How much would you pay for transit?

I know there are different transit systems, but for the sake of this poll, I’m talking about subway, bus and/or light rail service. Commuter rail is traditionally more expensive, but subway/bus/light rail systems are more common.

Participate in the poll below – let us know how much you would pay for transit per month and share your comments with us!

MTA to NYC: Drop Dead

So, it is the dawn of day 4 of the doomsday service cuts in NYC. My commute has been complicated a little by the changes – I have to leave home for work about 15 minutes earlier than before just to be SURE that I can get the bus to the subway station and get to work on time. 15 minutes is a lot of time, but some commuters are seeing 30 and 45 minutes added to their commutes, so I won’t complain too loudly.

The cuts eliminated two subway lines and dozens of bus lines, changed the routing of one subway line and now add additional wait times for everyone riding the subway or bus. The cuts could not come at a worse time when NYC is trying to drag itself out of the Great Recession and we experienced a heat wave the early part of this week.

Walder, the head of the Transit Authority, promises no fare increases this year. He would have been met with the stereotypical New York attitude if they even tried to pull that move – higher fares and less service? Fagetaboutit. However, fare increases WILL come in 2011. Brace for it. We’ll probably see $100 dollar monthly MetroCards, which is still a great deal for unlimited rides for 30 days. The most important thing at this point is to realize that we’ve been underpaying for the service and allow fares to be collected that are more in line with what rides are around the world for world class systems. The NY subway system is world class in some ways (24 hour service, access to all parts of the city) but in other ways, can use some serious technological upgrades that will improve the riding public’s experience and overall safety.

I don’t want to see a zone fare introduced – especially as someone who travels 32 miles round-trip on the subway each day. Instead, I want to see more realistic fares and discounted passes that really mean the agency can make money. Even in my poor/lower middle class neighborhood, most people I observe using the bus use unlimited cards. On average, that reduces the fare to around a dollar per ride. The agency cannot make money for operations like that.

Additionally, New York State and New York City need to step up and contribute to the MTA; the MTA system is the lifeblood of the city and deserves adequate funding for operations AND capital improvements.

I’ll keep an eye out for other changes coming down the pipe. This is definitely an interesting development going forward in transportation financing and operations.

Are you in NYC? Have you been affected by the service cuts?

I’m Still Car Free and Other Thoughts

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog, but the my car free world is still walking and using public transport to get from point A to point B.

It’s been easy to stay car free since I live in New York City. Previously, I counted using a taxi cab or car service as ‘cheating’ at being car free, but I have had a change of heart. Since the cab or car service isn’t for my exclusive use 24-7, I am still car free. I haven’t taken a taxi cab or car service recently, but I did find that it is far faster to take a taxi 1/3 of the way to work on Sundays and then get on the subway. The time saved is about 25 minutes. Unfortunately, the cost is $12-15. The benefit-cost analysis I go through each Sunday morning is priceless. Some Sundays I have born the cost of the taxi cab because I couldn’t deal with the bitterly cold winds racing down Amsterdam Avenue as I waited for the bus. On other Sundays, like today, I knew I wanted to buy lunch out while at work, so I had to decide between a comfy, quick ride 1/3 of the way to work or taking the bus to the subway (and transferring at Herald Square to a second subway).

I have been reading about alternative transit and ways to make life easier for people interested in living car free. One of the recurring themes is building or redeveloping walkable cities. Walking is good exercise and if people have stores, businesses and entertainment within walking distance, they are more likely to walk than to drive or even use public transit to get there. I know that walking is not feasible for everyone, but for the vast majority of people, walking to the grocery store could be an option if we build smaller, neighborhood groceries and encourage businesses to hire local employees, we could make huge strides in improving our communities and lessening the demand for new roads. Even if we begin building toll roads in earnest, we still won’t have the funds necessary to maintain the roads we have preexisting. America is truly at a crossroads in terms of transit. Some have predicted that within 20 years most people will be forced to be car free, rather than it being an option, simply because of traffic jams, the cost of oil and poorly maintained roads.

What are your thoughts?

Choose your own fares!

After reading about a taxi service in Vermont that allows riders to choose their own fare, I began thinking – what would people pay if they could choose their own fare on the local bus, subway or commuter rail?

photo credit: conbon33

I know I would continue paying the same fares as before. Nothing would change for me. But what about instances where you had no starting point for what the fare should be? How would people decide what was equitable, given that they had to pay something (no free rides)?

Any thoughts?

Roundup from around the ‘net

Make Up a Fake Parking Permit, Park Wherever You Want!

Last year the Bloomberg administration made a big deal about reducing the number of parking placards issued to city employees, slashing them by over 25,000. At the time, the cutback on permits, which allow cops, civil servants, and other lucky bureaucrats to park almost anywhere, was heralded by Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives as “a good first step. But the final analysis will be weeks and months from now, when we see how actively these plaques are enforced.”

So last week the group decided to test enforcement themselves, creating a bogus parking placard with the name of a non-existent city agency, the “Citizen Protection Administration.” Spokesman Wiley Norvell spent six hours parking a Mazda Miata at various illegal spots around Manhattan,

Could BRT replace the Second Ave. Subway?

As this week of bad news for the Second Ave. Subway draws to a close, we return again to a question of transit on the Upper East Side? As they do every time another SAS delay is announced, Streetsblog advocated for a BRT solution to the Second Ave. problem. But is that a realistic replacement for a full Second Ave. subway?

In rehashing their BRT argument for Second Ave. — one they explored in February — Ben Fried and Streetsblog made a rather bold claim. “On the east side of Manhattan,” Fried writes, “the right BRT configuration would carry almost as many commuters as the Second Avenue Subway, for a fraction of the cost.”

The Importance of Employment Centers

Jarrett has an interesting post on how LA is more like Paris with their polycentric form than a more monocentric place like New York City. I’ve been looking all week at LEHD data, mapping out job clusters and have noticed that many places in the United States are polycentric. This is also something Richard Layman talks about a lot as well, but in a slightly different way.

And a cool cartoon…

"A long time ago, human beings were devoting such a strong cult to these things, that they offered the lungs of their children as a sacrifice."© Lucile Gomez Here is a beautiful carfree drawing from Lucile Gomez. You can follow her work in French on her website: http://www.lucilegomez.fr/ (Source: CARFREE BLOGOSPHERE)