Unlimited MetroCards will reach $168 by 2023

[bobtehpanda]

I'm not sure what the Rockaways or UES have to do with your example. There are people of all income levels traveling to and from all parts of the city.

 

Adjusting the actual fare based on income is impractical, but I would strongly advocate for transit vouchers to be distributed to the poor to offset some of the cost of riding the subway and bus.

 

 

Not at all! Any intelligently designed zone system would grant the lowest fares (by far) to trips (and especially off-peak trips) that don't enter the CBD. Trips that enter the CBD would be significantly more expensive, especially during rush hours.

 

Think about who tends to rely the most on outer borough trips that don't enter the Manhattan CBD. Now think about who tends to hold 9-to-5 jobs in the Manhattan CBD. Suddenly it doesn't seem so regressive anymore, does it.

 

On top of that, once a reasonable zone system is in place, it can be applied to the commuter railroads as well. To give one example, why should a rail-based trip from Fordham Plaza to Grand Central cost so much more than a rail-based trip from Fordham/Jerome to Grand Central, merely because those two rail lines happen to be operated by different agencies? Even worse, why should someone who has an unlimited pass valid for trips on one agency's system have to pay the full fare for an occasional trip on the other agency's system? Fordham Plaza to Grand Central and Fordham/Jerome to Grand Central should have a uniform fare and a common fare medium. Marble Hill to Grand Central (via Metro-North) and Marble Hill to Times Square (via 1 train) should have a uniform fare and a common fare medium. Sutphin/Archer to Penn via E train and Sutphin/Archer to Penn via LIRR should have a uniform fare and a common fare medium (and the fare from Sutphin/Archer to Atlantic Terminal via LIRR should be significantly lower, since it doesn't enter the Manhattan CBD).

 

Sounds good, no?

 

As for subsidizing the poor, that should be external to the basic fare structure, since there are plenty of wealthy people who travel long distances and plenty of poor people who travel short distances. As I proposed to MHV9218, provide the poor with need-based vouchers to reduce their out-of-pocket transit expenses.

 

The problem is that you still have a large amount of poor people who work in the CBD as retail staff, janitors, etc. Granted, no system is perfect, but I guess if you had a zoned system it would be $2 for entering/exiting in Manhattan and $1 for the rest of the boroughs. Unlimiteds should be pegged at the cost of 10 rides for a weekly and 40 rides for a monthly, assuming most people are traveling twice for five days a week.

 

Any such new fare zone system would have to be post-Metrocard though, since the cost of adapting the Metrocard for this is really not worth the cost with its replacement due in a few years.

 

Traffic that has nothing to do with Q70's route at all try again. Q70 can skip GCP via runway drive and Astoria Blvd.

 

The traffic also affects the inner loops within LGA itself, since 9 out of 10 times it's taxis causing the backups. The BQE is also affected by these jams, especially during the AM peak (the BQE coming out of the GCP is only two lanes wide with no shoulder.) You've also never commuted using these roads on a daily basis before, so I think I have more grounds than you do to talk about this stuff with authority.

 

Finally, because it seems we can't stop beating a dead horse, the transit system, buses and subways, will never have enough capacity to handle free rides. The most you could hope for is unlimited transfers within two hours. Even the Moscow Metro had a fare during the Soviet years, because they knew that the system couldn't handle "free". So can we stop pretending like this is ever going to happen?

[Orion VII 4 Life]

Blah blah blah the successful did it for themselves.

 

Here, this is a pretty centrist guy who sometimes knows what he's talking about:

 

 

I love how you link a video with 3000+ dislikes and a shitload of anti-Obama comments... Oh wait, every video about Obama is like that and with good reason.

[bobtehpanda]

I also feel like this is an appropriate place to leave this.

 

[realizm]

As to create a talking point if anyone is thinking the way I am I can say this: The cost of living is calculated by expenses, on food prices, utilities, rent or mortgages, tuition, car payments, credit lines, health, life and auto insurance rates, levels of interest in lending etc tc against salaries that the average middle class person may make a decade from now.

In Brooklyn alone the costs of rent skyrocketed by 18% in a matter of 3 years in certain areas. meanwhile government services such as SSI or HRA public assistance, unemployment insurance stays stagnant.

We are in a age where all services including management positions, construction, information technology, engineering, healthcare, etc etc is indicative of a economy dependent on the service sector, as we have no manufacturing industry except in the Auto sector and from the end of the DOD defense weapons spending.

How does it pans out for NYers you may ask? It's debatable but 168 dollars for unlimited cards for 2013 sounds practically insane, really. I'm seriously alarmed by this. I mean what as a future HCP moving out of the IT field I have to live out of state? The trends are happening as it is. Socioeconomics for the mind gents.....

The US Federal Government better figure this out fast because this situation is deteriorating more rapidly then ever before, and really to me it has me shitting bricks, as a taxpayer.....Let alone a straphanger! I haven't literally threw the numbers crunching digits on an excel spreadsheet (yet) but my preliminary thoughts pains a grim future for the middle class. Forget the poor middle class not dependent nor qualify for HRA benefits.

[LTA1992]

Well, there are two possibilities of how this city's financial situation will look in the next decade. One of which depends on what happens with Syria. The second pretty much an inevitability.

[Turbo19]

As jacked up as it seems this is very fathomable. I bet many of us 15 to 20 years ago never imagined the one way fare would be close to $3.00, but now you have the PPR at $2.75. Moving on.

 

At any rate having a local monthly at nearly $175 does seem possible in the future, but not as soon as predicted. Perhaps in 25 to 30 years. Likely longer if the MTA steps its up in financial management.

[qjtransitmaster]

The problem is that you still have a large amount of poor people who work in the CBD as retail staff, janitors, etc. Granted, no system is perfect, but I guess if you had a zoned system it would be $2 for entering/exiting in Manhattan and $1 for the rest of the boroughs. Unlimiteds should be pegged at the cost of 10 rides for a weekly and 40 rides for a monthly, assuming most people are traveling twice for five days a week.

 

Any such new fare zone system would have to be post-Metrocard though, since the cost of adapting the Metrocard for this is really not worth the cost with its replacement due in a few years.

 

 

The traffic also affects the inner loops within LGA itself, since 9 out of 10 times it's taxis causing the backups. The BQE is also affected by these jams, especially during the AM peak (the BQE coming out of the GCP is only two lanes wide with no shoulder.) You've also never commuted using these roads on a daily basis before, so I think I have more grounds than you do to talk about this stuff with authority.

 

Finally, because it seems we can't stop beating a dead horse, the transit system, buses and subways, will never have enough capacity to handle free rides. The most you could hope for is unlimited transfers within two hours. Even the Moscow Metro had a fare during the Soviet years, because they knew that the system couldn't handle "free". So can we stop pretending like this is ever going to happen?

And when Q70 wins you will be silent. MTA tried to limit the unlimited guess what it failed miserably.

[bobtehpanda]

And when Q70 wins you will be silent. MTA tried to limit the unlimited guess what it failed miserably.

 

The only way to bypass the jams on the BQE (which can cascade all the way back from the Kosciusko, which is slated to be replaced and probably cause more jams during replacement) is through local streets, which defeats the purpose of the Q70 being a highway route in the first place. They could've just made a Q33 LTD following the same exact route stopping at Woodside, Jackson Heights, Northern, Astoria, and LGA, and that would've been fine.

 

And when did I say anything about capping rides? I was saying that the cost of the unlimited should be pegged to the cost of a certain amount of rides.