The problem I had with the Free Ride Zone was when I went through it. I would get on before the free zone and pay. Then, after passing out of the Zone, and exiting drivers insisted I had to pay. Even though I already had.
You’re already paying traffic congestion relief (or whatever they call it) fees if you live in King County and own a car. They’re always adding shit onto the license tab fees. $30…ha! I just paid over 3 times that. And you’re also paying gas taxes. No free ride.
The two times I’ve been in Seattle I did not encounter what I’d call “rolling homeless shelter” scenes the several times I used the buses at various hours (or at least, no unusual level beyond what I’d expect in a city of such demographics, and yes, Seattle has a heap of street people; even they seemed to be actually going somewhere). I was able to figure out relatively quickly the pattern for whether to pay at boarding or at getting off when going into the pay zones but I did keep to pretty straightforward straight-shot routes (e.g. Downtown-Boeing Field).
I thought it was a good idea for cutting down on downtown traffic and incentivizing use of transit but I can see how it would get expensive, it seemed there was a pretty good load of passengers moving entirely within the Zone. Metro probably figured out that as things are, for virtually everyone who are already paying customers (that is, whoever already commutes outside the Free Zone) nothing changes except pay-at-boarding so there will be no real change in habits; and any loss of exclusively-within-the-free-zone ridership would be revenue-indifferent and result in less wear and tear on the equipment. Can’t really fault them, was a nice gesture while it lasted, but you can subsidize only up to a point.
I most certainly DO use public transit as a tourist; I hate driving in cities, especially strange cities. However, in my experience, the free ride zone in most cities is usually pretty small – the sort of area where I’d walk anyway – so it’s not terribly useful for me if I’m there as a tourist.
That said, it’s a nice gesture and I’m sorry to hear that it’s disappearing.