For the greater than 1 million New Yorkers who trip MTA buses each day, their chosen mode of public transportation is having fun with a uncommon second within the glare of the mayoral race.
A marketing campaign pledge by Democratic nominee Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani to eradicate bus fares and pace service remembers then-candidate Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 vow to champion bus riders by constructing 150 miles of bus lanes over 4 years, a promise which shortly fizzled.
Whilst Metropolis Corridor’s affect over bus service is basically restricted to road designs that may pace or gradual riders, the renewed buzz over buses has been welcomed by transit advocates for a community whose 8 mph common pace is among the many slowest within the nation, in keeping with a February report from the Unbiased Funds Workplace.
“The mayor is in charge of what happens on the street,” stated Danny Pearlstein, coverage director for Riders Alliance. “The city owns the streets, they’re the city’s property and as the city’s CEO, the mayor can make that call.”
An OMNY reader reminds riders to pay the fare on the entrance of a Brooklyn bus, July 7, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
However relating to constructing extra bus lanes, Adams in 2023 reversed course below stress on plans so as to add extra devoted bus lanes to Fordham Street in The Bronx. His administration has additionally pulled again from work on the thirty fourth Avenue busway, Streetsblog reported final week, although a Transportation Division spokesperson stated “community engagement” continues on the challenge which is being assessed.
Adams has additionally fallen in need of the 150-mile dedication for his first time period and in addition on the 2019 “streets master plan” for bus lanes.
“He is so far off that we have stopped counting,” Pearlstein stated.
Now, the incumbent mayor — who was awarded a “Bus Mayor” jacket by Riders Alliance in 2022 for his guarantees to hurry service — faces a problem from Mamdani, a relative political newcomer who has made buses a centerpiece of his marketing campaign.
“Buses haven’t really been highlighted to the extent that they should,” stated Lisa Daglian, government director of the Everlasting Residents Advisory Committee to the MTA. “They haven’t gotten their moment in the sun — and now here it is and it’s about time.”
Mamdani stated his fare-free proposal — which got here on the heels of a yearlong no-fare trial on a single route in every borough that he pushed for within the state legislature — grew out of conferences with senior MTA officers whereas working with Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) on their “Fix the MTA” plan.
“Someone remarked to me that if you really cared about equity, you would focus first on the buses,” Mamdani stated final week. “And it was a suggestion, and I took it to heart, because what it spoke to is the fact that bus riders are disproportionately working class across these five boroughs.”
The town’s Fiscal Yr 2026 Govt Funds handed late final month requires increasing the city-funded “Fair Fares” program that provides half-off transit journeys to low-income New Yorkers, although advocates are pushing for the potential applicant pool to extend even additional.
Price of a Dream
The fare-free proposal comes with important questions over simply how a lot energy Metropolis Corridor can exert over a bus service it doesn’t function. There may be additionally the not-insignificant matter of whether or not the town or the MTA, a state authority, would cowl what the Mamdani marketing campaign has estimated can be $630 million in misplaced income fares on greater than 300 routes.
“There ain’t no such thing as a free bus — who’s going to pay?” stated Andrew Rein, president of the Residents Funds Fee, a nonprofit watchdog. “And does it make sense when transit is actually one of the best deals New York has going?”
The almost yearlong fare-free buses pilot program on 5 routes ran by means of the tip of August 2024 after being mandated within the state’s 2023 funds. It delivered blended outcomes, with the MTA noting in a June analysis that speeds didn’t improve on the free routes — and really decreased at a fee much like others systemwide.
Even alongside a Bronx route the place buses ran fare-free for a yr, some riders have been skeptical of the plan’s long-term viability.
“Free buses would be fabulous, but I find the whole idea to be a bit of a fantasy, and a lot of people already do not pay the fare,” stated Martha Caro, 64, who rides the Bx18A to and from the West Bronx. “If you were to do this across all the routes in the city, that would be a considerable amount of money.”
Commuters wait to board a Bx18B bus in The Bronx, July 7, 2025. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
In keeping with the MTA, the lack of fare income and different prices topped $16.5 million over the course of the yearlong pilot program, and company chief Janno Lieber stated final yr the fare-free rides despatched “the wrong message” at a time when fare evasion on buses has far outpaced nonpayment within the subway.
MTA fare-evasion information exhibits that 44% of all bus riders didn’t pay the fare in the course of the first quarter of 2025, in contrast with lower than 10% on the subway.
Rein pointed to looming fiscal ache for the town and state as extra potential hurdles for Mamdani’s fare-free buses proposal.
“If you’re a mayor, you control the city budget and the city budget is under huge fiscal stress,” he stated. “We’ve $8 to $10 billion future funds gaps, now we have looming federal cuts, we don’t have the reserves wanted for these federal cuts or a recession.“
Gov. Kathy Hochul, in the meantime, has stated new taxes are usually not an possibility. Any new taxes would want approval from state lawmakers and the governor.
“There are a number of obstacles, a number of challenges to be overcome,” Rein stated.
Driver Assaults Drop
Eliminating bus fares could have a definite upside: fewer assaults on bus drivers.
Through the yearlong pilot program, verbal and bodily assaults on bus operators decreased on all however one of many fare-free routes, dropping by 32%, in comparison with a 15% drop on different routes.
MTA information exhibits that, since 2019, cases of harassment and assault in opposition to bus operators account for 66% of all office violence in opposition to transit employees. To date this yr, violence in opposition to bus employees makes up 45% of the whole quantity.
Union leaders have backed Mamdani’s fare-free proposal due to its potential to chop out confrontations over the $2.90 fare.
“It nearly totally eliminates the assaults on bus operators, and bus operators have been plagued with assaults,” John Samuelsen, the worldwide president of the Transport Employees Union, informed THE CITY. “It’s very, very easy for people who have not been assaulted behind the wheel of a bus to underestimate the significant impact on the working communities of New York.”
Samuelsen praised what he known as the “policy gravitas” of the upstart meeting member, who sources stated was closely engaged in Albany steering the MTA away from a possible fiscal cliff earlier this decade. Others who’ve handled Mamdani on transit informed THE CITY how he was “intimately involved” in securing tens of millions in state funding for increasing service on a number of subway strains in 2023.
“He’s been thinking about these things for quite some time and whatever he earnestly believes in, he’s pursuing,” Samuelsen stated. “It’s not that he’s doing it because he’s got his finger up in the wind and sees which way the wind is blowing.”
MTA officers have been largely muted on the fare-free plan, with Lieber, the authority’s chairperson and CEO, saying “transit won” quickly after Mamdani’s major win.
“As the campaign continues and unfolds, we welcome all the discussion about transit that seems to be bubbling up,” Lieber stated after the June board assembly.
Alongside a hundred and seventieth Avenue in The Bronx, the place the Bx18A/B ran fare-free for a yr, some riders stated they recognize the eye on buses, whereas additionally questioning whether or not the highlight can final.
“The main focus is always going to be the subway,” stated Quinesse Small, 29, who was ready for a westbound Bx18 subsequent to the a hundred and seventieth Avenue cease on the No. 4 line. “However the bus is a crucial a part of public transportation and each half must be a spotlight, particularly when persons are utilizing it to commute to work, commute to high school, simply to get round.
“At least it is getting some attention.”
Extra reporting by Katie Honan and Mia Hollie.
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