By Rami Nasser
(Journalist for The Bull City Citizen, writing here in personal capacity)
In New York City’s 2025 mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani has made one of the boldest promises of any candidate: free buses across the city. It’s not just a campaign pitch — it’s a bet on equity, on reordering priorities, and on reimagining what “public transit” can do in a place defined by density, inequality, and endless gridlock.
Meanwhile, in Durham, we’re doing the slow work of expanding bus reliability, imagining Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors, and managing growth in a region that leans heavily on cars.
I want to situate Mamdani’s vision not as a fantasy nor a certainty — but as a provocation. What does his ambition reveal about what’s possible? And what should cities like Durham take from it — what to replicate, what to reject, and what to be cautious about?
Mamdani’s Plan: What He’s Promising
Here’s a quick breakdown of what Mamdani is proposing (and what’s already in motion):
Free bus rides: Covering the fare revenue not by cutting services, but by substituting fares with tax-based funding. Fast, reliable buses: More bus lanes, signal priority, enforcement so cars don’t block bus corridors — in short, treating buses less like afterthoughts and more like transit arteries. Equity framing: Emphasizing that transit should serve those who depend on it most — low-income riders, communities historically underserved — rather than simply serving the “transit elite.” Political fight: Expect fierce opposition. Some critics claim the plan is fiscally irresponsible; others use ideological labels to delegitimize him.
One smart defense of his plan is that this isn’t “free lunch” — it’s a reallocation. Instead of depending on riders to pay, he wants to shift the burden to public revenue. Critics object that this undermines the MTA’s fiscal stability. But his response is that you don’t need both fare revenue and tax revenue — just one if structured properly.
Durham’s Transit Landscape: Promise & Constraint
Before we draw lessons, let’s sketch where Durham is today.
What’s working / in progress
GoDurham and regional service: Durham runs local bus service under GoDurham; regionally, GoTriangle connects Durham with neighboring counties. Bus speed and priority efforts: Projects like Transit Signal Priority (TSP) help buses get “green light treatment” when behind schedule. It’s a small but important tool in making buses more reliable. Durham Station Transit Area improvements: The downtown hub where many routes converge is under study for bus-priority redesigns, better stop placement, and street reconfiguration to improve speed and reliability. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) planning: In mid-2025, Durham unveiled its initial BRT concept: a 7-mile route running west to east across the city, linking Duke Hospital to eastern neighborhoods. Officials acknowledge funding is uncertain and the project is years away.
What’s challenging
Cancelled rail dreams: Durham once hoped for the Durham–Orange Light Rail (DOLRT), a 17.7-mile line connecting Durham and Chapel Hill. That project was abandoned in 2019 after cost and logistics spiraled. Slow policy adoption: For local traffic safety, Durham’s speed hump program is notoriously restrictive. Between 2022–2023, the vast majority of citizen requests for street calming were denied. Geographic & funding constraints: The Triangle region is sprawling; corridors often cross multiple jurisdictions. And federal funding, grants, and matching requirements present high hurdles. Bus delays & downtown congestion: In the downtown core, buses often get stuck in traffic or blocked by curb conflicts. That’s part of why the transit-area redesign is critical.
So Durham is in a transitional stage, neither stuck nor fully transformed. There’s smart planning underway — but it’s cautious, incremental, and constrained by budgets and local politics.
Lessons & Cautions: What Durham Can Learn from Mammadi’s Vision
Mamdani’s proposal is bold, but not without pitfalls. Drawing from NYC and Durham’s differences, here — in my view — are key takeaways for Durham (and cities like it):
Scaling is hard
NYC’s density, ridership, and tax base give it breadth and depth. Durham is smaller.
Start with high-demand corridors — e.g. where bus use is already concentrated — before doing city-wide fare elimination or sweeping reforms.
Revenue substitution vs. addition
Critics fear fare-free transit will starve transit agencies. But the argument Mamdani makes is that you replace — not duplicate — fare revenue via taxation.
Durham must ensure a stable, predictable source (local tax, subsidy, state match) before cutting fares. Don’t remove fares until replacement revenue is locked in.
Bus priority must accompany fare changes
Free rides alone may lead to overcrowding, slower service, or bus bunching — unless infrastructure supports it.
Invest seriously in signal priority, dedicated lanes, elimination of bottlenecks (e.g. downtown streets), enforcement of bus-only corridors.
Equity must be intentional
If free transit or improvements primarily benefit already well-served corridors, you risk reinforcing inequities.
Durham should target underserved neighborhoods — East Durham, North Durham, historically marginalized zones.
Political backlash is real
Accusations of fiscal irresponsibility, “handouts,” or ideological labeling can undermine even technically sound plans.
Build consensus early: community engagement, transparent budgets, pilot programs to show proof of concept.
Staging and phasing are essential
Jumping to full transit fare elimination overnight is risky.
Use pilots, stepwise expansions, fare lowers (rather than full zero fare) as phases.
Metrics and accountability matter
Without metrics to track ridership, on-time performance, cost per passenger, you can’t know what’s working or failing.
Durham should set clear KPIs (e.g. bus speed improvements, headways, ridership equity) and report publicly.
Inter-regional coordination is harder in small metro regions
Durham’s transit must coordinate with Raleigh, Wake, Orange counties; cross-jurisdictional politics complicates funding and planning.
Strong regional governance, transit compacts, joint funding
A Vision for Durham: What’s Possible
Here’s what I imagine Durham could aim for, borrowing ambition from Mamdani but grounded in local realities:
Targeted fare elimination pilot Pick one or two high-use corridors — say, east-west through downtown or a route serving large transit-dependent neighborhoods — and make them fare-free for a period.
Measure the impact on ridership, demand, and operating cost. Prioritize bus speed & reliability enablers Expand and accelerate use of Transit Signal Priority (TSP) across corridors.
Convert congested downtown streets into bus-priority zones. Redesign curb space to reduce delay from double parking or pickup/dropoff conflicts. Fast-track BRT Use the 7-mile corridor plan as a testbed.
If Durham can execute a high-frequency, dedicated-lane bus line, that becomes a proof point — a “light rail substitute” without full rail cost.
Equity-first routing In planning expansions, always analyze by race, income, and historic disinvestment. Ensure new services don’t just mirror existing well-off corridors, but reach communities often ignored.
Secure stable funding before cutting fares Durham (or Durham County) could propose a modest transit tax increase, or repurpose existing revenue lines, before eliminating fares. The goal is fiscal sustainability, not austerity around transit.
Public transparency and education Transit changes are often contested. Durham should hold public meetings, show clear cost-benefit models, and use trial phases to build public support.
Regional cohesion Push stronger coordination with GoTriangle, Durham-Orange planning bodies, and Raleigh-area agencies to ensure seamless connectivity across corridors.
Why It Matters (For Us Too)
In many ways, Mamdani’s vision is a shock to the system. But those shocks sometimes crack open what we accept as “normal” — that transit must be rationed by price, that only the wealthy deserve speed, that public mobility is optional.
Durham is smaller. We have fewer resources. But we also have something Mamdani would call potential — the chance to be ahead of the curve rather than forever catching up. If Durham can pilot, execute, and—most critically—learn from bold ideas, we might build a new kind of transit democracy: one where a bus ride is not just a utility for the few but a right for all.
Mamdani’s election might change New York. But what if, back home, we took the same courage, held our leaders accountable, and pushed harder? Because transit isn’t just about moving people. It’s about who we choose to value — and how.