Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.

[ShazzieB]

9. I don't live in NYC and am therefore not familiar with Mamdani's plans, but free public transport sounds fantastic.

I can't really picture how making it free for residents only could possibly work, though, and a rebate program sounds like it would be a major pita both to use and to operate. Then there's the fact that a big city like New York is always swarming with non-residents who come into the city to work, study at one of the universities, shop, do business, etc. I worked in downtown Chicago for years, and I would have been pretty pissed off if the bus was free for those who lived in the city but not for me, a regular contributor to the city's economy.

I don't know exactly what Mamdani has in mind, but I hope he has some ideas about how to fund the things you mentioned without making things overly complicated or making out of towners feel unwelcome in the Big Apple.