Stockpiling MetroCards? The MTA Is A Step Ahead of You

A. Strakey's Flickr

If you thought you could postpone the pain of the subway and bus fare hikes starting in January by stockpiling unlimited MetroCards at their current prices, the MTA knows what you're up to. To undermine your scheme, they're setting grace periods for each type of unlimited MetroCard, and when that grace expires, software at subway turnstiles and bus fareboxes will firmly reject you. Those dastardly Transit Authoritarians have thought of everything! Here's how it breaks down for MetroCards purchased before December 30th:

1-day Fun Pass: expires Jan. 10
7-day MetroCard: expires Jan. 16th
7-day Express Bus Plus MetroCard: expires Jan. 16th
14-day MetroCard: expires Jan. 23rd
30-day MetroCard: expires Feb. 8th

And any unlimited card purchased before Dec. 30th must be activated with a swipe by Jan. 10th. Furthermore, the Fun Pass and biweekly MetroCards are being eradicated. The Daily News calculates that since the monthly unlimited was introduced back in 1998 at $63, the price has increased 65%. (In January, it goes up from $89 to $104.) According to the News's math, if you take 55 trips a month with a monthly pass, the cost average per trip will amount to $1.89 with the new price, a 16% savings over the base fare of $2.25 a trip. So you'll probably save in the long run if you can spend more up front—some of us will just need some seed money for the initial investment.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on November 10, 2010 9:55 AM

Comments [rss]

Nyctini11

Hasn't this always been the case with every increase? This is nothing new, at least to me.

hsilman

If you're going a mile and a half...ride a bike! You can get a good condition old bike for about 100 bucks. I ride my bike to work and back and have definitely recoiled my investment already after only 4 months. This isn't realistic for everyone I know, but it is for the vast majority of people in the city. Talking about buying a car so you can go less than 2 miles easily is insane.

camera_club

I ride my bike every day. I'm not gonna ride when it's snowing, or 30°, or when I'm running errands with lots to carry. or when I'm carrying all of my work equipment. I'm not seriously buying a car, but I can't help but pine for one when I compare waiting 35mins for a bus and paying $5 with a ton of shit to carry compared to hopping in the car and getting it all done in 5 mins. that's my point, they aren't making the argument any better for people to go car-free

Spirit of 76

Wait 35 minutes for a bus to go 1.5 miles? Forget the bike. WALK! You can do 1.5 miles in 30 minutes.

Stevennnn

The biggest problem owning a car in the city is parking it on the street or blocks away. If you got a driveway or garage well then why don't you have a car.

cool

it would be nice if they could add a simple feature, alongside the fare increase. Please, MTA, put a countdown for the remaining number of days on the monthly card, if only for the last five days. Would be so much better than a turnstile poke in the nads every 30 days.

camera_club

I moved to New York to live car-free, but with all the bus cuts, service issues and fare hikes I wanna invest in a car again. Now it costs me almost $5.00 to run a mile and a half down the road and back on the subway or bus. A car would be so much more convenient, I was willing to make sacrifices but the MTA is not making it easy. of course, nothings easy

H.J. Simpson

Albany could give 2 shits about the MTA. I mean who would when they can barely afford to do anything... $104 this year (2011), $110 next year then $120 for the year after that.

Im going to invest in a bike, a vehicle that would pay for itself within 3-5 months.

ianmac47

This is actually counterproductive for the MTA. Allowing riders to stockpile cards, even at a discounted rate would let the MTA collect interest on the money already paid for the cards, even while the cards are not in use. It would immediately provide the MTA an infusion of cash--assuming a large number of riders were stockpiling cards. And inevitably some stockpiled cards would be lost or forgotten about, meaning some riders would end up overpaying.