Post
There's debate among #transit pros about free buses Zohran Mamdani is pitching in NYC.
2 points: much of infuriating "dwell time" at stops is over riders paying their fares.
Conflicts over fares are stressful + dangerous, and make driver recruitment hard.
The former is reduced, latter eliminated.
Dwell time reduction at stops is 7-12%
But in pilot projects across the city, fare-free also meant an increase in ridership鈥攚hich drives up dwell time. If you're going to make buses free, you also have to make them more frequent.
The question is: can Mamdani also deliver lower headways? If not, the plan won't work.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/26/upshot/fast-free-buses.html
I took a look at the pros and cons of fare-free in my HIGH SPEED blog (apologies to Edgar Winter):
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
