In his campaign for NYC mayor, Zohran Mamdani has proposed making city buses fare-free. Critics of the proposal say this would deprive buses of needed funds, but their argument is based on a mistaken understanding of government revenue.

In his campaign for NYC mayor, Zohran Mamdani has proposed making city buses fare-free. Critics of the proposal say this would deprive buses of needed funds, but their argument is based on a mistaken understanding of government revenue.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
    8·
    14 days ago

    I live in Olympia WA, there is a totally free bus service here that does not require a card, an account anything… you just walk on the bus and go. There is a university here but it isn’t a massive state one like Umass, Uconn one of those universities that is essentially a city, so the bus system here truly is a purposeful embrace of free public transit because it benefits all.

    I don’t know how I will live anywhere else in the US that doesn’t have this anymore, especially once I get older and find it difficult/stressful to drive from my isolated home to socialize and interact, a free bus system is a life ling to a possible quality of life late in life I have personally watched elderly people at the end of their lives (over and over again I have seen this in the US it is very scary actually) utterly rob themselves of everything but their real estate value by moving out to a house in the country to retire that has steep stairs, isn’t near their kids… doesn’t let them interact with anything but a fox news tv…

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      14 days ago

      I don’t know how I will live anywhere else in the US that doesn’t have this anymore, especially once I get older and find it difficult/stressful to drive from my isolated home to socialize and interact, a free bus system is a life ling to a possible quality of life late in life I have personally watched elderly people at the end of their lives (over and over again I have seen this in the US it is very scary actually) utterly rob themselves of everything but their real estate value by moving out to a house in the country to retire that has steep stairs, isn’t near their kids… doesn’t let them interact with anything but a fox news tv…

      i’ve learned the hard way that living in the suburbs is enough to cut me off from society and it’s put me off home ownership because i know that the real estate prices in the us guarantee that i can only afford a home out in the country.

      the things i need to be a happy and productive member of society only exist in ultra dense urban cores and i’ve also learned the hard way that most cities within the us aren’t dense enough to have it.

      i’m already passing middle aged and the thought of having to leave because i can’t afford the prices hikes fills me w dread about the future and losing access to the trains and reliable buses are going to guarantee my isolation.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
        3·
        14 days ago

        the things i need to be a happy and productive member of society only exist in ultra dense urban cores and i’ve also learned the hard way that most cities within the us aren’t dense enough to have it.

        i’m already passing middle aged and the thought of having to leave because i can’t afford the prices hikes fills me w dread about the future and losing access to the trains and reliable buses are going to guarantee my isolation.

        At least you are beginning to learn before it is maybe too late, I am heartened to read this response because this is how my father died, how my mother will die and how most of the older wealthy boomers I know will die. It was too brutal for me to stay where I grew up seeing it happen in slow motion, from the side of privileged people actually choosing this way to murder themselves and the communities around them as they became more and more toxic and removed from anybody else but their fragile sense of the world.