New York governor Andrew Cuomo and mayor Bill de Blasio, who have been feuding over who was going to pay to fix the subway system, have finally agreed to impose the cost of fixing the subway on people who don’t ride it..
With great fanfare, they released what they call a “10-point plan,” but it really amounts to two points: first, they are going to impose more charges on auto drivers and spend them on the subways; and second, they are going to try to reduce fare evasion.
The other points involve things like redesigning the MTA bureaucracy, auditing the bureaucracy, creating new committees to oversee the bureaucracy, and giving the bureaucracy a mandate to do more planning, in other words, be more bureaucratic. Somehow they think this shuffling of deck chairs is going to make a difference to MTA’s sinking ship.
According to the latest reports, “nearly 4 percent” of subway riders evade fares. With annual fare collections of $3.5 billion a year, eliminating fare evasion would raise less than $140 million a year. The cost of fully enforcing fares could easily exceed that amount.
cheap viagra It also offers effective cure for male infertility through improving semen load. Sexual sildenafil 50mg price intimacy is a very delicate matter and it hurts a relationship and brings their life tasteless. getting viagra The 321323 also improve the blood platelets and the production of the red blood cells. Should you experience: blood sugar levels which are higher than the goals set by your doctor, shortness of breath, extreme thirst and drinking and cialis vs viagra http://frankkrauseautomotive.com/inventory/page/4/ frequent urination, severe abdominal pain, numbness, tingling, pain in your feet or legs, spasms characterized by sensations of choking or suffocating, severe nausea and vomiting, and inability to drink liquids or eat. That means that this 10-point plan really amounts to one point: charging autos that enter south Manhattan a “congestion fee” of more than $11.50. But, as the Antiplanner has stated before, this is not really congestion pricing; it is a cordon charge. In other words, it won’t do much to relieve congestion; it is simply a way to scam more money out of people to help fund an overly expensive transit system.
The MTA says that, if it can’t charge a cordon fee, it will have to raise subway fares from $2.75 to $3.50. So, to save subway riders 75 cents, they want to charge non-subway riders $11.50.
“Why do we have to keep paying for bad service?” one subway rider asked a reporter. No surprise that riders would rather have other people pay for their rides. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that the bad service is due to the fact that they aren’t paying the real cost.
The cordon charge won’t raise more than a quarter of the money to solve the MTA’s problems. MTA says the subway has a $40 billion backlog, while New York commuter trains have another $20 billion backlog. Cordon pricing is expected to raise about $1 billion a year, or the equivalent of about $15 billion over time. Legislators are skeptical about cordon pricing, but even if Cuomo and de Blasio are able to persuade them to allow it, the 10-point plan is going to have to be supplemented by a lot more points taxing other non-subway riders.
Whenever transportation infrastructure is financed thru a myriad of various financial methods there’s the invitation for graft, waste, fraud and just plain fiscal incompetence. Also when projects derived from a multitude of financial sources, you run the risk of the source depleting or funding shortages along one of those revenue streams regardless; if it’s no longer valid or substantial. If New York succeeds in milking auto drivers to a point they wont drive anymore……..they may just take the subway that’s falling apart…….but even their patronage isn’t enough to fix a 40 BILLION DOLLAR backlog. Five thousand extra riders even at 2.75 a ride is only 5 million a year, drop in the bucket.
When transportation infrastructure is paid for out of user fees or at least majority user fees, there’s an incentive to keep it simple and functioning. When transportation funding is paid for out of tax money derived from some sort of scheme concocted by politicians; cost controls go out the window because more ambitious schemes are already being dream’t up and there’s no guarantee you’ll get enough funds. Look no further than the most troublesome transportation project blunder in recent memory. Bostons Big Dig. While light rail projects have a tendency to go 50-100% over budget, The Boston project went 200% over budget. Exacerbated by thousands of leaks, substandard materials and deadly ceiling collapse, Estimates show the project will ultimately cost over $22 billion, including interest, and that it would not be paid off until 2038.
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to save subway riders 75 cents, they want to charge non-subway riders $11.50.
” ~anti-planner
Bread & circuses
interesting
https://ny.curbed.com/2019/2/6/18212328/gale-brewer-subway-station-accessibility
The MTA has faced years of scrutiny to improve that figure and is in the midst of conducting a feasibility study to determine which new stations will receive elevators. Improved accessibility is also a critical part of NYC Transit President Andy Byford’s Fast Forward plan, which looks to add 50 accessible stations to the system in a five-year span and make the subway fully accessible by 2034. The cost is estimated at $40 up to $60 billion.
Transit advocates call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislature to fund the plan by passing congestion pricing, in addition to other measures.
An $ 11.50 daily fee would certainly make me feel unwelcome in NYC. Perhaps the suburban shopping centers aren’t so bad after all …