Lmao, A paywalled article about what happens when busses are free.
MoogProg on
NYT
Free buses? Really? Of all the promises that Zohran Mamdani made during his New York City mayoral campaign, that one struck some skeptics as the most frivolous leftist fantasy. Unlike housing, groceries and child care, which weigh heavily on New Yorkers’ finances, a bus ride is just a few bucks. Is it really worth the huge effort to spare people that tiny outlay?
It is. Far beyond just saving riders money, free buses deliver a cascade of benefits, from easing traffic to promoting public safety. Just look at Boston; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Kansas City, Mo.; and even New York itself, all of which have tried it to excellent effect. And it doesn’t have to be costly — in fact, it can come out just about even.
As a lawyer, I feel most strongly about the least-discussed benefit: Eliminating bus fares can clear junk cases out of our court system, lowering the crushing caseloads that prevent our judges, prosecutors and public defenders from focusing their attention where it’s most needed.
I was a public defender, and in one of my first cases I was asked to represent a woman who was not a robber or a drug dealer — she was someone who had failed to pay the fare on public transit. Precious resources had been spent arresting, processing, prosecuting and trying her, all for the loss of a few dollars. This is a daily feature of how we criminalize poverty in America.
Unless a person has spent real time in the bowels of a courthouse, it’s hard to imagine how many of the matters clogging criminal courts across the country originate from a lack of transit. Some of those cases result in fines; many result in defendants being ordered to attend community service or further court dates. But if people can’t afford the fare to get to those appointments and can’t get a ride, their only options — jump a turnstile or flout a judge’s order — expose them to re-arrest. Then they may face jail time, which adds significant pressure to our already overcrowded facilities. Is this really what we want the courts spending time on?
Free buses can unclog our streets, too. In Boston, eliminating the need for riders to pay fares or punch tickets cut boarding time by as much as 23 percent, which made everyone’s trip faster. Better, cheaper, faster bus rides give automobile owners an incentive to leave their cars at home, which makes the journey faster still — for those onboard as well as those who still prefer to drive.
How much should a government be willing to pay to achieve those outcomes? How about nothing? When Washington State’s public transit systems stopped charging riders, in many municipalities the state came out more or less even — because the money lost on fares was balanced out by the enormous savings that ensued.
Fare evasion was one of the factors that prompted Mayor Eric Adams to flood New York City public transit with police officers. New Yorkers went from shelling out $4 million for overtime in 2022 to $155 million in 2024. What did it get them? In September 2024, officers drew their guns to shoot a fare beater who was wielding a knife and two innocent bystanders ended up with bullet wounds, the kind of accident that’s all but inevitable in such a crowded setting.
New York City tried a free bus pilot program in 2023 and 2024 and, as predicted, ridership increased — by 30 percent on weekdays and 38 percent on weekends, striking figures that could make a meaningful dent in New York’s chronic traffic problem (and, by extension, air and noise pollution). Something else happened that was surprising: Assaults on bus operators dropped 39 percent. Call it the opposite of the Adams strategy: Lowering barriers to access made for fewer tense law enforcement encounters, fewer acts of desperation and a safer city overall.
NoRepeat274 on
Now let’s talk about what happens when mustache rides are free.
Ok-Mycologist-3829 on
Literally none of that is surprising, nor is it ideological or extreme. You could write a similar piece on why highways should be free, except with buses, the benefits are tangible and easier to envision (buses not slowed down by dozens of people paying fares, no fare evasion administrative burden on courts, etc).
thistimelineisweird on
I live on a bus line. It’s cheaper for me to park in a garage downtown on nights and weekends than it is for my partner and I to ride round trip.
Now, idiots will look at that and go “we should raise garage prices!” but anyone paying attention would realize that I absolutely would ride the bus more if it was cheaper than driving.
(Don’t argue the cost of owning a car factoring in here. I have to own a car either way. The extra expenses to drive a few miles to park downtown are negligible.)
IwillCloud on
We’re really surprised that when something costs zero, more people use it?
Transit agencies don’t run on farebox profits. They run on subsidies and political will. You drop fares, ridership bumps. Cool. But frequency, safety perception, and reliability still decide whether people ditch their cars. boring infrastructure math.
And the bigger dodge? Free fares make for great headlines. They don’t solve deferred maintenance or operator burnout. They don’t rebuild rail lines or modernize dispatch systems. it’s service quality that changes behavior, not just price tags.
So we get celebratory thinkpieces about “surprising results” while the real fight stable funding streams and zoning reform stays offstage. because ribbon-cutting optics beat long-term capital planning every time.
Altruistic-Oil-9686 on
“What are you in for?”
“I jumped a turnstile too many times on my way to court.”
FFS. If a person can’t make their court appoints because they’re broke, then isn’t the court supposed to provide transport or something?
Playswithchipmunks on
I’m only for this type of thing if they enforce standards for ridership.
We did this down here a while ago and homeless are treating them as public urinals and mobile motels.
It causes them to reek.
Hopefully ny won’t have this problem.
kwit-bsn on
Free buses: great
Free article: “GET FUCT!”
localhorizon on
Buses are free in our small city and it’s fantastic! We applaud NYC for moving in that direction
Nice-Ad-8199 on
Olyi.pia, Washington, has had free busses for several years. No fee, just get on and ride.
just-one-jay on
Shouldn’t be surprising.
Almost every transit authority spends vastly and I mean VASTLY more money attempting to police fare evasion than they collect in fares.
The fiscally responsible thing to do is make it free to use.
Good-City-2546 on
Homeless bums poop on them and gangs take over.
ButchCassy on
My city has free busses and it’s massively improved the atmosphere in downtown. People can get from one end of the city to the other without paying 2.50$/day for a day pass. College students, parents, whoever, all have equal access to transportation
Croceyes2 on
The personal vehicle culture is one of the most toxic things in america. All of our worst traits are tangentially, if not directly, related to it.
Far_Teach_616 on
Anyone who doubts the benefits of free buses as clearly never lived in a college town with free buses. Because, what happens when residents can basically go anywhere in town?
People without cars go to commercial areas way more frequently.
People with cars don’t take up parking spots there, and people who do have cars can park more conveniently.
The city can raise parking rates in choice areas without impacting daily commuters, turning that into (deservedly) a luxury thing.
The streets are less crowded, so more pedestrians and cyclists.
Buses become way more heavily utilized, so more buses are run at max capacity.
Buses run way faster, since there’s no need to count change or use finicky fare readers.
This whole argument is divorced from reality. The bus costs the same to run empty as to run full, so the only “cost” of free busing is the number of people *who would’ve paid when buses weren’t free*. And, frankly, that cost is not very high, particularly when you factor in that you’re also reducing costs in enforcement and fare readers.
Ok_BoomerSF on
The amount of money/benefits our city spends on “fare ambassadors” to enforce bus payment likely breaks even if the buses were free.
Aratix on
They’re also saving a bunch of time and money *not* having to collect and process payments.
ZealousidealCrew1867 on
There is nothing free, somewhere someone is paying for it. The money that is being used for a free ride, is being paid by a private citizen that being nickel & dime to death thru taxes.
TfYoung on
Free buses are good. Better still is a bus system that’s so frequent, fast and reliable that people don’t mind paying for it. There’s a real worry that making them free will lower investment in improving it, especially if you end up with a bigger class divide in trains vs busses.
We always had to pay, but as a teen and student I had access to cheap bus passes. It was crucial for getting around for education and work, which obviously has knock on benefits besides reduction in traffic or the costs of enforcement etc. I knew people who didn’t have that access to be able to get buses places and it fucked them over.
Not everyone has parents who can drive them, or provide a car, or indeed pay for their bus usage. Free bus usage could make a very real difference to the most vulnerable young people struggling to get started in life.
22 Comments
Lmao, A paywalled article about what happens when busses are free.
NYT
Free buses? Really? Of all the promises that Zohran Mamdani made during his New York City mayoral campaign, that one struck some skeptics as the most frivolous leftist fantasy. Unlike housing, groceries and child care, which weigh heavily on New Yorkers’ finances, a bus ride is just a few bucks. Is it really worth the huge effort to spare people that tiny outlay?
It is. Far beyond just saving riders money, free buses deliver a cascade of benefits, from easing traffic to promoting public safety. Just look at Boston; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Kansas City, Mo.; and even New York itself, all of which have tried it to excellent effect. And it doesn’t have to be costly — in fact, it can come out just about even.
As a lawyer, I feel most strongly about the least-discussed benefit: Eliminating bus fares can clear junk cases out of our court system, lowering the crushing caseloads that prevent our judges, prosecutors and public defenders from focusing their attention where it’s most needed.
I was a public defender, and in one of my first cases I was asked to represent a woman who was not a robber or a drug dealer — she was someone who had failed to pay the fare on public transit. Precious resources had been spent arresting, processing, prosecuting and trying her, all for the loss of a few dollars. This is a daily feature of how we criminalize poverty in America.
Unless a person has spent real time in the bowels of a courthouse, it’s hard to imagine how many of the matters clogging criminal courts across the country originate from a lack of transit. Some of those cases result in fines; many result in defendants being ordered to attend community service or further court dates. But if people can’t afford the fare to get to those appointments and can’t get a ride, their only options — jump a turnstile or flout a judge’s order — expose them to re-arrest. Then they may face jail time, which adds significant pressure to our already overcrowded facilities. Is this really what we want the courts spending time on?
Free buses can unclog our streets, too. In Boston, eliminating the need for riders to pay fares or punch tickets cut boarding time by as much as 23 percent, which made everyone’s trip faster. Better, cheaper, faster bus rides give automobile owners an incentive to leave their cars at home, which makes the journey faster still — for those onboard as well as those who still prefer to drive.
How much should a government be willing to pay to achieve those outcomes? How about nothing? When Washington State’s public transit systems stopped charging riders, in many municipalities the state came out more or less even — because the money lost on fares was balanced out by the enormous savings that ensued.
Fare evasion was one of the factors that prompted Mayor Eric Adams to flood New York City public transit with police officers. New Yorkers went from shelling out $4 million for overtime in 2022 to $155 million in 2024. What did it get them? In September 2024, officers drew their guns to shoot a fare beater who was wielding a knife and two innocent bystanders ended up with bullet wounds, the kind of accident that’s all but inevitable in such a crowded setting.
New York City tried a free bus pilot program in 2023 and 2024 and, as predicted, ridership increased — by 30 percent on weekdays and 38 percent on weekends, striking figures that could make a meaningful dent in New York’s chronic traffic problem (and, by extension, air and noise pollution). Something else happened that was surprising: Assaults on bus operators dropped 39 percent. Call it the opposite of the Adams strategy: Lowering barriers to access made for fewer tense law enforcement encounters, fewer acts of desperation and a safer city overall.
Now let’s talk about what happens when mustache rides are free.
Literally none of that is surprising, nor is it ideological or extreme. You could write a similar piece on why highways should be free, except with buses, the benefits are tangible and easier to envision (buses not slowed down by dozens of people paying fares, no fare evasion administrative burden on courts, etc).
I live on a bus line. It’s cheaper for me to park in a garage downtown on nights and weekends than it is for my partner and I to ride round trip.
Now, idiots will look at that and go “we should raise garage prices!” but anyone paying attention would realize that I absolutely would ride the bus more if it was cheaper than driving.
(Don’t argue the cost of owning a car factoring in here. I have to own a car either way. The extra expenses to drive a few miles to park downtown are negligible.)
We’re really surprised that when something costs zero, more people use it?
Transit agencies don’t run on farebox profits. They run on subsidies and political will. You drop fares, ridership bumps. Cool. But frequency, safety perception, and reliability still decide whether people ditch their cars. boring infrastructure math.
And the bigger dodge? Free fares make for great headlines. They don’t solve deferred maintenance or operator burnout. They don’t rebuild rail lines or modernize dispatch systems. it’s service quality that changes behavior, not just price tags.
So we get celebratory thinkpieces about “surprising results” while the real fight stable funding streams and zoning reform stays offstage. because ribbon-cutting optics beat long-term capital planning every time.
“What are you in for?”
“I jumped a turnstile too many times on my way to court.”
FFS. If a person can’t make their court appoints because they’re broke, then isn’t the court supposed to provide transport or something?
I’m only for this type of thing if they enforce standards for ridership.
We did this down here a while ago and homeless are treating them as public urinals and mobile motels.
It causes them to reek.
Hopefully ny won’t have this problem.
Free buses: great
Free article: “GET FUCT!”
Buses are free in our small city and it’s fantastic! We applaud NYC for moving in that direction
Olyi.pia, Washington, has had free busses for several years. No fee, just get on and ride.
Shouldn’t be surprising.
Almost every transit authority spends vastly and I mean VASTLY more money attempting to police fare evasion than they collect in fares.
The fiscally responsible thing to do is make it free to use.
Homeless bums poop on them and gangs take over.
My city has free busses and it’s massively improved the atmosphere in downtown. People can get from one end of the city to the other without paying 2.50$/day for a day pass. College students, parents, whoever, all have equal access to transportation
The personal vehicle culture is one of the most toxic things in america. All of our worst traits are tangentially, if not directly, related to it.
Anyone who doubts the benefits of free buses as clearly never lived in a college town with free buses. Because, what happens when residents can basically go anywhere in town?
People without cars go to commercial areas way more frequently.
People with cars don’t take up parking spots there, and people who do have cars can park more conveniently.
The city can raise parking rates in choice areas without impacting daily commuters, turning that into (deservedly) a luxury thing.
The streets are less crowded, so more pedestrians and cyclists.
Buses become way more heavily utilized, so more buses are run at max capacity.
Buses run way faster, since there’s no need to count change or use finicky fare readers.
This whole argument is divorced from reality. The bus costs the same to run empty as to run full, so the only “cost” of free busing is the number of people *who would’ve paid when buses weren’t free*. And, frankly, that cost is not very high, particularly when you factor in that you’re also reducing costs in enforcement and fare readers.
The amount of money/benefits our city spends on “fare ambassadors” to enforce bus payment likely breaks even if the buses were free.
They’re also saving a bunch of time and money *not* having to collect and process payments.
There is nothing free, somewhere someone is paying for it. The money that is being used for a free ride, is being paid by a private citizen that being nickel & dime to death thru taxes.
Free buses are good. Better still is a bus system that’s so frequent, fast and reliable that people don’t mind paying for it. There’s a real worry that making them free will lower investment in improving it, especially if you end up with a bigger class divide in trains vs busses.
Paywall-free link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/opinion/free-bus-rides-mamdani.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MFA.sDEr.EoIhiNBApVPe&smid=nytcore-ios-share
We always had to pay, but as a teen and student I had access to cheap bus passes. It was crucial for getting around for education and work, which obviously has knock on benefits besides reduction in traffic or the costs of enforcement etc. I knew people who didn’t have that access to be able to get buses places and it fucked them over.
Not everyone has parents who can drive them, or provide a car, or indeed pay for their bus usage. Free bus usage could make a very real difference to the most vulnerable young people struggling to get started in life.