Full and original article posted on Derick Waller Reports.
As New York City debates making buses free, I went to Worcester, Massachusetts — a city that’s already done it — to see how fare-free transit actually works in practice.
Worcester has operated fare-free buses since 2020, and ridership has nearly doubled. But scaling a model like this to New York City raises serious questions about cost, governance, and political will. I rode the buses, spoke with everyday riders, transit officials, and policy experts, and examined what makes Worcester’s system work — and what would make a similar plan far more complicated in New York. This report looks at: • Whether fare-free buses really save riders money • How other U.S. cities have experimented with free transit • Why New York’s bus system is fundamentally different • What’s actually standing in the way of fare-free buses in NYC
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