TriMet celebrates Rosa Parks Transit Equity Day on February 4, 2022. No fares will be collected for bus, MAX, WES or LIFT, on what would have been the civil rights icon’s 109th birthday. Portland Streetcar and C-TRAN will join us in providing free rides as an annual tribute to Rosa Parks.
On December 1, 1955, police arrested Rosa Parks after she refused to give up a seat on a city bus to a white person in segregated Montgomery, Ala. Her courageous actions led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring segregation unconstitutional on public transit systems.
In early 2021, TriMet’s Board of Directors adopted Resolution 20-01-07, which described Parks’ actions as “an important and legendary day in the Civil Rights movement in the United States.” The resolution changed TriMet code to allow for fares not to be collected every Feb. 4, to encourage people throughout the region to “acknowledge this courageous African American woman.”