Anyone looking for a ride on Election Day in Hampton Roads will again be able to use public transit for free.
Hampton Roads Transit, the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority, and Suffolk Transit are allowing all passengers free rides on Tuesday. HRT began offering free rides on Election Day in 2020 along with many other transit agencies across the country and has done it each year since, on election days for local and mid-term elections in addition to presidential elections.
The practice has resulted in significant increases in ridership across all modes of transit, and has shown growth each year since it began except for a drop off from 2020 to 2021, according to data collected by HRT. An average of 2.4% of citizens cited transportation as the primary barrier to voting in the 2020 presidential election, according to the U.S. Census.
In 2023, public transit ridership across buses, light rail, ferries and paratransit on Election Day increased by 16.4% compared to a typical day in November. Broken down by mode, ferry ridership increased by 65.2%, bus ridership increased by 16.9%, light rail increased by 13.7% and paratransit by 0.64%, according to HRT.