The Commute: MTA Public Safety Announcements And The Proposed Fare Hike
THE COMMUTE: Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach are prominently featured in a new series of MTA public service announcements denouncing texting while walking, cycling, and riding the city’s buses. I doubt it if the MTA realizes how ironic some of the locations that were chosen are. The cyclist begins his ride just 100 feet from where my friend crashed into a cyclist about 20 years ago. He was uninjured, but just a few blocks away another cyclist was killed earlier this year. The location in the video where the girl is “hit by the bus” while texting is just 200 feet from a real bus fatality four few years ago. The messages are clear and all should take heed. Texting does not go well with walking, cycling, or even standing in a bus if you are not holding on.
Also, last week, I spoke to a cyclist I met at a holiday party who is only around 30 years of age and has already been involved in five bicycling accidents, three of them involving cars. He held no animosity toward the drivers and told me he never rides at night. I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is not to have been seriously injured.
This year was also the tenth painful anniversary of my sister’s cycling accident, which ultimately took her life. The message for everyone — cyclists, pedestrians, bus passengers and drivers — is the same: Be careful and pay attention to whatever you are doing, not only during this holiday season, but always.
Last year, while riding on a bus in Midtown Manhattan at night, I was looking out the front window and saw a pedestrian cross directly in front of the bus and how difficult it was for the bus operator to see him. If not for the attentiveness of the driver, the results could have been tragic. Here is the MTA Press Release from just a few days ago that also describes other steps the MTA is taking to improve safety on the streets and inside the buses. They are all steps in the right direction. The videos are included in the press release. I urge you to read the press release and watch all three videos.
The Proposed Fare Hike
Last Thursday, Brooklyn residents had the opportunity to express their feelings about the proposed fare and toll hikes to go into effect early next year. Although I did not attend the hearing, I submitted my comments by email. It is still not too late to submit yours here. Here are my comments:
State law requires the MTA to hold public hearings before fare increases to solicit public opinion whether a fare increase is warranted or deserved. Yet you decided over two years ago that a fare increase would go into effect in 2015. In fact, you have already determined the date of the next fare increase in 2017. It is only the amounts you are not sure of. So you ask us to choose between one of two bad choices. That is like saying do you prefer dog food or cat food for dinner today?
Everyone knows these hearings are just a sham. It would not matter if every single person testified against a fare increase; you still will be raising the fare anyway by the amounts you already made public.
Every Board member should be required to be present at all the hearings. That is not possible when you hold two hearings on the same day. Only three or four Board members in attendance at each hearing with some leaving after recess does not qualify as sufficient interest on the MTA’s part in hearing what the public has to say.
The MTA has had two years to investigate alternate fare structures but has not done so. Simply raising the fares every two years is not a long-term solution to your budget problems. The rider is already paying 75 percent of the costs, probably the highest in the country. I remember when that percentage was under 50 percent.
There are those who require three buses or a bus, train, and bus to complete their trip which requires two fares. Contrary to public opinion, not all multiple fare trips were eliminated when MetroCard Gold was instituted. Many will take longer bus trips involving two buses, rather than a bus, train and bus for two fares when that may be the quickest alternative. That causes you to provide additional costlier bus service and that serves neither the MTA or the customer in the best way.
Further, as additional SBS lines are added, more passengers are required to pay multiple fares to take advantage of SBS if it is too far for them to walk to an SBS stop and they first need to take the local and also have to transfer again for a third bus or subway. SBS stops are located up to a mile apart, so the only option is to use the slower local bus instead of the SBS to save a fare. That is in no one’s best interests. What is the MTA doing for these people who do not ride often enough to purchase weekly or monthly passes? Absolutely nothing.
Why do we not have daily or three day passes as other cities do? Why couldn’t the fare be based on the amount of time you travel instead of the numbers of buses you take? You can take three trains for one fare, but in virtually every case, you cannot take three buses. There was a longstanding policy of over ninety years that service changes would not require the payment of additional fares, which the MTA arbitrarily decided to eliminate about a decade ago. A short trip requiring three buses should not cost twice the amount of a train trip from one end of the city to the other. Yet the MTA has done absolutely nothing to reduce or eliminate these inequities and they just get worse with each fare increase.
It does not take much ingenuity to figure out how to make a round trip for a single fare in certain places which many already do. Why shouldn’t all riders be allowed to run a short errand where a round trip can be completed in two hours for a single fare. Riders need additional options. Additional options mean more riders where there already is excess subway and bus capacity and that means more revenue and less demand for dollar van services. Yet the MTA only considers current riders, never potential riders or riders making additional trips if fare breaks were given when deciding what the fare should be, and that is shortsighted.
The MTA is stuck in its old ways of thinking and needs to start thinking outside the box which is why the MTA needs to be reinvented.
Finally, the express bus fare and tolls are increasing disproportionately, by 8% and 7% respectively while you are promising a 4% increase. The express bus fare should only be twice the base fare as it was originally.
The Commute is a weekly feature highlighting news and information about the city’s mass transit system and transportation infrastructure. It is written by Allan Rosen, a Manhattan Beach resident and former Director of MTA/NYC Transit Bus Planning (1981).
Disclaimer: The above is an opinion column and may not represent the thoughts or position of Sheepshead Bites. Based upon their expertise in their respective fields, our columnists are responsible for fact-checking their own work, and their submissions are edited only for length, grammar and clarity. If you would like to submit an opinion piece or become a regularly featured contributor, please e-mail nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.
