The Orange County Transportation Authority has made the Youth Ride Free Pass permanent, becoming the first large transit agency in the region to offer free bus rides to all youth ages 6 to 18 on an ongoing basis.
The decision to extend the pass indefinitely follows a six-month promotional program offering the pass, a physical card with a magnetic stripe, through local school districts and the OCTA store, that’s kids and teens to ride the bus to school and other destinations throughout Orange County.
During the promotional period, more than 765,000 trips were recorded using the pass, according to OCTA, which said that its projections show an estimated 1.7 million trips will be taken annually using the pass.