Because Nassau and Suffolk counties stopped contributing a dime to Long Island bus years ago, that’s why. Long Islanders see it as a cattle car for the slaves (city residents) to come out and work in their low-wage jobs.

Flattery will get you everywhere.

I don’t mean to tar any class of people with one brush, but the relative proportions do matter (and I did use the word “most”, which just implies 50%). My intention is not to add to the speculative bubble but rather to point out that nobody really knows who uses what sort of payment method without some hard data. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about public policy, it’s that you really can’t generalize from personal experience — there are too many counterintuitive truths that can only be reached from testable hypotheses.

Cheers,

–Ian

Right, but I’m glad I’m biking anyway, given the collapse of the system is the next shoe to drop.

OK, but let’s be honest. Biking is not an attractive commuting option for a lot of people. A good bike is quite expensive, and prone to theft besides. Or you could go through junkers but they require constant repairs and attention. Then there’s maybe half the population who aren’t physically fit enough to handle it. I think I could handle it, but I would absolutely loathe arriving at work drenched in sweat every morning. In short, I could see these fare hikes attracting a handful of biking fanatics away from transit, but hardly anyone else.

It’s a mistake to regard all single-ride card users as outsiders or out-of-towners. I work in a home office, use the transit system — but not every day — and have lived in this city for 30 years. There are also people who live near enough to their jobs to walk but use transit at other times. Then there are the elderly, who no longer work or commute, but making the occasional shopping trip. Ditto the disabled. I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

Do you have any data to support this hypothesis? I’d guess that most single-ride cardholders are people who ride the subway infrequently, which is to say tourists and those who commute via LIRR or MNRR. Indeed it was this thinking that lead to the steep monthly discounts in the first place.

But for me, I ride everyday, and everywhere, I rarely take the train, and avoid cabs like the plague they are. Only thing that will change, the people off the trains will be on the streets now…

ass backwards thinking

This sucks.

Right, but I’m glad I’m biking anyway, given the collapse of the system is the next shoe to drop.

To save money, a person could get a monthly card, but for the poorest of the poor, or anyone living paycheck to paycheck, spending $103 might not be possible. Even if it’s more expensive in the long-run, it might be easier in the short term to buy rides on a pay-as-you-go basis. So once again the poor float the system while wealthier car riders cross bridges for free.

Like Susan points out, it’s the poorest New Yorkers who will be the hardest hit, and it’s infuriating that our legislators are either foolhardily believe or are pretending that those are the people they’re sticking up for here.

No change for now, get back to me when a metrocard costs $250/month.

The service cuts, not the fare hikes, are what will get me. My weekend jaunts — which I quite enjoy, and which allow me to enjoy the rest of the city outside my neighborhood — will be less pleasant with packed trains and longer waits. Perhaps I will leave the nabe less often. The service cuts will also encourage more driving, which means more pollution and noise for Manhattan residents like me. And they will savage the city’s economy, affecting all of us in ways we haven’t yet imagined.

Anti-urbanists who have been predicting New York City’s demise forever — because they consider it an unfit place to live, and its people somehow immoral — will be laughing at us as our city disintegrates. That may be the part that hurts most of all.