Bus rides in La Crosse are free on World Car-Free Day today

Thursday was designated World Car-Free Day, aimed at getting people to walk for one day, or use mass transit. The MTU in La Crosse is promoting the car-free idea with free bus rides all day long.

Another plan for saving money while taking the bus is scheduled to be introduced in October.

Adam Lorentz, the head of the MTU, says Genfare will make it easier to pay for bus rides, and plan your mass transit trips.

“This new Genfare system will be a mobile app, where you can actually download the app on your phone,” says Lorentz. “You can pay by your phone, and it allows us to give more options for different riderships, so we could offer one-day rides, three-day rides, or instead of just for the month of let’s say, October, you just buy a 30-day pass and it’s good for the day that you activate it.”

The Genfare system for La Crosse has been in the works for over a year.

“One of the things we heard from a lot of riders and people coming from out-of-town or visitors or students is that…they don’t like how you have to purchase a pass with cash only or check only at certain locations,” Lorentz says, and “that it only goes for the month and doesn’t go by the days.”

Sources say World Car-Free Day has been observed on September 22nd since 2000.