This fall, several organizations in New Orleans came together to launch a zero-fare pilot program designed to evaluate the benefits of free public transit for young city residents. The new “Opportunity Pass” provides Orleans Parish youth aged 16-24 with one year of free access to all Regional Transit Authority (RTA) buses, streetcars and ferries.
The pilot program resulted from a collaborative effort led by RIDE New Orleans, a Hilton Foundation grantee partner, who worked with young people to understand transit challenges and needs of 16-24 year old transit riders and co-create transit system solutions. “Youth Transit Ambassadors” involved with RIDE New Orleans educated stakeholders, city councilmembers and other officials to build support for the Opportunity Pass pilot.
Now, several of the Hilton Foundation’s Opportunity Youth initiative grantee partners, including RIDE New Orleans, Children and Youth Planning Board, New Orleans Youth Alliance, Cafe Reconcile, Liberty’s Kitchen, Youth Empowerment Project, Delgado Community College, New Orleans Career Center and others, are helping to sign young people up at local public libraries to take advantage of free access to public transit.
Youth Ambassadors spread the word
One of the innovative ways the pilot program is spreading the word is via peer-to-peer communication, with “Youth Ambassadors” as the face of the initiative. The ambassadors, who are also 16-24 years old, commit to several months of paid work creating and leading outreach that will help make sure young people understand how to sign up and ride the RTA for free.
Outreach tactics include face-to-face engagement and coming up with original content for platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
“To me, free transit means no longer having to scrape up change for fare or stress over how I’m going to get from point A to point B,” said a Youth Ambassador named Bela. “I firmly believe this stress should be alleviated for everyone, especially youth.”
Connecting youth to community and creating future leaders
The goals of the program include removing financial barriers to travel for young adults, growing ridership on the RTA, collecting data to help improve transit for young adults and creating the skills and confidence for lifelong public transit ridership. These objectives align with the Hilton Foundation’s Opportunity Youth initiative, which also supports the strategy of building the capacity of youth leaders to advocate on behalf of themselves, as young people know their own needs best and their voices are key to designing solutions that work.
According to the Urban Institute, access to transportation reduces barriers to employment, educational opportunities, childcare and healthcare, which in turn leads to better economic outcomes, increased autonomy and feelings of belonging.
RIDE New Orleans further highlighted the benefits of free transit for opportunity youth – supported by research studies – in a 2022 report:
“When young people have greater access to the city, they are able to get to education, jobs, recreation and other useful destinations. Transportation is especially vital for helping opportunity youth (ages 16-24) take their first steps toward future careers. Taking transit also helps young people build life skills such as navigation and time management that make them more independent and self-sufficient. Furthermore, the money saved on fares can be spent on other essential items and services.”
During the first weeks of the new program’s implementation, there has been a significant number of sign-ups and ridership growth, according to RIDE New Orleans. The Opportunity Pass pilot program was funded by $2.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds allocated by the New Orleans City Council.