The Mayor actually has very little control over the MTA.
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Still, he has more influence than an assemblyman, board appointees, and a pulpit.
Control is one thing. Manufacturing PR and applying pressure through public opinion is easily inside the power of any politician.
There's an abandoned line running from north to south through queens. My buddy and I walked a lot of it, I think it's wild nobody has done anything with it, even already having right of way, and it's above ground.
Lowest restore costs I can imagine.
It's this bright red section: https://alchetron.com/cdn/rockaway-beach-branch-ec70aaec-38ed-4eac-97c4-692868077cf-resize-750.jpeg
E: I can't believe I'm commenting on the line the video is talking about, this is awesome!
What do we feel about eliminating bus fares? It'll definitely improve quality of life for drivers, riders, and new riders, but how they're going to pay for that feels like a giant missed opportunity in improving rail and the subway.
Improving the subway underneath all those buildings is a multi decade adventure.
Free busses is tomorrow.
It can be both.
It gets paid for by savings in road network maintenance. More people on transit = less cars destroying everything.
I don't think that's gonna cover much of the $600 million after eliminating fare enforcement costs.
Enforcement costs includes pay systems, enfircer paychecks, gear, blood, and lawsuits for the victims
Yeah that's already factored in as savings and thus deducted from the costs:
The cost of eliminating fares from all city buses would likely be north of $700 million – an MTA analysis from 2022 put the cost for fiscal year 2026 at $778 million, Mamdani’s campaign said. A separate analysis on free local bus service from the city Independent Budget Office incorporated savings that fare-free bus rides would produce, including on fare enforcement and collection costs, totaling $33 million per year. They found the total cost would be $652 million.
I already deducted an extra $52 million for a good-looking number. Whatever the independent analysis didn't think of is not likely to go beyond this $52 million.
I dont think its polite to include the settlements of cases of police abuse. Or monetizing the dead.
If you don't include them then the cost is gonna be higher than $600 million. My point that it won't pay for itself and has to suck up funds that could've been used for infrastructure remains.
Oh. Yes. Means testing us not cost efficient.
What is the point you’re trying to make here?
Also, what does this have to do with means testing?
Thats what charging money for tax funded tra!sit amounts to. It's usually an anti homeless measure.
Regressive taxes are far, far more cost efficient than means testing. And like I said, the costs saved by eliminating fare are already factored in. They're $33 million per year, and I added an extra $52 million on top of that for good measure.
Say the average bus is 10 tons empty and the average car is 2. The fourth power law states that the bus is 625x as much wear on the roads.
It'll reduce traffic jams, as well as empower people who can't, or can barely, afford the fare, but road maintenance? Not so sure.
What would help more with the road network maintenance is taxing heavy vehicles. Commercial vehicles could get a bigger threshold and personal vehicles a smaller one.
Cars impose a ton of other societal costs too, busses still win. Expanding public transit usually saves money. (it helps if you can move some traffic to rail)
It's not my favourite intervention to improve transit, but it does have some benefits, like reduced dwell times from faster boarding on buses.
The important thing is that it might get a candidate elected who can perform long-term improvements.