Some transit advocates are wary of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to subsidize bus fares and argue the money would be better spent on a major subway expansion.

Municipal signage and schematics, as design firm Pentagram's recent work on New York's beach and parking signage attests, can play a significant role in (re)defining the character of urban space.

The same billion-dollar outlay that Mayor Mamdani hopes to allocate for fare-free buses should be spent instead on rewriting the subway map.

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Melissa is a writer based in Brooklyn. New York’s Metrocard is about to join the subway token as a transit relic from the past.