Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

Uff, sorry to hear about Friday, chinavision.

anyway how hard is it to switch to an express at an earlier stop? you just have to be on top of things. the lex line is super frequent, even off peak.

6 TRAIN LOOP IS THE BEST!!!

its kinda crazy that max wants to destroy all our 6 train loop adventures and memories just so he can transfer at fulton

Right but going downtown, the nearest stop to Brooklyn Bridge is 14th St, that means sitting through a bunch of local stops if you don't want to get off at BB.

Sorry, that may not have made any sense: I have to get on the A at Fulton, but if I'm on the east side below 14th st that means the 6 to BB then the 4/5 only one stop to Fulton, then my "real" transfer. It vexeth me.

it sucks for sure but it's still no higher than #4356 on the list of things that will be fixed when I am put in charge of the MTA

congrats everyone for the broadway-lafayette/bleecker street connection

― mookieproof, Wednesday, September 26, 2012 12:09 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

this is going to be amazing for me, v psyched

http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/09272012Drivers-First

Two guys on 7 train talking about Sid Vicious' and his demise. They heard some other guy actually played his parts on the record but don't seem to know his name

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mta_to_nyc_pick_your_poi_on_30JIfu56UXzt6TN0sU0hgP

lmao

more annoyed about metro north fares really

anyway this is basically going to pensions and has been looming for a long time. it's not gonna be $125.

I would prefer eliminating the bonus, which was always stupid, confusing and inefficient (countless metrocards with an orphaned $0.50 on them). Beyond that, I would of course prefer the lowest unlimited hike, which would mean raising the regular fare to $2.50. I guess it's arguable which is more regressive -- people with regular work schedules probably mostly buy unlimited, but this includes everyone from janitors to financial analysts. Poor, non-working people and people with irregular schedules are more likely to pay for regular fare. But my guess is that the bulk of the regular price fare cards go to tourists, and I'm fine hiking the rate on them.

25 cents isn't THAT much, really. Also yeah, the discount has gotten ridiculous--didn't it used to be 10 or 15%?

And can't you not refill a MetroCard for less than, like, $5 or 10?

I don't know the %s off the top of my head but whatever it is it's def not 50%+ tourists buying reg price cards.

7% is hilarious and is designed to make it so that you are never able to have just $2.25 left on a card

j doesn't buy monthly cards cause she is only here on the weekends, also is lazy, so she always ends up w/ random amounts and lots of mystery cards in her purse

that's why the $1 per card fee is a good idea, because it means I will have to spend less time waiting as she goes through 5 different cards at the entrance

the best part about the regular card is that you can use them between multiple people @ once

traveling with cheapskates on the subway = dud

i do not buy monthly cards

another thing to remember is that even at $120, if you take the subway twice a day that's $2 a ride, which, adjusted for inflation, is still cheaper than the subway was in the mid-90s.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/NYC-SubwayFaresWithInflation.png

I ride the shit outta that monthly pass, and would even more if I had a bus on the corner that took me to the train.

yup the only time to get worried is if they talk about getting rid of the monthly pass. I probably get about 100 rides out of mine a month.

another thing to remember is that even at $120, if you take the subway twice a day that's $2 a ride, which, adjusted for inflation, is still cheaper than the subway was in the mid-90s.

The unlimited was introduced in 1998 at $63 for a 30-day, and I don't think inflation has nearly halved the value of the dollar in the last 15 years.

the point where it was more expensive is there in the graph!

Also, almost no one uses their unlimited literally every day in a 30-day period.

well there's a bell curve where some people don't go out on weekends and are straight-forward M-F commuters and some people go out on weekends and even use it more than twice on a weekday. you also have to incorporate the fact that the creation of the unlimited cut the commuting cost in half for anyone who had to take a bus to the subway. there are winners and losers.

I am Almost No One, but that is bcz I moved to a nabe where I am not usu interested in staying home.

inevitably on some level people who use the system infrequently are subsidizing people who do use the system frequently - it's true w/ tourists and it's true w/ monthly card commuters

xp

well there's a bell curve where some people don't go out on weekends and are straight-forward M-F commuters and some people go out on weekends and even use it more than twice on a weekday. you also have to incorporate the fact that the creation of the unlimited cut the commuting cost in half for anyone who had to take a bus to the subway. there are winners and losers.

― iatee, Tuesday, October 16, 2012 12:20 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd guess the middle of the bell is probably 6 days out of 7? I also don't think the second part of your post is accurate -- pretty sure you used to be able to do a bus transfer from the subway that was either free or reduced-fare. Can't swear to it but I vaguely remember it.

Anyway, we can play arbitrary graph points all day, but it's kind of silly to tout the fact that a $120 unlimited is cheaper than the mid-90s adjusted for inflation when the graph basically just briefly spikes above $2 during that time period and is otherwise mostly well below $2 for the 70s, 80s and 90s.

FWIW, a $120/$2.25 deal would actually raise the break-even point in number of rides for an unlimited.

well I'd rather take a 2012 subway for $2 than a 1979 subway for $1.50. the big point is from a consumer's standpoint the subway is not overpriced or even that highly priced considering what you get / what comparable services cost in america / the world. and this is esp true for frequent users.

I'd just like the F train to run frequently enough after work that it's still not "rush hour" (ie, SRO) at 8 or 9pm. The extension of the G train made this worse.

I'd guess the middle of the bell is probably 6 days out of 7? I also don't think the second part of your post is accurate -- pretty sure you used to be able to do a bus transfer from the subway that was either free or reduced-fare. Can't swear to it but I vaguely remember it.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/04/nyregion/card-halves-cost-for-double-fare-riders.html

The free transfers do not apply to token users. But for the estimated 350,000 daily riders who took the bus to the subway or two buses to work, the change cuts the cost of their daily round trip to $3 from $6.

A free transfer took effect sometime after that though.

being squashed into a train sucks, but standing room only isn't so bad. it's a sign of healthy ridership imo.

a subway where everyone has a seat is probably an underused and inefficient subway right?

I think that's a fair point, xpost, but the question is which plan to adopt now. It doesn't make me feel any better about having to spend an extra $16/month that if I literally used the train every day, my unlimited would be the same as an equivalent number of single rides for a very brief period in the mid 1990s, during which the unlimited ride didn't yet exist. Also, at a $120/$2.25 plan there's very little benefit to the unlimited at all (other than tax benefits if through an office plan), because you'd have to ride 27 days out of 30 to just get past breaking even, and when you consider holidays and weekends I'd guess that that's unlikely for most riders.

yeah except when all the disabled seats are taken by idiot teenagers, and you have cancer. xp

yeah well also people are horrible, it's true

a subway where everyone has a seat is probably an underused and inefficient subway right?

yup.

xp

I'm not pushing the $120 plan, I also benefit from it all going to the single-rider users - tho I guess gf's use cancels that out. I just think that it's important to put the cost in perspective.

there is another added benefit to the unlimited card, which is the psychological 'I can take any transit whenever I want and not make a cost-benefit decision' and that's why a lot of people who could right now be saving money w/ pay-per-ride still get unlimited cards.

I see "underused and inefficient" being the inevitable MTA argument for scaling back or eliminating a 24-hour subway, at which point I do my damnedest to get the fuck outta this burg.

seems like people mostly want the cheaper unlimited option anyway, right? and $2.50 is still really cheap for a single ride. I say this coming from BART and commuting through multiple zones and paying upwards of $4 each way.

xpost

and if you wanna talk about a lack of late night options...

Yeah I agree there's a small added benefit to the unlimited card -- just the assurance that comes from always having the card in my wallet, never having to worry about refilling, always feeling like if I wanted to I could do a bunch of trips in one day (although I probably don't do a multi-trip day more than a couple times a year).

the NYPost poll definitely shows more people favoring the cheapest unlimited

I don't think the 24-hour service is ever gonna be seriously put at risk. too many people work weird hours + the real benefits from shutting it down at night only come if you shut it down long enough to make repairs rather than just 3-4 am. basically enough people depend on it being the way it is that it's effectively impossible, even if it's not particularly 'efficient'.