once the Orca Card system (rfid based bus pass) went into use. From my experience, with the Orca Card the wait times for paying aren't that much longer compared to the free bus method. It's only when a group of tourists get on the bus and pay with coins is it noticeable.

[notahacker]

Yeah, I'm not sure why the Economist built their argument around a problem with payment times that is basically solved on every bus service I've ever used on a regular basis (even the one without RFID had a "no change given" policy and most users had bus passes). There are arguments for subsidising public transport but "inconvenience of paying" isn't one of the more credible ones.