Native Noo Yawka, da Bronx division, weighing in here.
Another advantage of the Card for us bridge n’ tunnel hicks is the free transfer between bus and subway. I used to live in a “two-fare” zone–$1.50 (OK, less when I was a kid) to take the bus to the subway where you pay an additional $1.50. When you’re a teenager living on minimum wage, let alone a working stiff or something, six bucks a day for carfare really added up. Sometimes the token booth ladies would let us teens use our school passes (I went to Bronx Science, but at least there were free transfers between the busses I had to take) on weekends when technically we weren’t supposed to. But if you got a hardass case who cracked down, it really could make the difference between being able to afford a drink with your slice when you got downtown. It was tough.
The transformation of the subways to the amazingly clean, almost totally safe system we have now has been truly astounding to me. They’re still not like DC’s and never will be, but for something nearly a hundred years old they work incredibly well. Our city planners knew what they were doing. Visitors, as long as they observe a few basic safety rules, will love it because it’s like nothing else and the best and quickest way to get around the city by far. I was home last weekend and took the 4 train downtown a few times, and was surrounded by cheerful folks from all over America in town for the Series. And they all left the train with their wallets intact and their clothes unmarked by graffiti.
Ahem. Well, I like the Metrocard but I do acknowledge that the turnstiles all-too-often fail to read your card and you get hit in the nether regions by the bar, and if you lose it you’re out lotsa moola.
Oh, the NYC system is pretty easy. Up and down on the East side, take the Green one. Up and down on the West side, take the pink or blue ones. Brooklyn? Take the purple, brown, or orange lines. Lost? Ask directions. Or look at a map.
I wasn’t aware that any debate was possible over the merits of monthly passes.
Oh, wait. Do New York passes only let you ride a certain number of times? I know Washington’s do. But CAMs from the STCUM let you ride as many times as you like in a month. Mwa ha ha ha haaa!
The $63 monthly card lets you ride as many times as you like within a 30-day period. Crackerjack MTA mathematicians figured out if you only ride the subway to and from work four weeks/20 days a month, you were spending sixty bucks. So if you make ONE EXTRA TRIP back and forth to somewhere, the card is just as good as buying tokens. If you make two, you’re getting a bargain.
I take one or another of my kids to school on my way to work, so I’m dropping at least $4.50 a day on subway rides. The card is a no-brainer for me.
One drawback is the 17-minute window…once you pass the card through the turnstile, it won’t work again for seventeen minutes. This prevents you from passing your entire extended family into the system on one card.
…and if you are afraid of losing your monthly card, buy four weekly cards. Their date sensitivity doesn’t get activated until you use the card for the first time. So store three in your house somewhere safe and pick one day per week to switch cards. If you lose a weekly, you won’t feel like you’re throwing $63 into the shitter.
And why do people consistently walk into the turnstiles? All you have to do is wait an extra split second to read the little screen or listen for the beep. Just don’t walk in without looking or listening first.
Sorry, UncaBeer, it was just the first appropriate quote that popped into my head after reading your post. (Can’t watch that movie without snickering at that line every time.) I didn’t mean to hurt yer feelings. Here, have a cold Labatt’s on me.
…hey, waitaminnit…all the good-looking women in that Chicago bar and you were looking at ME?
$63 for NY monthly? Wow, in Chicago our CTA monthly passes are $75. Of course, that allows us to take the buses and pub.trans. in the suburbs, too. Do the NY cards allow anything like that, or is it just the subway?
Nope - just the subways and busses. You have to take the Metro-North or LIRR or PATH to the 'burbs, which range anywhere from a buck to $13, depending on where you’re going.
Montreal monthly cards let you take metros and buses anywhere on the island and commuter trains up to Dorval and Bois-Franc free. They also let you take the remainder of on-island commuter trains (that is, to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Roxboro-Pierrefonds, and Henri-Bourassa) for the price of an additional ticket.
You people are all either evil or crazy or just yanking my chain—tokens are SO much more convenient than MetroCards! I have to carry enough goddam cards around with me as it is . . . Besides, why do they have to DISCONTINUE tokens? Why can’t they exist happily side-by-side, like blacks and whites? Hmmm . . . Well . . . You know what I mean.
But NO! They had to eliminate LPs for CDs; they had to kill the silents for the talkies . . . Well, am I damn well going to start turnstile-jumping when the last stations stop accepting tokens!
From the DC chick…the regular Metrocards are paper. However, they still work after they’ve been folded. Or soaked. Trust me on this.
DC has also introduced SmartCards, which are plastic. You can add money with a credit card, and reuse them. You also don’t run them through the turnstile - there’s a pad on top that you touch them to. I don’t use Metro enough to get one, but I’ve heard they work pretty well.
But enough about all of you people, let’s discuss how this effects me.
Let’s say I (or if you want to be trivial, some other tourist) decides to visit the Big Kiwi. I park my car somewhere in the outer boroughs like Brooklyn, Staten Island, or Trenton and commute into Manhattan. Being a knowledgeable traveler, I’m going to skip the overrated tourist traps like the Empire State Building and the Guggenheim and visit Scores. After spending my annual entertainment budget wallowing in silicone and peroxide, I take the A-train back to my car and return to the Big City (aka Rochester).
As you can see, I rode the rails exactly twice. In my past visits I could accomplish this by buying two tokens. Once tokens are phased out will there still be some option that allows one time users or is this whole MetroCard scheme designed to keep us country rubes down on the farm?
