It was a solution to the problem that people couldn't get where they needed to go because downtown buses was always full of homeless people, who needed somewhere warm to get out of the weather, but didn't actually need to go anywhere. Metro's job is to operate a transportation system, not to operate a homeless shelter, and the fact that homeless people were riding back and forth across the downtown ride free zone made it much more difficult for Metro to do its actual job.

It may reassure you to know that a local social services group now operates a free "Downtown Circulator" bus which runs in a loop around the area of the old ride free zone. Any homeless or impoverished people who actually need to travel around the downtown area for free can still do so.