I just sent this letter to the mayor, the head of the MTA, and my city councilman:

A few months ago, I was trying to get on the subway, but my card was apparently out of money. The refill-it machine wasn’t working, so I talked to the clerk sitting in the former token booth. She just let me in to the system without paying, and I felt guilty.

The evening of May 1, I was again getting on the subway at my home stop, and two people scurried ahead of me to walk through the open emergency gate without paying. I noted it, while digging out my subway card and tapping to pay my fair share. The clerk in the former token booth said nothing.

After the end of the night’s events, I and two friends boarded the M14A bus at Houston Street, about 12:45 AM on May 2. We rode to Union Square, where I transferred to the subway. But over the course of that bus ride, as we were sitting facing the middle door (it was one of the longer, flex buses), I watched about 30 people board the bus. Fewer than ten of them tapped their cards or phones to pay. Based on that admittedly tiny and unscientific sample, it looks like at least two-thirds of the people riding the bus are doing so for free right now. So what’s the point of Mayor Mamdani’s “free buses for all” campaign promise?

More to the point, each time I watch people entering the transit system without paying (and I’ve complained about the unwatched turnstiles at my home subway station many, many times), I feel like a schmuck for paying the fare.