[kiliantics]

According to the NYC MTA[1], there are close to 6k buses in the fleet with 1.2M riders per day. That's over 200 riders per bus per day. With each paying a $2.75 fare, you are making about enough to cover your estimated costs.

I think the problem is not the cost of the bus but the organisation of the city's infrastructure. The bus could be a viable option for a lot more people -- far more than 200 per bus per day -- they just don't structure the roadways to maximise bus use but rather to minimise it. If there isn't a dedicated lane for buses (physically separated since NYPD cannot or will not enforce painted separation) then buses will go at least as slow as traffic, along with regular stopping, making it a less attractive option to driving or cabbing. It's pointless to operate the system this way and very cheap to fix it, where fixing it would make everyone's lives so much better as explained in this video with the extreme example of the Bahamas [2]

[1] https://new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdz6FeQLuHQ