. >> i'm here today with emmett nelson from mta staff. we'd like to talk about that issue in particular but would like to report as of today 20,000 low income seniors and persons with disabilities have signed up for this program. that is amazing. we are estimating the total amount will be 25,000 and this is within a month. i think it demonstrates there truly is a need for this program and it will start march 1st. the reason we decided to start without a means testing, as director hinton suggested, is it would be very expensive. our free program for youth has been very successful and very few programs. a very interesting thing that's happened along the way, fare evasion used to be about 9 percent among all riders, now it's down to 7 percent. part of that is all door boards, you can put your card in the back as well as the front but it seems like it's working very well. i've seen the lines out the front and jessica layman mepbsed about getting the word out even more and we hope everyone who is eligible will sign up at some point. at our com