NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to make the city’s buses free. To many riders, they already are — a trend transit officials are finding hard to reverse.
Nearly half of New York’s bus riders skipped paying the fare this year through June, in line with the rate in the final quarter of 2025 and up from 44% in the period before that, according to data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the city’s subways, buses and commuter rail lines.
It’s a setback for the agency, which had expected to reduce fare evasion by about 2% this year after implementing changes as part of efforts to tackle a problem that’s plagued the system since the pandemic. And it comes as Mamdani signals a continued commitment to fulfilling a campaign pledge of making buses free…