Oh, WNYC has already updated the chart at the url above.

WNYC's bonus math in the chart is wrong. $2.25 / 1.15 = 1.96 (that's the current fare with bonus.)

$2.25 / 1.10 = $2.05 (that's the proposed fare hike)

I put the proposal into http://www.metrocardbonuscalculator.com/july2010proposed.html to help people visualize. it.

If you charge $99 for an "unlimited" card that is limited to 90 rides, you have just sold a 90 ride pay-per-ride card for $99. At least can we not get our intelligence insulted and have the MTA use actual english to describe things. The proposal is to get rid of the unlimited cards, and to introduce two new pay per ride cards, a 90 ride card for $99, and a 21 ride card for $28.

Incidentally, at $1.33 per ride, the proposed 21 ride card is cheaper than the current pay per ride cards with multiple rides, without that many more rides. The only limitation is that you have to use all the rides within a week to get full value, but this isn't too difficult (one round trip per day gets you to 14 rides)and I think the current pay per ride cards have expiration dates. The card isn't much more expensive on a pay per ride basis than the new 90 ride card ($1.10 per ride), with more of a chance you will get full use of the card. So I expect that this will be the standard card that most people will buy most of the time. I'm not sure what MTA management expects.

Since I have to use about 46 cards to get to work each month, this will change my behavior. No more stopping off someplace mid-week on the way home, and staying home/ running a few errands each weeken except the last weekend of the month if I have some rides saved up. Multiply this by lots of commuters and you get a big drop in consumer spending. I wonder how much the introduction of the unlimited ride cards boosted the local economy.

What is the point of increasing fares? There is still going to be a shortfall of approx 90000 zillion NO MATTER WHAT. The MTA should just stop charging all together. There's no difference between wasting all the money and having none left and just not having it to begin with.

What is the point of increasing fares? There is still going to be a shortfall of approx 90000 zillion NO MATTER WHAT. The MTA should just stop charging all together. There's no difference between wasting all the money and having none left and just not having it to begin with.

Anyone else remember when the city came to a stand still because the MTA workers were all on strike? That's what the city looks like without public transportation. Underfunding the MTA and pushing the burden of the cost to user fees doesn't make sense for riders or for drivers. Its probably time to fund the MTA with higher tolls, vehicle registration fees, and congestion pricing schemes.

I agree that there are ways that we could fund the MTA such as tolls, resident parking stickers, congestion pricing etc., but nabka is 100% correct in that none of these new funding measures should be put into place without FIRST changing the way the MTA is run, who runs it, increasing the amount of public oversight they have, and purging the general culture at the agency which is rotten to the core, from top to bottom.

'fund the MTA with higher tolls, vehicle registration fees, and congestion pricing schemes'

ugh.

Listen closely. the mta will NEVER have enough money. never. As soon as they over under budget, they will INVENT new capital projects, new benifits, new ways to spend money.

You have no say in how the MTA is run. You have no input on salaries, benifits, projects the mta decides to fund, yet they will forever pass on these costs to you. Its a charade.

more money wont solve the problem. something actually resembling democracy might, but we dont have it with the MTA, nor anywhere else in this city.

Yes, the Second Avenue subway is just an invented capital project designed to waste money. It couldn't possibly be about increasing mobility on the east side of Manhattan. And I suppose too that providing LIRR access to Grand Central, or linking a whole lot of subway lines in lower Manhattan are just invented ways of spending money too.

The city is growing. Ridership is up. System expansion is not something the MTA leadership is doing just to bloat up the budget; its a natural requirement for any city that is expanding.

$99 dollars a month is still very cheap to get to work for one month.

but at what cost? you pay more for the shitty service you have no control over. you budget over an hour for a ride that could take 20+ min by car. the convenience doesnt anywhere near out weigh the burden

Have you taken into consideration the taxes we have to pay to the MTA that are not included in the fare?

Inexpensive, maybe, but limiting the rides on unlimited cards isn't going to allow people to get to & from their destinations every day.

I use my Monthly card no more than 50 times in 30 days.

Why the fuck isn't our city transportation run by the government? This shittily run private enterprise is ridiculous.

Exactly. Then I guess it's a good thing that the MTA is a state authority whose CEO is appointed by the Governor.

Speak clearly you FUCK I have no idea what you're saying.

Can we organize some sort of mass protest to send the MTA a big F U? The MTA is corrupt, inefficient, inept, and it feels like we can't do anything about it.

The MTA is the way it is because people accept the abuse and because various NY Governors couldn't care enough to fix the system.

Riders will continue to be abused unless the following happens:

1. A majority refusal to use the system much like the Montgomery AL bus strike in 1955.

OR

2. A NY governor that will take the responsibility to reform the MTA.

For starters, you can comment here, now:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/MTAcomments