To address this problem, cities should create or increase transit subsidies for lower-income households. In Seattle, the ORCA LIFT program offers a lower transit rate for households with incomes less than double the federal poverty level, but in such a high cost city, families with higher incomes than this could also benefit from transit subsidies. Families earning 50-80% of area median income are just as likely to be displaced, and these incomes are still low enough that increased transit costs can constitute a burden. Therefore, Seattle should expand its program to households earning up to 80% of area median income.
To finance these transit subsidies, cities can levy a fee for private automobiles entering congested areas of the city, such as the central business district and put the revenue towards transit programs. This action in and of itself would would have multiple benefits. First, it would discourage automobile use in areas of the city served by transit, potentially freeing parking lots for housing development. Second, municipalities could capture the wealth of high-wage residents or even tourists that enjoy urban life but do not fund the infrastructure that supports it. Congestion pricing schemes are already popular in global cities like London and Stockholm, where they have generated millions in public revenue, reduced traffic, and boosted transit ridership.