Is MTA Chairman Janno Lieber putting his thumb on the scale against Zohran Mamdani?
That appeared to be the conclusion of several news outlets who amplified Lieber reiterating his long-standing skepticism about free buses in interviews with the New York Editorial Board and NY1 that dropped on Wednesday, six days before the mayoral election.
In both interviews, Lieber emphasized the need to "study" the free buses concept before implementing it.
"I want an appropriate preparation and study and analysis, we’re not operating on a light-switch-turn to do some radical change and see if, what happens. That’s not how the MTA works," Lieber told the "editorial board" panel of local journalists. "I’m expecting that with something of the magnitude that’s being talked about that there’s going to be a serious policy process. The one thing that I’m going to resist is bumper-sticker decision-making." To NY1's Pat Kiernan and Jamie Stelter he said, "Any change of this scale... has to be studied. We studied congestion pricing for five years."
Lieber also had kind things to say about the mayoral frontrunner — "He’s been a pro-transit guy" — but the media ran with his free buses comments in its horse race election coverage: "MTA chair trashes Mamdani's pitch for free buses," said Gothamist. "MTA chairman questions economics of Mamdani’s free bus plan," rang the headline in the Daily News. "Lieber slams Mamdani’s free-bus plan as half-baked — and more expensive than he claims," cried the New York Post.
Lieber's right to be skeptical — the five-route pilot Mamdani passed in the State Legislature didn't actually speed up service, and mostly "cannibalized" (in his words) riders from other routes or riders who would have otherwise walked. That was despite the MTA allowing riders to enter buses from the back door as part of the pilot, Lieber said. He argued free buses won't help riders who already get a free bus transfer from the subway and that MTA's bondholders may expect bus fare revenue — which the MTA projects will jump from $700 million to $1 billion in the coming years — to be replaced or way or another. Other questions he said should be studied included whether free buses would depress subway fare revenue or require more buses and bus drivers.
But that's mostly stuff Lieber has said before: In April he told WNYC host Brian Lehrer he didn't "want to subsidize middle class and upper middle class New Yorkers who are using the system, who can pay and who get the advantage of the fact that the transit costs like 15 percent of the cost of owning a car." If anything, Lieber's new focus on a study showed more openness to the concept.
Meanwhile, the MTA chairman's comments critical of Andrew Cuomo's MTA plans got zero play in the news media. Lieber offered some praise for the ex-governor in the editorial board interview, but called Cuomo's proposal to have the city take over the subway's capital program "superannuated," while taking a dig at the city Department of Design and Construction's poor track record.
"Frankly, if you look at the Department of Design and Construction, they struggle to just do street infrastructure with sewers, and they can’t get Empire City Subway, the guys who control the fiber, to come at the same times as Con Ed, to come at the same times as DEP for the sewer, and, you know, the streets are open on Broadway for like 10 years," he said. "The city does not have a great track record of delivering projects."
Read Lieber's wide-ranging interview with the New York Editorial Board here.
In other news:
- From the assignment desk: DOT and Deputy Mayor Jeffrey Roth will announce new plans to invest in seating at bus stops in the five boroughs at 11 a.m. on Thursday at the Maspeth Sign Shop.
- News outlet The City uncovered three previously unreported deaths caused by NYPD vehicle pursuits in 2023 and 2024 — bringing the total to 20.
- The Post called out NYPD's years-long practice of using Central Park's Bridle Path as a parking lot, covered by Streetsblog in 2006, 2018 and 2022.
- An e-bike rider died three weeks after being doored in South Richmond Hill, Queens. (Daily News)
- Gothamist tackled Mamdani's plans to address subway homelessness.
- Cops arrested and charged an MTA bus driver for striking and killing an 87-year-old man in June. (News 12)
- Conduit Avenue is as pedestrian unfriendly as ever as the city mulls ways to make it better. (QNS)
- Fare evasion is down at major transit hubs, MTA PD said. (amNY)
- The MTA is buying more new trains from Kawasaki. (Crain's)
- Michael Lange laid out Mamdani's path to 50 percent of the vote next week.
- Cuomo sought, but did not receive, an endorsement from bike lane and greenway foe Vickie Paladino. (City & State)
- The city's rezoning of Long Island City crossed a major hurdle on Wednesday. (QNS, Crain's)
- Three City Council districts added zero affordable housing units in 2024. (The City)
- The subway experienced major delays on Wednesday after "a person was hit by a train" in Brooklyn. (PIX11)
- Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson visited the Meatpacking District's gorgeous "14th Street Promenade." Check it out:
