“Critically missing from the discourse on free buses, however, are the implications a fare-free system would have for the MTA’s Access-A-Ride program… which provides more than 40,000 daily trips on weekdays to eligible riders with disabilities. Ridership has risen to 140% of pre-COVID levels and the MTA expects annual ridership to reach more than 9.5 million trips by 2027. The annual budget for Access-a-Ride is currently $700 million, to which the city currently contributes 80% and the New York City Transit Authority contributes the remainder.
“All public transit agencies must provide this shared-ride, origin-to-destination service as a complement to fixed route services such as the subway and bus. This is significant to Mamdani’s plan for free buses because paratransit fares cannot exceed twice the standard fare on fixed route transit. $0 multiplied by two is still $0. If all bus rides are free, then all paratransit rides must be free as well. This alone would result in lost revenue of at least $28.5 million, based on projected 2027 ridership.
“If the city and state budget aren’t right-sized to accommodate the loss in paratransit revenue and the potential increase in operational costs, those recent improvements will quickly be canceled out. The city’s 180,000-plus eligible paratransit customers, many of whom also ride the buses and subways when those are accessible to them, need to understand the potential service impacts and have an opportunity to provide their input.
“Focusing on faster buses, while taking a step back to better understand how to make them free, is not at odds with the Mamdani’s platform. His promise has taken hold with New Yorkers not because they don’t want to pay their fair share but because our methods for funding essential services are broken.”
– Erin McAuliff, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Source: StreetsBlog NYC
