Fare Hikes in New York City: The First Major Urban Casualty of the Financial Crisis?
There’s the pizza to subway fare ratio to consider. Usually the cost of a subway ride is about the same as a slice of pizza. When I lived in Ft. Greene a year ago, my neighborhood pizzeria, Not Ray’s, raised its prices to $2.25 (I remember when it was just $1.75 and you saved that quarter for laundry). I knew the fare hike was coming. And here it came: the base cost of a subway ride will be $2.50, effective May 31st.
I’m conflicted about whether to complain. Depending on where you take the subway, $2.50 is either a rational rate, or it’s a crime. The real part that I have trouble swallowing is the ballooning of the unlimited fare card to $103 per month. Yes, this is still really cheap when you compare the cost to driving a car (all that gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.), but it’s still a decent chunk of change. For the average twenty-something professional who takes home about $400 a week, it could be as much as 6 percent of that person’s income. Is 6 percent a good rate? Maybe. Discuss.
Diana Lind is editor in chief of Next American City.
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Josh on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 5:31pm
This has very little to do with the financial crisis. The MTA isn’t raising subway fares and cutting bus service because people aren’t paying their mortgages.
This is the direct and predictable result of 30 years of government policy that considers investment in public infrastructure to be a sin. That it hasn’t happened until now is something of a miracle, from the perspective of someone whose lifeline transit agencies view fare hikes like seasonal rituals.
HappyDogNyc in New York on Wed, Apr 01, 2009 at 1:19pm
Why is it so hard for the MTA to turn a profit? Since I have moved to New York in 2001 the only noticeable difference I have seen in the subways are the led signs on the L line, the elimination of tellers, the elimination of the token, and the fare hikes up to soon to be $2.50. I remember when the MTA was caught a few years ago keeping two sets of books, one to display to the public and the media, and the others a secret version showing the MTA had a surplus of cash. So where does all of the MTA’s money go? In this new economy can we continue to fund this type of ruthless corruption? If your answer is no contact you representative. It only takes a few minutes to jot off an email your local congressman and senator by emailing you can do more in a few minutes that years of complaining to people that cannot do anything about it…
<a >HappyDogNYC.com</a>