Bastards! $84 for a 30-day Metrocard?

Gothamist: Unlimited Monthly Metrocards Face 20% Increase

This is seriously ridonculous. When I came to NY in June 2001, a monthly Metrocard set me back $63, it went up to $70 last year, and it is now set to go up to $84.

If you calculate it per-ride, it's not so bad, since at $1.50-per-ride, a $63 card required 21 round trips to pay for itself. It increased to $70 last year, but the cost of single fare card went up to $2 so the card now only needed 17.5 round trips to pay for itself. At $84, it's actually going back up to 21 rides.

Still, it's a $21 increase in 2 years, and the service is only getting worse.

Gothamist understands that it costs a lot of money to run and maintain the subways and buses. And even though we question the leadership, we do know that Albany hasn't been helping the MTA for the past few years. The fact that NY State isn't helping the MTA makes Gothamist crazy, because NYC's economy (and the MTA literally helps move it) does make New York State a political force. Yeah, yeah, there are upstate industries, but nothing like NYC. So, Governor Pataki, if you want Gothamist to take you seriously (and you're doing a crap job of that now), help out the MTA.

Amen.