By Amber Duke
Who’s ready for the roving insane asylums?
New York City’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani made free buses a central part of his campaign platform — even though free buses lead to more violence on buses.
The FIFA World Cup is coming to the Big Apple for a five-week period this summer and Mamdani is pressing Governor Kathy Hochul to make buses free during the event.
Why does the mayor of the city need permission from the governor? Well, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which sets bus fares, is run by New York State. And so far Hochul has indicated she isn’t a big fan of Mamdani’s free busing push — primarily because bus and subway fares help cover a significant portion of the MTA’s $21 billion annual operating budget.
Supporters of free buses — like “Hot Girls for Zohran” — either didn’t know or didn’t care that Mamdani didn’t have unilateral authority to make the buses free when they ranked him at the top of their ballot.
But if Hochul does stand firm and stop this nonsense, they nonetheless owe her a big thank you.
Here’s why.
The typical bus fare in New York City is $3 per ride. That’s not an insurmountable amount for the vast majority of people who use the bus — although, admittedly, it does add up over the course of the year. That’s why New York already offers reduced fares to senior citizens, people with disabilities, and low-income residents.
The reason they don’t just make the buses free isn’t just to fund the MTA budget. It’s because a fare — even a small one — creates a barrier to entry.
Yes, a barrier. Even a hurdle as small as swiping a transit card or inserting a few dollars keeps public transit from becoming a public toilet on wheels.
This isn’t about inequity; it’s about safety.
Years ago when I got my first job post-college, I took a 15-minute bus ride from my home in Pentagon City to Clarendon.
The few homes closest to the bus stop were Section 8 housing and known drug dens. One morning, I arrived at the bus stop and found a man already there waiting.
His behavior was erratic and his pupils were so dilated from drugs that his eyes looked completely black. He started telling me how he was going to have sex with me unless it turned out I was younger than his daughter. I asked his daughter’s age and then lied and told him I was younger than her.
Unsurprisingly, my attempt at outwitting the junkie didn’t deter him. I had a couple of options: I could run back to my home past the Section 8 housing or go the opposite, even less densely populated, direction.
Then I saw the bus pull up.
I prayed as I ran up the bus steps and swiped my SmarTrip card that the man wouldn’t follow me. As I took my seat way in the back, I saw him arguing with the bus driver.
He didn’t have money for the fare. The driver kicked him off, and I made it to work without further incident.
That bus driver may have saved my life.
Mamdani is right about one thing: transit drivers shouldn’t have to risk being assaulted by turning away people who refuse to pay. But the answer to that is simply to enforce the law, not to waive fares, which puts other passengers at risk.
Still, left-wing defenders of Mamdani’s free bus plans have been undeterred by safety concerns.
The New York Times recently ran an op-ed from a progressive lawyer presenting the inspirational, TED Talk version of free buses.
Emily Galvin Almanza argues that free buses ease traffic and actually improve public safety. She cites a number of cities that she says have already successfully implemented fare-free transit options for residents: Boston, Chapel Hill, Richmond, Kansas City, and even New York City.
The results, she claims, have been “excellent.”
Let’s dig deeper.
New York City mostly stopped enforcing subway fare evasion in 2018. Subway crime increased by 3% that year. Felony assaults on the subway increased by more than 53% from 2019 to 2024. All the while, NYC was recording a $1 billion loss per year.
It was an unmitigated disaster, and Governor Hochul announced they would once again be cracking down on fare evasions.
Boston’s decision not to police fare evasions? That led to massive budget shortfalls and slower service — the opposite of what Almanza said would happen. And, similar to New York, there was an increase in felony assaults and rape. Boston abandoned the program in September 2025.
In 2020, Kansas City became the first major metropolitan area to get rid of fares entirely. Assaults on bus drivers increased from one or two a year to 32 in 2024. Local students reported public transit became rife with intoxicated riders and saw a massive spike in overall disturbances.
The city will reinstate a $2 bus fare by June 2026.
Keon Jordan, a Kansas City resident who rides the bus every day, said, “I’m ready because there’s just a lot going on the buses so, I’ll pay the two dollars or whatever it is so I can ride peacefully.”
Richmond similarly saw an increase in assaults on bus drivers when they implemented free fares. And instead of adding the fares back, the Greater Richmond Transit Company in 2021 suggested they just put more cameras on board.
August 2024 was a particularly bad month for bus riders in Richmond. Police say they saw three separate violent attacks: two people stabbed at one bus stop, one person stabbed at a second bus stop, and a teenager shot on a bus near VCU.
One longtime rider begged Richmond to end the program, saying, “It’s like going to an amusement park and never getting off a roller coaster.”
Did Almanza do any research before writing this glowing review of free buses? Did the New York Times do any fact-checking?
The answer is obviously no. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have had to issue a major correction.
Almanza claimed that another benefit of free bus rides is that police and riders will be safer by not having to enforce fare evasion. She cited a September 2024 incident in New York City where police drew their guns and fired on someone who jumped the turnstile at a subway station. But the article was later amended to note that this individual had pulled a knife on the cops.
Maybe Mamdani’s “warmth of collectivism” really means getting set on fire by a vagrant on the subway. After all, that’s what happened to one woman in December 2024 who dared fall asleep on her way to work.
Perhaps the offender was just worried about her freezing to death like the 20 New Yorkers who lost their lives during the city’s cold snap after Hochul refused federal assistance.
We can dismiss Mamdani’s free bus proposal as a socialist pipe dream. But no one will be laughing when raving lunatics turn the city’s public transit system into a daily cage match.
