The program is launched as a party of the city’s climate action emergency framework.
Source: ‘Uncharted territory’: First Bay Area city makes bus fare free
fta:
Previously, bus fees yielded about $162,000 each year, which was less than 10% of Petaluma’s transit budget. To make bus services free, the city allocated $180,000 from the general fund, which is more than it predicts will be necessary, according to Arce.
Free bus fare and banning new gas stations are not the only items in Petaluma’s climate action plan. This fall, the city plans to launch a microtransit program for an on-demand bus service, and it aims to electrify its bus fleet by 2030.
for context, Petaluma is ~ same size as Peterborough, per Wikipedia:
Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 census.
