Meeting_Body
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
MAY 23, 2024
Preamble
Motion by:
DIRECTORS MITCHELL, SANDOVAL, SOLIS, NAJARIAN, DUPONT-WALKER, AND BASS
Expanding the LIFE Program through Technology Motion
Related to Item 14: Tap Plus
Metro's Low Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program makes available affordable and accessible transportation to many of Metro's riders who would qualify. Year over year, low-income riders and people of color continue to make up the vast majority of Metro's ridership. The 2022 Customer Experience Survey showed that almost 80 percent of riders identify as Latinx/Hispanic or Black, and 75 percent are from low-income households. They have made up the agency's core ridership even before the COVID-19 pandemic and are now driving ridership recovery post-pandemic.
LIFE is the primary program residents rely on to access discounted and free rides to travel not only on Metro's system, but also on 14 participating transit operators across the region. Launched in 2019, the program has demonstrated tremendous success, but not without continued adjustment and iteration to expand the program's reach. Per Board motion in 2021 (2021-0627), Metro staff overhauled the program's enrollment process by streamlining the application system to enable on-the-spot enrollment and self-certification, including 90 days of unlimited free rides to incentive enrollment. With these efforts, enrollment is just under 313,000 riders, more than triple the goal set out in the motion.
There are still more riders the agency can reach. Minimizing enrollment barriers has proven that entry into the program is a key leverage point to maximize the program's reach and utilization. Three years since the program's enrollment overhaul, it is ripe for new strategies to meet the growing need among Metro's riders. Potential LIFE enrollees can currently use their existing enrollment in other social benefit programs to self-certify into the LIFE program. The agency could take that concept further...
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