1,000 City of Cincinnati Employees Rode Metro on "City Employees Ride Free Day"

Metro’s buses had more passengers on Monday, June 25, thanks to 1,000 city of Cincinnati employees who chose to ride Metro as part of a special “City Employee Free Ride Day.”

In support of the city of Cincinnati’s Green Cincinnati Plan, the city of Cincinnati and Metro partnered on the promotion to encourage the City’s 6,000 employees to ride Metro by providing special free ride passes for use on June 25. Of that total workforce, about 1,000 employees — or about 17 percent — chose to go Metro.

To set the example for city employees, City Council members Laure Quinlivan and Cecil Thomas rode Metro’s Rt. 6 to work at City Hall on Monday.

“These are outstanding results. If we can get commuters to try Metro, we believe they’ll become frequent riders,” said Terry Garcia Crews, Metro’s CEO & general manager. “The city has been a leader in this promotion and a great partner in encouraging the use of transit. We’re eager to work with other organizations in the region on similar promotions to introduce more people to riding Metro.”

“One person choosing to ride transit to work instead of driving means cleaner air for all of us,” said Larry Falkin, director of the city of Cincinnati’s Office of Environmental Quality. “Our goal was to encourage green behavior like riding Metro as part of Mayor Mark Mallory's Green Cincinnati Initiative.”

Metro is a non-profit, tax-funded public service of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, providing about 17 million rides per year in Greater Cincinnati.