District of Columbia VetsRide Free Transportation

VetsRide is a partnership between the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs and the Department of For-Hire Vehicles that pays for taxi or app rides for eligible veterans. What the Code says. D.C. Code 49-1003(26), added by the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Support Act and amended in 2021, tells the Office, "Subject to the availability of funding", to provide a free on-demand or public transportation option to veterans "who reside in a household with an annual household income of less than or equal to 80% of area median income", which "at a minimum" offers "15 one-way trips per month for each eligible veteran", operates six days a week, and "Does not restrict the point of origin or destination of each trip; except, that trips must begin and end within the District." What is actually offered. The Department of For-Hire Vehicles page says eligibility "is restricted to veteran residents of Washington, DC with annual income less than $45,000 or recently unemployed", that rides are free, and that the programme serves educational, health, employment, food distribution and housing trips. The fiscal 2026 grant solicitation to operators allows eight one-way trips, or four round trips, per customer per month, to pre-authorized locations, and $241,200 in total grant funds. The Army benefits library describes the same $45,000 programme running seven days a week. The gap. Every term differs from the Code: the income test is an individual $45,000 cap rather than a household test at 80 percent of area median income, which for a family is several times higher; the trips are eight rather than fifteen; and destinations are restricted where the Code says they may not be. The Code makes the whole paragraph subject to funding, so the District can lawfully fund less than it describes, but a veteran refused a trip to a destination the Code says cannot be restricted should ask the Office which rule it is applying. How to register. Call (202) 745-5555 to register or book, as the Department of For-Hire Vehicles page lists; older flyers give (202) 724-4010 for the Office itself.