Letter: It's not about the free fare

I've ridden the bus in Tucson since I was a kid, meaning I've been riding the bus for over 40 years. I have witnessed crime on the bus and there have been times when I felt unsafe. These incidents happened before the covid pandemic and when we all paid fares, which I sometimes struggled to afford. The main type of conflict or crime I witnessed was people in conflict with the driver over paying the fare. I continue to use public transit post-covid and, anecdotally, crime has not increased in my experience. In fact, conflicts with drivers over fares disappeared. We should look at the data around bus crimes in the last three years and determine how many of those crimes were related to the requirement to wear masks. Riding the bus is a safe as it ever was, and it's more accessible. We need to keep fares free.