CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Janno Lieber arrives at Federal Court for a hearing on Manhattan's congestion pricing program in New York City, U.S., May 17, 2024. © REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
(New York, NY) — New York City Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani wants free buses for all. It’s a big message of his campaign, but for the first time, MTA CEO Janno Lieber is saying “not so fast” He told New York One, “You just can’t say “Buses Are Free!” He adds, “Any change in the important transportation system, and changing it entirely, has to be studied. We studied congestion pricing for five years and when we implemented it we knew where there might be impacts and it was a huge success. You have to give the kind of serious study to some of these proposals, like we did with congestion pricing.”
So Lieber says you’ve got to study how to do it. There’s another question. What happens when more people jump on a bus because it’s free? Lieber wants to make sure that “people of limited income get priority in this discussion. That we’re not just giving a ton of money to people who are riding the 104 bus on the Upper West Side. We have to talk about how are we going to make sure that the folks who are riding the bus to the subway…Those folks wouldn’t get a benefit under the idea of free buses. So we have to study all of this.”
Lieber also wants to know who gets to ride for free? Everyone? Or do you need a certain income to pay? Lieber says it’s not so cut and dry. He says, “If a lot more people are riding the bus are we going to need more buses, more drivers or extra depots? What will be the impact on subway fare revenue? Those need to be studied.”
Election Day is November 4th. Stay Tuned.
