I have seen places where this can work to good effect, and for all the right reasons. New York City is not one of them, because the net-effect of this move is to make sitting on a bus or train the most attractive place to spend time when you have nowhere to be.
That is: the bus system becomes a rolling homeless shelter.
The SF Bay Area found this out with free transit 'spare the air days' (which they no longer do, precisely because of this).
So they'd better make it $24 to come into Manhattan (hell, let's make a nice round $50!), because they won't have to only pay for the transit system, but they'll have to also fix the social services framework for the city while they are at it.
/jordan