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SI BP Oddo’s gone to the left: “Make SIM buses free”


Deucey

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I wish I could believe this were a good faith proposal, that he actually wants to 'break car culture' instead of the air quotes version, and that he isn't just milking a movement for free service. Public transit should be free, frankly, but Staten Island is probably the last borough where that sort of program should start – particularly given the ferry is already free. The North Shore, St. George, Stapleton, etc., sure, but why we should subsidize the life of somebody who lives in Tottenville is beyond me. People choose to move to suburban areas, and part of the calculus is they want the benefits of life outside the city, but then they refuse to accept the detriments. I'd much rather see free bus service in the Bronx, in eastern Queens, in southeastern Brooklyn... Generally speaking, poorer people deserve free transit service – that's why I'm less impressed by wealthier SI express bus riders seeing a luxury service made free. Out in Rhode Island, for decades low-income elderly people rode free. That program was messed up recently, but that's the sort of stuff that's right.

Edited by MHV9218
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Let's go all in....free bus and subway service between 8pm and 6am M-F and all day Sat and Sun. Ditto for LIRR and MNRR w/in the city limits. It'll get cars and cabs off the road and reduce DWI's. I'd love to see those lines for buses at 5am and after 8pm.

Come on Cuomo, make it happen (if you're thinking about 2024).

As for the real reason Oddo is proposing it, he probably saw other cities do and figured he could get ahead of the curve (and win some votes, too).

A better, more realistic idea would be to have free service for maybe 3 days out of the year as good will gesture (kind of like how all bus and subway service was free on the Friday post-Hurricane Sandy back in 2012).

Edited by Uncle Floyd Fan
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If he really wants it, he'll have to go all-in on securing the proper funds for operations in order to support that sort of move.

We can't even talk about securing the proper funds for operations under the prices we had literally a decade ago.

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2 hours ago, MHV9218 said:

I wish I could believe this were a good faith proposal, that he actually wants to 'break car culture' instead of the air quotes version, and that he isn't just milking a movement for free service. Public transit should be free, frankly, but Staten Island is probably the last borough where that sort of program should start – particularly given the ferry is already free. The North Shore, St. George, Stapleton, etc., sure, but why we should subsidize the life of somebody who lives in Tottenville is beyond me. People choose to move to suburban areas, and part of the calculus is they want the benefits of life outside the city, but then they refuse to accept the detriments. I'd much rather see free bus service in the Bronx, in eastern Queens, in southeastern Brooklyn... Generally speaking, poorer people deserve free transit service – that's why I'm less impressed by wealthier SI express bus riders seeing a luxury service made free. Out in Rhode Island, for decades low-income elderly people rode free. That program was messed up recently, but that's the sort of stuff that's right.

 

2 hours ago, RTS CNG Command said:

I'm for it citywide, not just the Staten Island express system. Adding a fare turns what should be a right to all New Yorkers into a privilege. Millions of people depend on the system to get to and fro work. Public transportation is a public good and should be treated as such.

 

And maybe I'm generalizing a little too much here, but aren't the people who take the express buses in SI (or just about all of Staten Island south of North Shore)......conservative about this stuff? Are they not the first ones who complain about the free-loading, high crime, anti-police ShitBlazio administration that encourages fare-beating?

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Free fares would actually be counterproductive to the high ridership routes. The demand would be so strong that the wait time to get on the bus would be more like waiting to get on the monorail at Disney World.

I ain’t waiting half an hour just to squeeze into a bus that’s running on a 2 minute headway at 1 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. I already let buses go by on the Bx12 as it is.

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9 hours ago, GojiMet86 said:

 

 

And maybe I'm generalizing a little too much here, but aren't the people who take the express buses in SI (or just about all of Staten Island south of North Shore)......conservative about this stuff? Are they not the first ones who complain about the free-loading, high crime, anti-police ShitBlazio administration that encourages fare-beating?

Yup. And now their loudest sycophant with a column over here is all for wasting money on DeBlasio’s Dinghies:

https://www.silive.com/news/2020/01/fast-ferry-falling-victim-to-class-warfare-opinion.html

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12 hours ago, MHV9218 said:

I wish I could believe this were a good faith proposal, that he actually wants to 'break car culture' instead of the air quotes version, and that he isn't just milking a movement for free service. Public transit should be free, frankly, but Staten Island is probably the last borough where that sort of program should start – particularly given the ferry is already free. The North Shore, St. George, Stapleton, etc., sure, but why we should subsidize the life of somebody who lives in Tottenville is beyond me. People choose to move to suburban areas, and part of the calculus is they want the benefits of life outside the city, but then they refuse to accept the detriments. I'd much rather see free bus service in the Bronx, in eastern Queens, in southeastern Brooklyn... Generally speaking, poorer people deserve free transit service – that's why I'm less impressed by wealthier SI express bus riders seeing a luxury service made free. Out in Rhode Island, for decades low-income elderly people rode free. That program was messed up recently, but that's the sort of stuff that's right.

Oh boy... God forbid taxpayers get something from THEIR money... That’s your issue... Those with more who pay taxes aren’t supposed to get anything, but they can supplement everyone else. Just come out and say that.

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Free fares would be a logistical nightmare. The trains and the buses are already packed. Making them free will make them more packed. We have no money to build subways or run more buses to free up the packed trains and buses as it is, how are we going to find money to run even more on top of the fact that the buses are free?

It's also a dumb policy, because if you look at nearly all of the places where they have done this type of fare-free thing, they are

  • not very large cities with overcrowded transit networks
  • of the new trips that get generated because the bus is free, pretty much all of the new riders come from people who would've otherwise walked or biked.

We should spend money on fixing what we have, rather than making the shitty service free, because if a car takes me to a place in 20 minutes and the MTA takes two hours I'm still going to drive whether or not the bus is free.

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  • 2 weeks later...
18 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Staten Island always says that they're the forgotten Borough, I mean they aren't anywhere near the actual boroughs and the only way to get there is via a over expensive bridge...

I'll need you to define this.

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8 hours ago, Lex said:
8 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Staten Island always says that they're the forgotten Borough, I mean they aren't anywhere near the actual boroughs and the only way to get there is via a over expensive bridge...

 

I'll need you to define this.

Age old critique of SI that it has much of nothing in common with the other boroughs..... All he did was add a slick diss to it (the bolded part you're inquiring about)....

 

 

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1 hour ago, B35 via Church said:

Age old critique of SI that it has much of nothing in common with the other boroughs..... All he did was add a slick diss to it (the bolded part you're inquiring about)....

 

 

Thank you, I dont know how that wasnt obvious lol.

What's the story with SI anyway? Why is it a NYC boro and not a NJ one?

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