New Yorkers finally found something to agree on: free bus service.
Fare-free bus service polls as well as free ice cream among all New York City voters, according to polling firm Data for Progress, with even a healthy majority of Republican voters supporting the idea.
A DFP poll of 854 likely city voters found that 72 percent support the city "fully subsidizing public transportation so that residents can use MTA bus services for free." Breaking things down further, 80 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independent voters and 58 percent of Republicans backed the idea. Beyond those top-line cross tabs, no polling subgroup came in under 63 percent in support of the idea.
In a mayoral election where candidates are emphasizing affordability, the pollsters said support for free buses was a natural outcome.
"I wasn't too surprised to see such widespread bipartisan support for free buses," said Data for Progress Executive Director Danielle Deiseroth. "Shit is expensive right now, and people love free stuff." ("Free" is of course a matter of discussion; the poll asked if voters wanted "New York City" — aka taxpayers — to pick up the tab.)
Introducing free bus service to the city has been a main plank of Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign, and former governor Andrew Cuomo has halfheartedly shown interest in studying the issue. Mamdani has been pushing free bus service since his first campaign in 2020.
The MTA has run a couple of free bus experiments: During the depths of COVID, the agency eliminated bus fares across the system for a few months to protect drivers. The MTA reinstituted fares that summer, but the free bus debate continued. As part of a MTA rescue package in 2023, state legislators required the agency to pilot one fare-free bus in each borough.
The MTA and Mamdani disagreed as to how effective the fare-free pilot was. On the one hand, ridership went up on the fare-free routes, and assaults on bus operators went down. But the MTA also said that the increase in riders wasn't driven by new transit riders moving away from cars and that dwell times increased on the fare-free routes.
Mamdani celebrated the poll as proof that it was time to bring the pilot to the whole bus system.
"We know from our historic pilot program that free buses work: more riders, safer trips, cleaner air," he said. "Now we know the policy is overwhelmingly popular too. As mayor, I'll make every city bus fast and free."
Yes people generally like free stuff, but Deiseroth added that the massive support for free buses shows that big transportation policies are able to capture voters' imaginations.
"There is something unique to transportation in particular, because it serves such a vital economic function in the city. It connects folks to where they need to go to learn, to make money, etcetera, so I think that it does strike a particular nerve," she said.
And more support for the toll
Data for Progress also polled voters on congestion pricing, and came away with similar results to other recent polls on the toll. The toll is still underwater, with 43 percent of city voters in favor and 50 percent opposed, but Democrats back the policy by 52 to 40. And most important, people who drive into the central business district favor congestion pricing by a 60-to-39 margin.
Deiseroth said it was as simple as people who drive regularly into the city understanding that it's good to not waste your life sitting in traffic.
"I think it's important to highlight that the people who who drive actually are really enjoying the policy. Time is money, right? So if you're if you're saving time on your commute into the city, that's more time to spend with your kids, more time to go to the gym, more time to get work done and leave work early, whatever it is," she said.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has vowed to kill the toll, which he has called "elitist." In addition to boosting the local economy, reducing productivity-destroying traffic, speeding commutes, and clearing the air, it is also making Manhattan far safer for all road users.
