She Moved to Vermont for Fare-Free Transit
By: Marlena Compton
As I woke, the darkness in my room suggested that I had completely slept through the day. The orange glow coming through the window suggested otherwise.
It was Wednesday, September 9, 2020, a day marked in San Francisco's history as, "The Orange Day." Lines at the grocery store had subsided and toilet paper was once again on the shelves. Unfortunately, for California, the fire season was just getting started. I lived in San Francisco, where air from forest fires in surrounding areas frequently settled in with the fog requiring locals to wear a mask, not for germs, but to breathe when they are walking outside in toxic, smoke-filled air. On this day, chemicals from the fires had turned the sky a deeply unsettling shade of orange.
It made life particularly miserable in September of 2020 because outside was the only place I could find any respite or feel any sense of freedom. To wake up and see an orange glow through the window, broke something in me. My husband and I got serious about moving from California.
With our world shrunk down to the walls of our small, 1-bedroom, city apartment, my husband and I started talking about what we'd need in a new city.
Number 1: No fires. -- Enough said.
Number 2: Mountains. My husband is from Western North Carolina, and I went to college there. Our first date was in a wild cave, and I knew we were a "match" when he built me the best fire ever on our first backpack. We need mountains.
Number 3: Transit.
I grew up in the un-bounded traffic sprawl of Atlanta, Georgia and have always sought to live in places where I can get around by bus, bike, or walking. I have lost all patience or ability to sit in traffic congestion or to spend my day driving. It was exactly this reason why Denver, Colorado was never on my list, much to my husband's chagrin.
On our short list were the cities of Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Portland is famous as a city with many transportation options and a generous area within the city where the light rail is fare free. What's interesting about Olympia and why it was on my list was that it has fare-free transit which started out as a trial before the pandemic.
When I started researching, I had no idea how much I cared about the cost of transit. Transit is typically marketed as having a cost savings over driving a car; however, San Francisco taught me that I care a lot about the cost of my transit options.
Although San Francisco has a lot of transportation options such as subway, light-rail, buses and ferries, a monthly pass cost me over $100.00 each month. I grew a hardcore resentment for this cost given how much I was already paying to live in the city especially when I saw the amount of extraordinary wealth all around me, the glut of tech shuttles clogging the city roads and the extra taxes I paid as a city resident. When there is so much obvious wealth in a place, and housing is expensive, the cost of transit becomes an important factor in expenses and the funding or insufficient funding of the transit system sends a clear message about who in the population is prioritized. In San Francisco, it obviously wasn’t me.
Finding out that there were beautiful cities where I wouldn't need a transit pass blew my mind.
Then some friends who live in Burlington reached out to me and told me about ALL THE WATER in Lake Champlain and the fun to be had in the Green Mountains and high peaks of the Adirondacks. When I saw that Burlington made their transit system fare-free for the pandemic, I was sold.
Moving to Burlington is one of the best decisions my husband and I ever made. We are out on a trail almost every weekend and I love hopping on the bus to get to work or go to events like the Festival of Fools. I’ve been to UVM, Pine Street and Winooski, among other places, on the bus. It’s easy to hop on, get where I need to go and hop off.
I ride the Shelburne 6 bus which is nearly always full. There's a nice bus shelter with windows, a roof, and a bench to sit on while I wait for the bus even if it’s snowing or windy. The fact that there's no messing with fares means the bus is pretty good at being on time. It gets me to town quickly and the Downtown Transit Center makes connections a breeze. To be sure, I wish there were more bus shelters on Shelburne Road, and there’s no good way for me to get to the other side of South Burlington on a bus – the side where all of the city’s services, library and shopping are located, I’m a satisfied GMT rider more often than not.
My husband and I own one car and have no plans to change that. It’s an important part of our plan to slowly decrease the amount of income we need as we age, here in Vermont. Owning one car requires a lot less money! We can get where we need to go and often take the bus instead of driving. My husband loves riding the bus to his job in Williston because it’s time he can spend reading a book or listening to a podcast.
I know that GMT is going through a tough time and that there is talk of bringing back fares, but I'm a case in point that fare-free transit and transit itself attracts middle class adults to Burlington and Chittenden County. A thriving metro area, with a thriving transit system on a beautiful lake next to some gorgeous mountains is encouraging to wake up to each day. I don’t feel the same fear or dread as I did when fire season approached in California.
When the #6 bus turns the corner onto Main Street, I see Lake Champlain in front of me and the Adirondacks rising beyond. I’m in the right place, on the right bus, moving forward. Please keep the fare free transit and give GMT the funds it needs to thrive.
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Marlena Compton is a Marketing Associate with the Chittenden Area Transportation Management Association (CATMA). Marlena comes to Vermont by way of San Francisco, California, and is passionate about all things transit (She has considered getting a tattoo of her bus route number). In her spare time, Marlena hangs out with her partner and her dog, usually somewhere in the woods.
