We’re offering free rides on our bus, rail and bike system on Saturday, February 4, to honor Transit Equity Day and the birthday of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who in 1955 famously refused to give up her seat because she was Black.

Parks’ action and courage led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on transit was unconstitutional — an important milestone in dismantling the Jim Crow laws that persisted in the U.S. for a century after the end of the Civil War.

For all these reasons, Transit Equity Day is a very important day for our agency. Transit Equity Day highlights the right of all people to affordable public transportation and speaks directly to our core mission: to provide mobility to connect all people to opportunity.

Please know that other agencies — including Metrolink, the regional rail provider — are also offering free fares on Saturday, Feb. 4.

If you currently ride Metro, enjoy the free rides! Turnstiles will be unlocked at rail stations on Feb. 4 and there’s no need to TAP at fare validators or fare boxes.

If you’re a new rider to Metro, welcome aboard! We suggest using the Transit app to help plan your transit trip. Our system can connect you to a ton of destinations worthy of a Saturday visit — including Exposition Park, downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, the beach in Santa Monica, Old Pasadena and downtown Long Beach, to name a few.

Metro Bike Share and Metro Micro will be offering free rides all day on Saturday February 4.

To redeem your Metro Bike Share 30-minute free ride, just select ‘1-Ride’ at any Metro Bike Share kiosk, online or in the Metro Bike Share app, and use code 020423. The code may be used multiple times throughout the day. To redeem a Metro Micro free ride, click here to book the ride and use code EQ2023.

Before we get into more about some of our projects and programs to improve equity, please see this message from Metro’s KeAndra Cylear-Dodds, who leads our Office of Equity and Race.

We’d like to highlight some of our key programs and projects that help advance equity in transit:

•Our GoPass offers free rides to K-12 and community college students in L.A. County at participating schools and districts. We want to help students (and their families!) save money traveling to school, work, cultural destinations and to take advantage of our growing transit network. To learn more and check if your school is enrolled in GoPass please click here.

•Our LIFE program provides heavily discounted fares for those who depend on us the most to get around. To learn more, see if you qualify for LIFE and to apply online, please visit https://www.metro.net/riding/life/. We’ve worked hard to make it easier to apply online.

•We’ve also kept our fares very low. We continue to offer discounted daily ($3.50), 7-day ($12.50) and 30-day ($50) passes for unlimited rides. We’re also introducing a simpler fare structure and fare capping later this year so that no one overpays to ride.

•We have many transit projects in the construction or planning stage that will make it easier for you to get where you’re going. Many of these projects will also serve equity-focused communities that have been overlooked in the past and not received their fair share of infrastructure investments.

Among a few key projects:

–The Regional Connector will open this year and is tying together the A, E and L Lines via a 1.9-mile tunnel under downtown Los Angeles that will make travel in our region faster with fewer transfers.

–The Purple (D Line) Extension is adding nine miles to the D Line between job-rich communities including Koreatown, the Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood, home to UCLA and the VA Hospital. The first section from Wilshire/Western to Wilshire/La Cienega is forecast to open in 2024.

–An extension of the L Line from Azusa to Pomona for easier access to Foothill Cities, the many colleges along the L Line and transfers to Metrolink’s San Bernardino Line, which serves the Inland Empire. The project is scheduled to open in 2025.

–A new light rail on Van Nuys Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley between the G (Orange) Line and the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station that will serve Van Nuys, Panorama City, Arleta, Pacoima, San Feranndo and Sylmar. Utility work is underway. The project’s official name is the East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor.

–Bus improvements, including: better and more frequent bus service in the northern San Fernando Valley; a new bus rapid transit line between North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock and Pasadena, and; new bus priority lanes on parts of Alvarado Street, Venice Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.

•If you own a business and are interested in doing business with Metro, we’ve made a number of improvements in recent years to ensure that small- and medium-sized firms, as well as minority-owned businesses, have a fair chance at bidding on Metro contracts. Please see our Metro Connect web page for more info.

•As many riders know, our busy Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station serves the A (Blue), C (Green) Line and many Metro bus lines. Next time you visit the station, look closely for the images of Rosa Parks that are part of the artworks installed by our Metro Art program.

•To learn more about our agency’s approach to equity and race, please visit https://www.metro.net/about/equity-race. Our system strives to make the Greater Los Angeles are more accessible — and more equitable.