🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 06 Jun 1996 23:19:34 -0400, jwhitesi@concentric.net (John
Whiteside) wrote:

>In article <DsL9sH.J3q@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>,
>tbs3y@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Captain Tristan Siegel  LAW III) wrote:
>
>> OK, so how about the L.A. Metro's answer to admission systems.
>> No tokens.  No farecards.
>
>I've heard it suggested semi-seriously in Boston that we simply eliminate
>fares. Fares pay such a small portion of the system costs, the argument
>goes, that we'd be better off eliminating them. 

I don't think that would work too well in NYC where the fares do pay a
larger portion of the overall costs than in most cities. The MTA is
still not self-sufficient, but it's getting closer to being so -
especially since it's been forced to deal with cutbacks from a variety
of governmental levels.

Besides, New Yorkers are already hit hard with taxes anyway between
state, federal and local income taxes and a variety of other taxes
built in automatically to the prices of housing and services. And a
lot of better employers pay for at least a portion of commuting (mine
pays half) so I come out ahead.

And does L.A.'s system cover as much of the entire city as NYC's? You
can pretty much do without a car in NYC - I don't think you could in
L.A. Granted, folks in the outer borroughs don't have as frequent
service because there are fewer lines that go to those areas, but it's
pretty much a 24/7 for many sections of the city.