No drama, I'm not in NYC but other comments have pointed out that many in NYC that use buses already face high rent and and high food costs that consume large percentages of their earnings - there are estimates of $60/month for transit which could be hard to meet when just scraping by and having family etc. to support.
If we go off the 1.4 million passengers daily number, 48% would mean ~700k people who don't pay the fare. NYC has a population of ~9 million.
I find it hard to believe that ~7% of the population can't afford to pay for transit considering the discount programs (~250k low income people get 50% reduced fares, seniors and people with disabilities also get 50% reduced fares, students get free rides).
