“The MTA’s budgetary woes will not be solved by issuing fare evasion tickets in neighborhoods like Brownsville, where one in three residents live in poverty, especially when overtime pay for NYPD officers in the subway climbed from $4 million to $155 million in 2023.”
More than 150,000 residents meet the requirements for the current eligibility criteria, officials say. Of those, 76,021 have enrolled so far, and the city has been conducting outreach in the form of phone calls and letters.
In an effort to improve the AAR program, the MTA began offering e-hail services to users in 2016, allowing them to reserve trips in taxis or for-hire vehicles instead of the traditional blue and white AAR cars.
Corey Johnson also says he plans to introduce legislation that would require the Department of Transportation to issue a ‘a comprehensive master plan for city streets’ every five years, He also wants to ‘reimagine’ the BQE.
The vote avoided an alternative plan that would have hiked the base fare to $3, something disabled riders and advocates argued would unevenly burden Access-a-Ride users.
‘Our city has become less fair because the most affordable means of getting around, subways and buses, has deteriorated.’
‘Instead of trying to eliminate positions, advocates, officials—and pundits writing in the safety of their offices—should join TWU Local 100’s efforts to better protect transit workers.’
Advocates are pushing back against the MTA’s plan to raise fares next year, saying straphangers shouldn’t be forced to pay more until lawmakers secure a plan to fund improvements for the city’s deteriorating transit system.
It’s uncertain how many stations the MTA considers ‘possible’ for accessibility. Some, maybe several, may never be able to accommodate wheelchairs.
The mayor has proposed expanded select bus service. The roll-out is too slow for many advocates. Meanwhile, bus drivers say increased bus-lane enforcement is necessary.
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