Wednesday, December 2, 2009

What shall I do with all those metrocards with $0.05 on them


NYC's straphangers are fed up with the MTA for a myriad of reasons starting with the fact the service is putrid especially during off-hours. Add to that the inaudible announcements, the constant rerouting, the poodle sized rats who somehow get away with not paying a fare and of course the homeless people who urinate in the cars and on the platform. A lot of the issues stem from the lack of funding as the geniuses running this ponzi-scheme have often grossly underestimated the long term costs and necessary operating budgets.
One way the MTA seems to be paying for itself is through the recent adjustment on subway fares. Years ago when the token was replaced with the MetroCard the MTA came up with incentives for people who bought the cards in bulk-rides as opposed to single rides. They used to give a 20% bonus for all cards so when you bought a $10 you actually got $12 which at $2 per ride got you six trips.
Then when they redid the pricing structure they raised the fare to $2.25 and dropped the incentive bonus to 15%, a double whammy for those who depend on the MTA especially ones living on a moderate fixed incomes.
TOR's complaint isn't so much about raising the fare or even lowering the bonus level as we believe every service (government run or private) should be self-sustaining and the MTA like Amtrak and recently the PostOffice has had their hands out for government stimulus which for one year might be necessary but when your business model includes budgets which depend on one-time cash influx due to stimulus money or land sales it's bound to fail.
Our TOR Bitch is about what this combo of fare-hike and bonus level decrease means in practical terms
Today you buy a $10 card and get $11.50 after the bonus, but at $2.25 a ride you get only 5.111 rides. Explain how I can possibly take a 0.111 ride, does this mean only my sack rides while the rest of my body has to walk?
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In practical purposes you will use $11.25 on 5 trips and are now stuck with a $0.25 metrocard which some people may lose or just throw away. You can refill it but you would have to do some pretty involved precalculus to figure out how much you need to put on the card now to get to a number divisible by 2.25.
I did the math and you would have to refill your card by adding $11.521739 which after the 15% bonus gets you to $13.25 which with the $0.25 you have left would get you to $13.50 enough for 6 rides.
Obviously it's not a stretch to think that because of all these mathematical issues that people may discard cards with small amounts on it which is a cash cow for the MTA.
Even if that is not the case I'm not sure you can add $11.521739 to your card.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

1 comment:

Righetti said...

I presently have three metro-cards in my wallet each with less than $0.75 on them

MLIA