Another example of "Why we can't have nice things." Our Intercity Transit serving most of Thurston County went zero user fees on January 1, 2020. The number of riders increased significantly until the pandemic hit and the "stay at home" directives were issued. That really dropped passenger numbers. Too bad, as the zero fees was an experiment to see what impact the policy would have on increasing ridership. Now it looks like two or three months of collecting data will be lost; I see very few people waiting at the bus stops these days. Public transportation has got to be just below cruise ships and casinos as a petri dish for pathogens. Downtown Olympia has a huge homeless problem. I'm sure the bus drivers serving that area are facing the exact conditions you've described. A state park ranger told me that user fees were initiated to keep undesirables from taking over the parks; seems fares serve the same purpose on buses.