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State lawmakers have given a boost to New York City bus riders — but no one is getting a free ride.
The state budget passed last weekend allocates more than $12 million to increase service on bus routes across the five boroughs. Lawmakers said it was needed ahead of the rollout of congestion pricing later this year, which aims to push more New Yorkers onto mass transit.
At the same time, the deal nixed funding for an MTA pilot that over the last year made one bus route in each of the five boroughs completely free to ride. The end of that program follows MTA Chair Janno Lieber’s criticism that the free routes create confusion as the agency seeks to crackdown on fare-beating.
The new money is still a win for riders, said Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani of Queens. It will go toward adding service on five express bus routes and 13 local routes that hit every borough in the city. They were chosen based on “ridership, crowding, equity priority areas, and bus priority lanes,” Mamdani said.
But he noted that more frequent buses will only do so much if they’re stuck in traffic, and criticized Mayor Eric Adams for falling far short of his campaign promise of installing 150 miles of new bus lanes during his first four years in office.
“Our mayoral administration has refused to put bus riders first,” Mamdani said.
Legislation passed by the City Council in 2019 requires Adams to create 50 miles of new bus lanes during his first two years in office. Over that period, the city has installed just 23.2 miles of “new and improved bus lanes,” according to data from the Department of Transportation.
In a sense, the money for the extra service replaces $15 million in last year’s budget that gave riders on five routes free rides for a year.
Lieber came out against the concept of free buses, and was doubtful the past year’s fare-free pilot program helped increase ridership. The MTA hasn’t yet released a report on the impact of the free rides, but Lieber has insisted 90% of the people who took advantage of the program would pay to ride the bus anyway. He said during a Crain’s Power Breakfast last week that the free service “is not necessarily benefitting the lowest-income folks.”
Lieber also worried that the free routes confused riders over whether fares are mandatory on all buses, even though the free routes are indicated by clear signage.
“I am concerned that free buses send the wrong message at a moment when we are trying to push back on fare evasion,” Lieber said.
The MTA reported that it lost $315 million to fare evasion on buses in 2022, and the number of fare-beaters has since spiked. The most recent MTA data shows 54% of select bus riders didn’t pay the fare between October and December of last year, up from 46% during the same period in 2022.
Still, Mamdani called the increased service a major win. The MTA had not previously planned to increase bus service when congestion pricing launched, as officials in cities like London had done prior to implementing congestion pricing schemes of their own.
The transit agency welcomed the new money.
“New Yorkers deserve better bus service, and the MTA continues to do everything in its power to do that,” MTA spokesperson Mike Cortez wrote in a statement. “We applaud [the] governor and state Legislature for recognizing how essential good bus service is by providing $12.4 million that allow us to improve reliability, reduce wait times and further increase capacity.”
Transit advocates agreed.
“Frequency is freedom,” said Danny Pearlstine, policy director for Riders Alliance. “And more frequent service gives people time back in our lives. Time we can use to get to work, to get to school, to get to medical appointments, to pick up our kids. And to get more out of life.”
Curious Commuter
Question from Arnaldo, Yorkville, Manhattan:
Why doesn’t WiFi work in the subway?
Answer:
The entire subway system used to be a dead zone for cell service, but that’s changed slightly over the past decade. Straphangers can access data on their phones at stations, though it may be noticeably spotty on some platforms. The tunnels, however, are a completely different story: between stops, riders are cut off from the internet, calls and text messages. The MTA in 2022 announced a plan to add cell and data service throughout the system over the following 10 years. The installation is part of a deal with the company Transit Wireless, which agreed to cover the cost of the work. In the meantime, riders will still have to continue to load Gothamist articles and WNYC newscasts while their train is stopped at a station. A pro-tip: If you find your phone has trouble restoring cell service when it hits a station, quickly put it in and out of airplane mode. You’ll regain a connection more quickly.
