State legislators would need to approve Mamdani’s plan to implement free buses, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a state-run agency. One of Mamdani’s signature achievements in the Assembly was a 2023 pilot program that made five bus lines free for one year; however, the legislature did not extend the program. Mamdani has estimated that making all of New York City’s bus lines free would cost around $700 million, but his government and Albany would need to negotiate on whether that cost fell on the city or on the MTA. Janno Lieber, the chair of the MTA, had been critical of the pilot program, saying it sent the “wrong message” when the city was trying to focus on fare evasion.
Nonetheless, in an interview with NPR on Monday, Mamdani said that “the reason that I put forward this agenda is not only because it’s urgent, but because it’s feasible,” citing the lapsed pilot program.
“It wasn’t simply about economic relief. It’s also about public safety, the fact that assaults on bus drivers went down by 38.9 percent through this pilot, the fact that we actually saw an increase in riders who had previously been driving a car or taking a taxi, reducing congestion around those same routes,” Mamdani argued.
Susan Kang, an associate professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a Mamdani supporter, contended that the nominee’s experience as an activist would allow him to mobilize his supporters if he is elected mayor, and they in turn would put pressure on state legislators to approve his priorities.
“Because they have this model—this insider-outsider, grassroots organizing model of politics like the DSA—that would be a continuation of how a future mayor Mamdani would govern. Not just like, ‘I’m on high, I’m your decision maker, I’m the mayor,’ but rather the whole model of a socialist, which is obviously to bring as many people as possible into the process,” Kang said.
