Earth Equity News

Bloomberg Tests Free Transit Waters. By Charles Komanoff, StreetsBlog.org, August 4, 2009. "Mayor Bloomberg lifted a page straight from the Kheel Plan playbook on Monday in calling on the MTA to make crosstown buses free. Bus riders and transit advocates should be beaming. Free buses will save bus riders time and money and will benefit everyone by luring some taxi and car users to transit and easing traffic gridlock. Ted Kheel [long-time labor arbitrator and public transportation advocate] recognized this as far back as the 1960s. Over the past year, he and I have quantified the benefits from free buses, and they're striking... The mayor says his proposal might not cost NYC Transit much since most crosstown bus passengers are free transfers from subways. The story citywide is probably different, though. We estimate that free buses in all five boroughs would cost $740 million a year (after netting $30 million now spent maintaining farebox machinery). How could this lost revenue be made up? One way would be a modest weekday congestion charge to drive into the Manhattan Central Business District: $6 during peak hours, $2 overnight, and $4 in-between, charged inbound only. That's just one option; others can be seen by inputting various congestion prices into the Balanced Transportation Analyzer spreadsheet. (All figures in this article are derived from and sourced in the BTA; start with the 'Bus Boarding' worksheet.)"