New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promise of free bus rides has not technically come to fruition, but there’s evidence it is spurring more riders to evade paying fares.
Almost half of New York’s bus riders evaded bus fares this year through June, at a similar proportion to the final quarter of 2025 and up from 44% in the third quarter, according to data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
At the height of the COVID pandemic, the MTA temporarily made New York City buses free, and about 23% of riders did not pay fares by the end of 2020. By the second quarter of 2024, the share had shot up to 50.6%.
Although the MTA pushed it down to 44% in the third quarter of 2025, it has recently climbed back up.
More than 700 people a minute in New York are skipping their fares on buses, according to a report by the Citizens Budget Commission, and, combined with subway evasion, it cost the city approximately $900 million last year.
During Mr. Mamdani’s first six months in Gracie Mansion, bus fares collected from riders fell by $31 million, compared with the same period in 2025.
Despite the money crunch, democratic socialist Mr. Mamdani still wants to fulfill his campaign pledge of making buses free before his term is over. But MTA Chair Janno Lieber recently said Mr. Mamdani’s campaign pledge is making things worse for the MTA bus fare evasion problem.
“With malice towards none, I say all the talk of free bus has an impact; it does have an impact,” Mr. Lieber told reporters following the MTA’s board meeting.
“Without rancor and without blame, I do think we have to now turn as a city to re-establishing the principle that everybody shares in the responsibility for contributing to this system,” he said.
Mr. Lieber also said that many of the people who are fare-dodging can afford to pay the $3 ride, which passes “along responsibility to somebody else who’s probably not as well off as you are.”
Mr. Mamdani defended his push for free bus fare and responded to Mr. Lieber’s allegation that his rhetoric was causing bus riders to skip paying the fare.
When asked at a Bronx press conference Monday about Mr. Lieber’s contention, Mr. Mamdani said, “Janno and I will always have a difference of opinion, and that’s fine.”
“When it comes to making buses free, it is something that I continue to believe is important, because what we are talking about is a cost-of-living crisis in this city where one in five New Yorkers struggle to afford the fare at $3,” the mayor said. “And we know that that is only going to be exacerbated the longer this cost of living crisis goes, and we never want a New Yorker to be priced out of that.”
City Metro Cards can no longer be used for bus fare, so the MTA will deploy new devices to detect whether riders’ phones or cards were used for fare payments and to issue fines to fare evaders.
Although Mr. Mamdani made his main campaign promise to make bus rides free, the mayor does not have the power to follow through on that, because the MTA is overseen by Albany, not the City of New York.
The state legislature did not include a free local bus program for New York City in this year’s budget. However, Mr. Mamdani said he is not giving up attempting to get the initiative done.
“You know, I’ve said time and again that we would deliver on making buses free by the time that I’m done being mayor,” he told NY1 in May. “And I’m just as confident in that.”
Mr. Mamdani hired senior adviser Elizabeth Adams to focus exclusively on launching the program.
“She understands that it’s unacceptable to be in such an incredible city,” he said of Ms. Adams. “Yet, our buses are going five miles an hour. Such an incredible city. Yet one in five New Yorkers are struggling to afford to even get onto the bus.”
The state Legislature authorized a free bus pilot program three years ago for five routes, but it expired after one year.
The plan now is to go systemwide, which the Mamdani administration estimates will cost $700 million a year, though the MTA prices the proposal at about $1 billion.
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