Opinion: Fast, free and fair – a universal and targeted affordability agenda for transit riders

Subway and bus riders voted overwhelmingly for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who won neighborhoods where most people commute by transit by 29 points. It’s little wonder, given his unprecedented promise to make buses fast and free. 

Thanks to Mamdani’s historic campaign, focus on bus policy has surged, teasing apart the relationship between fast and free. Riders Alliance, which has organized to win affordable transit for a decade, is especially excited by the prospect of pairing fast and free buses with a transformed Fair Fares program. 

As Mamdani prepares his budget, we urge our next mayor to fund free buses for every rider, free subway rides for very low-income New Yorkers, and half fares for more workers, who are often burdened with punishing commutes and multiple transfers to reach jobs everyone else depends on.

Critics have argued that free buses sound good in theory but fall apart in practice. We disagree. When done right, and paired with an expanded Fair Fares program and the mayor-elect’s co-equal commitment to making buses faster, free buses are not only fair, they’re fiscally and operationally smart policy.

Free buses, like Social Security, is a universal policy that most bus riders will feel. Today, 1 in 5 New Yorkers can’t afford the fare, including more than one-third of low-income working mothers and nearly 2 in 5 Latino riders. On average, bus riders earn more than 20% less than subway riders. For millions, the cost of getting around is no small change. 

For many reasons – including poverty, operational difficulties and pandemic-era disruptions – the bus fare is faltering as a reliable source of revenue to fund public transit service. Already, little more than half of bus riders pay the fare. Even assuming everyone paid, fares would cover significantly less than half the cost of providing each ride. 

Making the bus free would just increase the amount of subsidy per rider, not inaugurate a new funding paradigm. It’s a difference of degree rather than kind.

Free buses would also save money. Fare collection costs money and time, which is money, both for riders and the MTA, which could reinvest savings in more service. Pouring resources into fare enforcement, when so many riders can’t afford to pay, is throwing good money after bad.

While many riders can’t afford their own fare, free buses would cost less than 1% of the New York City budget, and less than 0.5% of the state budget. There’s no question that New York can afford to eliminate bus fares. 

What’s rarer, and more valuable than any budget line, is the political mandate and courage the new mayor brings to finally get buses out of traffic, a pragmatic policy goal that just about every expert agrees on, yet no mayor has ever been bold enough to deliver.

Meanwhile, the success of congestion pricing shows that smart policy can help manage traffic and fund transit. For example, if we were to modestly raise parking meter rates or charge for more of the city’s 3 million mostly free spaces, New York could raise new revenue to make buses free while also speeding up service by reducing double parking. 

A funding source like this matches the operational reality. Any new revenue source must be renewable, bondable and scalable. The funding must come in every year reliably, support MTA borrowing the way farebox revenue does and grow as more New Yorkers get on board better buses.

But we can’t stop there. Free buses alone won’t deliver more affordable transit for low-income New Yorkers who transfer to the subway, where fares generate several billion dollars each year for service and maintenance provided by the transit workers who keep our city moving.

New York’s Fair Fares program, which offers discounted fares to riders at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, is an existing fare subsidy that already defrays the direct cost that hundreds of thousands of riders pay for public transit.

Since its creation in 2019, after years of organizing and advocacy, Fair Fares has become a lifeline. But too few New Yorkers can reach it. Enrollment can be cumbersome. Outreach has lagged. 

Fair Fares eligibility currently stops at just $23,475 for an individual or $48,225 for a family of four. That’s simply too low in the richest city. As a recent report underscored, the current program leaves out full-time minimum wage workers, who nevertheless still struggle to afford the cost of getting to work.

We can and must fix that. A next-generation Fair Fares program should automatically enroll eligible residents, fully cover the cost of transit for those earning up to 150% of the poverty level, and offer half-price fares for those earning up to 300% of the poverty level. 

This expansion can be accomplished for no more than $300 million – an investment in a fairer, stronger New York, where a thriving economy depends on every commuter and community being able to get where they need to go regardless of ability to pay.

New York has never had a mayor so ready to invest in transit, especially buses. For the millions of New Yorkers who rely on the bus – overwhelmingly working-class immigrants who are essential to the city’s core functions, but who struggle like few others to afford life in our city – this moment calls for ambition.

Taken together, free buses and a transformed Fair Fares program can make New York the national leader in treating public transit as the cornerstone of a true affordability agenda, putting thousands of dollars back into people's pockets every year and connecting more New Yorkers to all the opportunities this city offers.

Mamdani’s transit agenda is both visionary and pragmatic. It’s about restoring the promise that this city belongs to the people who make it move. And at Riders Alliance, we’re ready to help make it real: fast, free and fair.