Transportation
What's the Perfect Price for Public Transportation?
As ridership tanks, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is hiking fares. Does that ever work? Experts sound off on how to price the bus and subway fairly.
According to preliminary figures from 2018, New York City subways and buses experienced the third consecutive year of ridership decline.
This thinning transit population in America’s biggest public transit town comes at a really bad time: By 2022, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority will face a staggering $634 million operating budget gap. As a result, the transit authority is targeting immediate staff reductions, maintenance cuts, and service postponements—which, advocates argue, could worsen the death spiral in which ridership already seems to be caught.