Make Fair Fares even more fair
Mayor Adams opposes the MTA’s upcoming planned subway and bus fare hike. As mayor, he can do much more than sympathize with working New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet. By expanding the Fair Fares program in his annual budget, Adams can cut the fare in half for the million riders who most need a break.
Since its launch in 2019, the Fair Fares program has provided a lifeline to approximately 280,000 New Yorkers struggling with transit affordability. Under the program, low-income residents with household incomes at or below the federal poverty level (FPL) can receive half-priced bus and subway fares.
It’s time to unlock the great potential of Fair Fares to be a truly “transformative” program, to borrow the mayor’s apt description. To do that, we must revisit the program’s income eligibility cut-off, which is too low, leaving out many New Yorkers who struggle every day to afford the transit fare. The Community Service Society’s (CSS) Unheard Third Survey shows that one in three New Yorkers with incomes between 100% and 200% of FPL often struggle to pay for transit. These individuals and families — most of whom are working multiple jobs — experience economic insecurity on a daily basis and can be pushed into poverty by even the smallest, unexpected expense like a visit to the emergency room or a malfunctioning appliance.
Consider this: for a family of four, the official poverty level is $26,550. However, for a mother and two children it’s only $23,030, and for a single New Yorker it’s an unimaginable low $13,590. The official poverty level — which is the same nationwide, in rural Alabama as in New York City — excludes many New Yorkers who earn a little more, but are still struggling to get to work, medical appointments and school for themselves or their kids. A more realistic measure of economic need in New York City should be twice the federal poverty level.
Importantly, expanding eligibility for Fair Fares transit discounts from 100% of FPL to 200% would provide targeted assistance to a group of working-class New Yorkers who rely almost exclusively on public transit; the very New Yorkers the mayor promised to fight for as a candidate.
Opening up enrollment to more working New Yorkers would boost MTA farebox revenues at a time when the transit authority is strapped for funds and is looking for ways to close a $600 million deficit. Based on a CSS analysis of data available from the Census Bureau, roughly 1.7 million working age New Yorkers would qualify for Fair Fares at 200% of poverty. Of that number, 45% or around 772,000 are likely to be regular bus and subway commuters.
As for the cost, expansion of the program is projected to add approximately $142 million to annual operating expenses, which represents a rounding error in the city’s $102 billion budget. That seems like a reasonable investment of taxpayer dollars to spread the economic benefits of the program to more New Yorkers.
Compared to other transit agencies with discount fare programs, New York City has one of the most restrictive. According to data compiled by the Journal of the Transportation Research Board, nine of the nation’s 14 largest transit agencies require recipients who receive fare discounts to have incomes between 125% and 200% of poverty. That includes the BART system in San Francisco and Kings County Metro which serves the greater Seattle area.
Still other cities are going further by establishing farefree public transit programs to increase equity in underserved communities. Among them Boston, Denver and Kansas City. Of course, none of these systems approach the scale of New York City’s. Nevertheless, we need to find ways to keep transit fares affordable for all New Yorkers, because economic mobility and transit mobility go hand in hand.
When we first imagined Fair Fares, we started cautiously. But today, we know the actual program cost and utilization patterns, and we know that Fair Fares’ modest enrollment numbers can be tied to a lack of awareness as CSS has documented in previous reports. All of this tells us that we can afford to expand the program to more of those in need. And we should.
Our public transit system can be the gateway to economic mobility for thousands of New Yorkers still recovering from the pandemic. All it takes is the vision and political will to make it happen. It’s up to the mayor and the City Council to put it into the budget and expand an initiative that can help even more people.