November 23, 2025 | Julia Tanenbaum 
New York City just elected a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, on a bold platform centered on alleviating the cost of living crisis in the city. Democratic Socialist Mamdani made “fast, fare free buses” one of his signature campaign promises, focusing on improving mobility for everyday New Yorkers. In Seattle voters elected another progressive mayor, co-founder of the Seattle Transit Riders Union Katie Wilson. Wilson also ran on a platform of making mass transit fast, frequent, reliable, and affordable. These victories are a national signal of widespread public support for accessible and affordable public transit. It’s a signal Wisconsin cannot afford to ignore.
Fast and Free Busses
Mamdani’s campaign highlighted a simple truth. Almost one in five New Yorkers struggles to afford bus fares, and low income New Yorkers are facing a particularly high financial burden. Mamdani implemented a successful fare-free bus pilot program on five lines across NYC from 2023 to 2024. The program increased ridership by 30 percent on weekdays and 38 percent on weekends. His policy plan includes expanding this program city wide while also making buses faster by using tools like priority lanes, bus queue jump signals, and dedicated loading zones.
The Wisconsin Transit Riders Alliance (WTRA) has long advocated for reducing barriers to using transit here at home in Wisconsin. Our statewide proposal includes a Fare-Free feasibility study that would measure the potential impact on ridership, transit equity, and local economies. Removing fare barriers could improve mobility for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites, from low income families to seniors to youth. Fare-free transit systems in the United States have consistently shown significant increases in ridership ranging from 21% to over 200%. Reducing barriers to using public transit seems expensive, but generates economic benefits in the long term. According to Economist Charles Komanoff, fare free transit increases access to jobs, education, and healthcare. It’s time to seriously consider fast, fare-free buses in Wisconsin, starting with the feasibility study WTRA has been calling for.
Adequately Funding Public Transit
Mamdani and Wilson’s campaigns demonstrate that excellent public services, from transit to affordable housing, require real investment. In Wisconsin, we must restore funding for public transit operations if we want faster, safer, more reliable service. In 2010, state leaders cut funding to transit by 10%, and it has never fully been restored. In 2021 the Legislature slashed state transit funding for Milwaukee and Madison by 50%. This chronic underfunding limits the reliability and frequency of public transit while forcing fare increases. Wisconsin can and must do better. We must reinstate historic levels of state operational funding for transit, which once covered 50-65% of transit costs while also enabling new sources of funding like Regional Transportation Authorities. Increasing funding would help our cities put more buses on the road, more frequently, and at a lower cost to riders. Wisconsin could fund students commuting to school, provide financial assistance to low income families, conduct the fare-free feasibility study, and more. Both urban and rural Wisconsinites suffer from budget cuts. Non-drivers comprise almost a third of Wisconsin’s population, and they live in every county across the state. The good news is that everyday riders statewide are uniting to push our cities and state government to fund public transit like the essential service it is.
Our Vision
Mamdani’s win gives me hope that riders across the country can unite in favor of fast, safe, and affordable public transit. Restoring transit funding is also an urgent task, because our current system leaves behind non-drivers who need better services to access work, medical care, and even polling places. Our transit challenges can be solved with the right vision and political will. The WTRA Strategic Plan lays out a roadmap to improve access to transit for all Wisconsinites. In our vision of Wisconsin everyone can get where they need to go on safe, fast, and affordable public transit, whether they live in Milwaukee or a small town in the Northwoods.
We need your help to turn this vision into reality. Together, we can demand fast, frequent, and fare free local buses that serve our communities. We can demand a legislature that invests in public transit as an essential need and public good. Most importantly, we can demand that every Wisconsin resident has the freedom, dignity and mobility that quality public transit provides.
Bio:
Julia Tanenbaum is a library worker and a freelance web developer and content creator for the Wisconsin Transit Rider’s Alliance, Madison Area Bus Advocates, and Dane County Non-Drivers. She is a lifelong user of public transportation and an advocate of public transportation as an essential public good. She lived in Madison for three years while working as an archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, during which time she took the bus almost every day. She recently returned to Los Angeles County, where she is also taking the bus and train. She also works as a curator for the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives in West Hollywood, California.
