Can Zohran Mamdani's Free Bus Promise Get Out Of The Parking Lot?

By Jose Martinez, The City

July 8, 2025, 5:00 a.m.

For the more than 1 million New Yorkers who ride MTA buses daily, their chosen mode of public transportation is enjoying a rare moment in the glare of the mayoral race.

A campaign pledge by Democratic nominee Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani to eliminate bus fares and speed service recalls then-candidate Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 vow to champion bus riders by building 150 miles of bus lanes over four years, a promise which quickly fizzled.

Even as City Hall’s influence over bus service is largely limited to street designs that can speed or slow riders, the renewed buzz over buses has been welcomed by transit advocates for a network whose 8 mph average speed is among the slowest in the country, according to a February report from the Independent Budget Office.

“The mayor is in charge of what happens on the street,” said Danny Pearlstein, policy 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 at the front of a Brooklyn bus, July 7, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

But when it comes to building more bus lanes, Adams in 2023 reversed course under pressure on plans to add more dedicated bus lanes to Fordham Road in The Bronx. His administration has also pulled back from work on the 34th Street busway, Streetsblog reported last week, though a Transportation Department spokesperson said “community engagement” continues on the project which is being assessed.

Adams has also fallen short of the 150-mile commitment for his first term and also on the 2019 “streets master plan” for bus lanes.

“He is so far off that we have stopped counting,” Pearlstein said.

Now, the incumbent mayor — who was awarded a “Bus Mayor” jacket by Riders Alliance in 2022 for his promises to speed service — faces a challenge from Mamdani, a relative political newcomer who has made buses a centerpiece of his campaign.

“Buses haven’t really been highlighted to the extent that they should,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens 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 said his fare-free proposal — which came on the heels of a yearlong no-fare trial on a single route in each borough that he pushed for in the state legislature — grew out of meetings with senior MTA officials while 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 said last 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 city’s Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget passed late last month calls for expanding the city-funded “Fair Fares” program that offers half-off transit trips to low-income New Yorkers, though advocates are pushing for the potential applicant pool to increase even further.

Cost of a Dream

The fare-free proposal comes with significant questions over just how much power City Hall can exert over a bus service it does not operate. There is also the not-insignificant matter of whether the city or the MTA, a state authority, would cover what the Mamdani campaign has estimated would be $630 million in lost revenue fares on more than 300 routes.

“There ain’t no such thing as a free bus — who’s going to pay?” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit watchdog. “And does it make sense when transit is actually one of the best deals New York has going?”

The nearly yearlong fare-free buses pilot program on five routes ran through the end of August 2024 after being mandated in the state’s 2023 budget. It delivered mixed results, with the MTA noting in a June evaluation that speeds did not increase on the free routes — and actually decreased at a rate similar to others systemwide.

Even along a Bronx route where buses ran fare-free for a year, some riders were 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,” said 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: Jose Martinez/THE CITY

According to the MTA, the loss of fare revenue and other costs topped $16.5 million throughout the yearlong pilot program, and agency chief Janno Lieber said last year the fare-free rides sent “the wrong message” at a time when fare evasion on buses has far outpaced nonpayment in the subway.

MTA fare-evasion data shows that 44% of all bus riders did not pay the fare during the first quarter of 2025, compared with less than 10% on the subway.

Rein pointed to looming fiscal pain for the city and state as additional 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 said. “We have $8 to $10 billion future budget gaps, we have looming federal cuts, we don’t have the reserves needed for those federal cuts or a recession.“

Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, has said new taxes are not an option. Any new taxes would need approval from state lawmakers and the governor.

“There are a number of obstacles, a number of challenges to be overcome,” Rein said.

Driver Attacks Drop

Eliminating bus fares may have a distinct upside: fewer assaults on bus drivers.

During the yearlong pilot program, verbal and physical attacks on bus operators decreased on all but one of the fare-free routes, dropping by 32%, compared to a 15% drop on other routes.

MTA data shows that, since 2019, instances of harassment and assault against bus operators account for 66% of all workplace violence against transit workers. So far this year, violence against bus workers makes up 45% of the total number.

Union leaders have backed Mamdani’s fare-free proposal because of its potential to cut 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 international president of the Transport Workers Union, told 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 called the “policy gravitas” of the upstart assembly member, who sources said was heavily engaged in Albany steering the MTA away from a potential fiscal cliff earlier this decade. Others who have dealt with Mamdani on transit told THE CITY how he was “intimately involved” in securing millions in state funding for expanding service on multiple subway lines in 2023.

“He’s been thinking about these things for quite some time and whatever he earnestly believes in, he’s pursuing,” Samuelsen said. “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 officials have been mostly muted on the fare-free plan, with Lieber, the authority’s chairperson and CEO, saying “transit won” soon after Mamdani’s primary win.

“As the campaign continues and unfolds, we welcome all the discussion about transit that seems to be bubbling up,” Lieber said after the June board meeting.

Along 170th Street in The Bronx, where the Bx18A/B ran fare-free for a year, some riders said they appreciate the attention on buses, while also questioning whether the spotlight can last.

“The main focus is always going to be the subway,” said Quinesse Small, 29, who was waiting for a westbound Bx18 next to the 170th Street stop on the No. 4 line. “But the bus is an important part of public transportation and every part should be a focus, especially when people are using it to commute to work, commute to school, just to get around.

“At least it is getting some attention.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.