Transit advocates are urging Gov. Cuomo to sign legislation giving commuters a second free transfer on pay-per-ride MetroCards, the Daily News has learned.
In a letter to Cuomo, advocates argued the measure sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) and Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) would provide much needed assistance to New Yorkers who live in the “transit deserts” of the outer boroughs.
“The lowest income New Yorkers, the people at the furthest reaches of New York City are the ones who would benefit the most from this,” said Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives are also among those urging Cuomo to sign the measure.
MTA seeks contractor for subway’s first platform safety barrier
Currently, commuters using a pay-per-ride MetroCard get one automatic free transfer per fare. The bill would allow two free transfers within two hours of the original fare’s purchase.
Cuomo vetoed a similar measure in 2015, arguing it would cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority millions of dollars.
12 comments:
Not everyone who lives in the further parts of nyc is poor. Look at Bayside where people are so desperate to pay over 1 million dollars for a house. Look at whitestone too. However, this is just showing you that the mta subway has a lot of gaps in it. I especially hate it when there is a subway station that has no cross over to the other side within the subway itself. A couple of times I didn't realize that I went down the wrong stairs and I didn't realize I was going the wrong way until after I swiped my card. Then I realized I was going the wrong way but there was no transfer within the subway itself, so I had to go up the stairs again and cross the street just to go the right way and it wasted my transfer so I ended up paying again for the bus when I got to it. So yes, alot of gaps in the subway system. And a couple of times when I was pregnant, I had no choice but to get off the train to use the disgusting restrooms in the subway so I had to get out and explain to the token booth clerk a couple of times that I just had to use the restroom and to please not make me swipe because I have to take a bus after this train ride. Luckily, most of them were nice enough to understand and let me through without swiping but I wasted a lot of time explaining.
I need this, but the third may take more than two hours. I once bought an SBS for a bus that was very late and lost my transfer. Why not also put metrocard vending machines where they have SBS machines. In the outer boroughs, this is a problem. I need to walk two miles to get a new metrocard.
I don't use transfers at all. Why should I subsidize people who need to transfer twice? Perhaps they can ask the mayor and gov to throw in a Dunkin Donut gift card with that transfer.
It would be far easier to 'transfer' a walking criminal like Gargoyle Andy Cuomo to federal lockup for life, when he DEVALUES honesty itself. As long as there are still organized crime family rings in city and state government, the breadcrumbs will be rejected by THIS plebeian and peasant of Queens County, where I have learned masterfully to lie, cheat and steal BETTER than the kleptocratic politicians themselves - COMPLIMENTS of the New York bureaucracy that only knows how to keep taking ALL PAY for NO WORK!
And, if there were award shows for openly practicing criminals, then 'Gargoyle Andy' would take the top 'GOOMBA' mini statue award, replete with BOTH hands of the figurine pointed out, and conscience and soul removed-and-checked, before production!
❝It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.❞ ―Upton Sinclair
❝We hang the petty thieves and elect the great ones to public office.❞ —Aesop
❝Never be deceived into believing that the rich will permit anyone to vote away their wealth.❞ —Lucy Parsons
I hope this gets vetoed. Everyday in Flushing, I see people swipe once on the bus and then pass the Metrocard to someone else to utilize the free transfer. I hate to say it, but the MTA should re-evaluate and change the fare policy to be similar to other places, where you get charged depending on the length of your ride instead of a flat rate. Either that, or create another tiered unlimited Metrocard that allows you to have two transfers instead of one. The MTA has so many other more important issues than the edge case scenario of those that needs more than one transfer.
In a perfect world yes, but I do not want to wait with thousands of other people scanning metro cards to leave the station.
>>The MTA should re-evaluate and change the fare policy to be similar to other places, where
>> you get charged depending on the length of your ride instead of a flat rate.
Agreed, or let people pay with an App like with parking.
>>put metrocard vending machines where they have SBS machines
Bring back the token.
> I hate to say it, but the MTA should re-evaluate and change the fare policy to be similar to other places, where you get charged depending on the length of your ride instead of a flat rate.
The big problem with that is it'll require a second swipe when exiting, which means a second line. The whole point of SBS is to get people to pay before they get on the bus, to avoid a first line. Can you imagine how much slower busses will be if everyone had to swipe to get off?
>>I hope this gets vetoed. Everyday in Flushing, I see people swipe once on the bus and then pass the Metrocard to someone else to utilize the free transfer.
I think they are using pay per ride metro cards and passing it back. If you have an unlimited card you can't swipe twice consecutively; there's a waiting period.
>>I hate to say it, but the MTA should re-evaluate and change the fare policy to be similar to other places, where you get charged depending on the length of your ride instead of a flat rate.
I never really understood why this should be the case. Yes it will make more money for the system, but people who live farther our are already spending extra time on the subway, which has a monetary cost that never gets accounted for. I commute a little over an hour each way, each day from eastern Queens, packed in like a sardine in trains that go out of service/get rerouted frequently. If the cost of the ride has to go up just because I live farther out, then I might as well move west. If 15% of eastern Queens decides to also move further west, closer to Manhattan, instead of paying extra to ride the subway from a greater distance, what does that do to the western neighborhoods in terms of crowding and pricing?
subsidizing commuters this way is the least harmful of contributing to crowding in either western or eastern hoods.
homeowners who live in the outer areas really don't actually want new subway stations or new commuter routes making inroads, that disruptors the setting. western residents don't really want more people moving in cheek to bowl.
this is essentially maintains an imperfect status quo without hastening over-expansion as quickly as other "solutions".
in Asia subway trips are determined by length. people there find it fair, because it is.
>homeowners who live in the outer areas really don't actually want new subway stations or new commuter routes
Speak for yourself, I'd love it if there was more public transportation options in my neighborhood.
Efreeti. Stop the Monkey icon.
Post a Comment