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posted by mrpg on Wednesday November 21 2018, @07:50AM   Printer-friendly

The Guardian:

New York City’s subway and bus service is already in crisis. It could be getting worse. And more expensive.

Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) warned last week that without a major infusion of cash, they will have to drastically cut service or increase fares on the system that carries millions of New Yorkers around the city.

[...] The system’s financial straits have gotten worse in part because it has fewer riders, and is collecting less money in fares. Expected passenger revenue over a five-year period has dropped by $485m since July.

“They’ve entered this death spiral,” said Benjamin Kabak, who runs the transit website Second Avenue Sagas. “The subway service and the bus service has become unreliable enough for people to stop using it. If people aren’t using it, there’s less money, and they have to keep raising fares without delivering better service.”

Bike-sharing and ride-hailing apps have emerged as alternatives for commuters. Is mass transit finding itself in a valley of death between those who are price-conscious and those who want maximum convenience?


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by MostCynical on Wednesday November 21 2018, @08:59AM (12 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday November 21 2018, @08:59AM (#764630) Journal

    "User pays"
    And
    "Cost recovery"
    These things wreck public transport.

    Capitalism works! No profit, go broke, oops, less/no choice.. more traffic, more traffic jams...

    The idea that everything must make a profit to be worthwhile wrecks everything (health, education, transport, museums, etc, etc..)

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
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    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by exaeta on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:21AM (4 children)

    by exaeta (6957) on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:21AM (#764636) Homepage Journal

    Agree.

    Public transport has a net benefit to the public that the user doesn't receive the full value of. The value of reduced traffic is split among all citizens, therefore it's fair to pay for mass transit with tax dollars.

    --
    The Government is a Bird
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:37AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:37AM (#764640)

      Reduced congestion in new york may also benefit someone working in los angeles, so they should have to pay for it as well. Also, since I work remotely I am reducing congestion and should get paid too by people from both cities and london.

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by stretch611 on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:41AM (2 children)

        by stretch611 (6199) on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:41AM (#764641)

        You get paid in cleaner air.

        --
        Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:47AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:47AM (#764642)

          No, the cleaner air is due to a rise in fracking rather than burning coal and a reduction in imports of unnecessary cheap crap from china due to new tariffs and the ending of zirp.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:52PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:52PM (#764770)

            Looks like someone trolling, meh

  • (Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:31AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:31AM (#764637)

    "Oh look, a very complex issue, which no one wants to really tackle, just pour money on. I know! I will come up with a simple solution without understanding the problem, herpa derp. What's to blame this time? *shuffles Commie deck of flash cards* Oh that's right: Capitalism!"

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:42PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:42PM (#764729) Journal

      Oh look, a very complex issue, which no one wants to really tackle, just pour money on.

      Ok, I'll try . . .

      New law: force everyone to take the bus or the subway to work, whichever of the two is least convenient.

      There is no problem so great that it cannot be solved by more government regulation, taxes, or bribes campaign contributions.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday November 21 2018, @05:23PM

        by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday November 21 2018, @05:23PM (#764825) Journal

        Wonder how much of the trouble is thanks to corruption? Fake death spiral, I tell you. Fake! Fake! A subway system is Too Public To Fail.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday November 22 2018, @12:55AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Thursday November 22 2018, @12:55AM (#765013) Homepage

      Capitalism never seems to work when you have cocksuckers in cities like New York and San Francisco who will do nothing but bitch and moan about rideshare bikes and scooters lowering their property values by obscuring their breathtaking views of crazy transients, needles, and bum shit. The "free" market will always lose out to litigious cocksuckers.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by NPC-131072 on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:35PM

    by NPC-131072 (7144) on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:35PM (#764696) Journal

    The idea that everything must make a profit to be worthwhile wrecks everything (health, education, transport, museums, etc, etc..)

    Private property [foxnews.com] and fare enforcement [indypendent.org] are racist tools of the white hetero-normative patriarchy. Who needs infrastructure investment when we can all sing The Internationale? [venezuelablog.org] No transport system would be better than a racist capitalist transport system!

    Sing comrades, sing:

    Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
    Arise, ye wretched of the earth...

  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday November 22 2018, @06:04AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday November 22 2018, @06:04AM (#765081) Homepage Journal

    Most who own cars think the cost of ownership is just the payments, gas, maintenance, parking and the like but ecomists know to figure in the costs of medical care for those who are dying of pollution.

    There is also stuff like the cost of declining tourism

    I once lived in Vancouver BC whose public transport is amazing. But here in Vancouver Washington I'm planning to buy a car because public transport is opposed by many of the voters. Oregon won't pay for a new bridge over the Columbia River unless Portland's light rail but Washington won't pay for the bridge unless it's not so extended

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday November 22 2018, @06:26AM

    by istartedi (123) on Thursday November 22 2018, @06:26AM (#765086) Journal

    It follows that if nothing made a profit, we'd get the opposite of "wrecks everything", which is "builds everything". What is building though, but the creation of something more than the sum of the individual parts? This reeks of profit! Therein lies the conundrum, at least for some. The rest of us saw through such nonsense long ago, and recognized that solving our problems is going to involve something more nuanced than railing against one system or another, or applying a political epithet to a class and seeking to tear them down.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.