Today’s Headlines

  • More MTA Fare and Toll Hike Proposal Coverage: NYT, CapNY, Post, Advance
  • Gelinas: Hike the Base Fare, But Go Easy on Every Day Riders; News Slams Albany
  • River Advos, TSTC: TZB Environmental Review Was Rushed and Incomplete (Times Herald-Record)
  • Two Trees Management Is the New Owner of the Domino Sugar Factory (Bklyn Paper)
  • No-Go on Development Deal to Replace Yankee Stadium Garages With Affordable Housing (News)
  • News: DOT Declares Astoria Sidewalk Rack a Bike Corral “Compromise,” Peter Vallone Jr. Cheers
  • Jimmy Van Bramer Praises LIC Four-Way Stop, Wants Other Traffic-Calming Measures (DNA)
  • 44-Year-Old Pedestrian Killed on Harlem River Drive (DNA)
  • Bronx Girl Critical After She’s Struck in Crosswalk While Walking to School; “No Criminality” (Post, DNA)
  • Harlem Hit-and-Run Victim Arnold Slater Was a Vietnam Vet and Beloved Bon Vivant (Villager 1, 2)
  • NYPD Advises Against Killing the Unarmed (Post); Disgraced Ex-Cop Decries Corruption (Post, News)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

  • Bolwerk

    Middle class?  Under the bus? Even when Gelinas is right, her rhetoric is delusional.

    I made a comment to a similar effect on SAS where I suggested actual numbers, but basically I don’t see why we’re mired in this current fare structure. If the concern is getting people to work, bulk sell them enough rides every week to get to work (7 round trips, or 14 rides), and make sure any bonus is encouraged if not required to be used off-peak. Similar packages can be offered for other riders with identifiable needs.  A bonus for spending a measly $10 just seems frivolous, and I don’t see what’s wrong with a $2.75 base fare for casual riders and tourists.

    As for the police, don’t worry too much. They tend to be fairly cowardly when they fly solo or in pairs. It’s only when whole packs of them are around that they start feeling their oats.  Some simple self-defense techniques will help protect you from most of the low-level thugs, but the ones on ‘roids can be harder to cow into submission.

  • Larry Littlefield

    “The development deal meant to rescue the bondholders called for 550 units of low-income housing and 45,000-square-feet of retail on two lots south of Yankee Stadium near the Gateway Center shopping mall.”

    A bailout, covered over by a housing project.  No way!  This is a ripoff!  Nothing like it.  Let the bondholders lose.

  • J

    Regardless of Gelinas’s logic, I think she’s spot on. The fare increase should be born to the greatest extent possible by visitors and others who use the system infrequently. Montreal transit system has a $3 base fare, but the monthly pass is only $75.50. I’d be fine with a $3 fare, if the monthly fares were held constant or reduced, and I’m an infrequent system user (i bike mostly).

  • carma

    @Uptowner13:disqus i dont have the specific numbers to validate what is a good proposal for fares for monthly and single fare, but i do agree that frequent users of the system shouldnt be penalized as heavily as infrequent users.  A fare of $3 would not discourage a infrequent user from using the system.  A monthly pass should be made affordable enough that it does not hurt a majority of the frequent users.
    While i think $75 will be too low considering the MTA needs revenue to pay for its past sins, reducing it to $100 flat would not be a bad proposal either.

  • Bolwerk

    @carma: It’s not even really a penalty.  It’s simply costlier to collect fares from people who don’t buy a lot of rides up front. To say the least, people with a pass are very unlikely to evade. 

  • @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus  It’s not even that frequent users shouldn’t be penalized; it’s that they’ve been penalized far more than occasional riders. Since 2003, the base subway fare has increased 13%; the 30-day Metrocard has increased 49%. The MTA has been balancing their books almost exclusively on the backs of monthly riders for the past several fare hikes.

  • Anonymous

    Please add this piece on a Brooklyn-based group ride for commuters.

    http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121016/fort-greene/biketrain-offers-new-spin-on-commuting-by-bike

  • Ian Turner

    @Uptowner13:disqus , @d8d46f16f380afef59ca318522397233:disqus : Keep in mind that monthly metrocard users are, on average, wealthier than their pay-per-ride counterparts. http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/10/20/who-buys-which-type-of-metrocard/