MTA Fare Hike On What?

You’d think I’m a very bitter person if I wrote three continuous posts complaining about the same thing… well, more or less.

The MTA has voted today to increase fares and cut service.  My monthly pass will jump from $81 (which not that long ago was $76) to $103.  The single rides will go up from $2.00 to $2.50.  Among other things, subway lines and bus routes will be cut, and off peak (including weekend) services will be reduced.

MTA’s propaganda attempt at illustrating their low ride cost with bogus math

Since I moved to New York 4 years ago, the subway/bus fare will have increased 30% for single rides and 36% for monthly passes.  That’s an average of 8% per year!  Imagine getting an 8% raise annually… we can all retire early!

Give that it could already take hours to get from one place to another within this city, it’s almost a joke to cut transit services even more.  Might as well take the weekend off so we can all observe Sabbath.

Well, guess what?  We just have to suck it up!  It’s not like we 8 million people have any better option except maybe to get up four hours earlier and walk.

Sigh… enough ranting.  On a more educational note, we should all know that New York is by far the city with the highest commuters on public transportation (call us the greenest city, perhaps?):

US City Commute Patterns

But did you also know that 2/3 of the rapid transit (subway) riders in the US are New Yorkers?

At the same time, we also have 1/4 of the country’s local bus riders.

New Yorkers are also 53% of Americans who take a train to work, served by 3 railroad systems.

What can I say?  MTA sure is screwing over a lot of people.