Leaders at the Orange County Transport Authority are taking steps for passengers to start using a bus pass to pay and ride Orange County’s public bus system in the near future.

On Monday, OCTA staff was given the green light to gather community feedback, being given 10 weeks to seek input from residents and bus riders on encouraging charge cards to pay for rides before a public hearing is held in March.

The proposal to add bus passes – referred to as smart cards – could go into effect this summer, in which residents could pay a fee for a physical bus card or download a virtual card via a smartphone for free, according to Sam Kaur, the Transportation Agency’s manager of revenue and grant administration.

After this story was published, OCTA spokesperson Joel Zlotnick clarified on Tuesday that cash options will still be available at buses.

But it’s also raising concerns from some elected officials who sit on the transportation board. 

OCTA board member and Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung said officials need to consider the impacts to low-income communities.

In a Monday phone interview, Jung said he wants OCTA officials “to account for those who are unbanked, especially minorities and immigrants.”

Jung said overhauling modernizing OC’s bus system is needed, particularly when compared to other regions in the state like the San Francisco Bay Area.

To use Bay Area Rapid Transit, commonly referred to as BART, passengers are required to use a “clipper” card as a form of payment in order to ride.

Jung said in Orange County, most bus riders are typically from lower-income communities that have little travel options.

“They are the ones that take the bus, and their input is important,” he said. “It could be a disservice to those communities if allowed to follow through without getting feedback first.”

The proposal calls for the ability of passengers to load funds onto the card through the agency’s website, via mobile application, or add funds with cash or coins at retail locations that sell OCTA-branded smart cards.

Residents can expect to purchase and reload their accounts at stores like Walmart, 7-Eleven, Albertsons, Walgreens and CVS.

These changes are part of system upgrades that Orange County transportation officials approved of in 2023, allowing for the agency to implement the use of smart cards that better tracks bus fares.

Based on a staff report, the agency is expected to host several in-person and virtual meetings throughout February as part of the community outreach efforts.

The report emphasizes gathering information on how adding bus passes would affect disadvantaged communities, particularly communities of color and those with disabilities.

During the agency’s inaugural live-streamed meeting on Monday, OCTA board member and OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento highlighted the importance of “meeting riders where they are.” 

He encouraged staff to focus on ride-alongs and provide resources for language translations to underserved communities using the bus.

At the same meeting, Sarmiento acknowledged the importance of implementing live streaming to give residents more transparency on decisions made by transportation officials.

This echoes a statement said last year by the OC Transportation Authority’s CEO Darrell Johnson in a news release: “Transparency is key to all we do at OCTA.”

Orange County transportation officials started live streaming board meetings last month after a Voice of OC and Chapman University student investigation looked into which public agencies live stream meetings.

[Read: Watching OC’s Transit Agency from Home]

Until now, residents were only given access to audio livestream for OCTA’s meetings for the past 16 years.

Hugo Rios is a Voice of OC reporting fellow. Contact him at hugo.toni.rios@gmail.com or on Twitter @hugoriosss.