Take a few minutes after reading this to look at the news stories linked. I'm interested in your feedback on the matters at hand.
As can be expected from any money hungry organization that was caught red handed, the MTA has stooped so low as to do away with Student Metrocards. Each card has 3 fares a day available to get a student to school, possibly an extracurricular, and then home again. That's $6.75 every day per student. That's $3,712,500 a day in additional revenue. This means that after a school year (196 days after vacations,) there is $727,650,000 in additional money injected into the MTA's budget. That comes to $1,323 a student, assuming they are involved in a club or sport that meets off of school grounds. If they go there and back directly, that's 882 per student per year.
I don't know if I speak for others (I probably do), but that's a lot of money to expect from high school students. It makes only the tiniest dent in the deficit that the MTA has racked up for itself ($383,000,000,) and seems like a backhanded way to encourage the public's willingness to pay a larger fare.
This is a very backhanded way to suck the life out of the city. It makes more sense to reduce the wages of the executives and administrators (they've already pissed off the operator's union, so they can't scrape from there, despite most drivers not actually earning their bloated keeps through poor, unfriendly service). Rather than alienating customers with bad business, why not drum up more business with better service? Instead of cutting trains, why not increase frequency? My buses are bursting with passengers, it's not safe anymore to take them with that kind of crowding. Increase and improve service. You'll make your money back and fill the defect quickly if passengers have more reason to use your services.
A Decent Person is Punished for Truth
MTA Pisses off the Union
WNYC's Take on the new Cuts
NY1's News Story
New York Post said some things too
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
November 29, 2009 (abact repost)
Less than two hours ago I left my house for an evening of celebration as a good friend turns 21 (six minutes ago. Happy Birthday L!). She decided to celebrate in Manhattan, with pool and a bar later on. There was a restaurant involved too, but I had a prior obligation for that time.
I left my house at 10:09, aiming to meet with a friend and catch the 10:30 ferry. I arrived at the bus stop at 10:16, all the while looking through the treeline in my way to watch for passing buses. None passed, despite being a minute late. The next scheduled bus is at 10:49, thus pushing me back to the 11:00 boat.
My friend waiting at the terminal was kind enough to stay until this boat instead.
44 minutes passed. The bus arrived at 11:00 on the dot, as the boat is leaving. I got on anyway, assuming that I might catch the 11:30 ferry instead. I told my friend to go on without me, I didn't want to hold them up for a full hour because I'm running late.
While on the bus, I immediately noticed that the driver was busy talking to a friend of his, a middle aged woman that can't seem to shut up. Judging from the way he drove, he was caught up talking to her and now had to make up for lost time.
I arrived at the terminal at 11:06. Quite a bang-up job from the talkative driver that couldn't understand punctuality and urgency. The next boat was, in fact, at midnight. Rather than waiting, and arriving at the pool hall at 1AM, I called, wished L my best, and walked up the bus ramp for the next ride towards my house.
I was in luck, a bus was parked in it's loading zone. As I walk to the half full unscheduled bus, the driver pulls away. I waited another 20 minutes in the cold. The next one showed right on time, at 11:30. Apparently the only way to catch a bus on time (sometimes) is to catch them at the first stop.
The rest of the trip was quiet. I got off the bus at 11:40, I got in at 11:47.
Total time spent out: 99 minutes.
Total time spent in buses: 16 minutes.
Total time spent in transit on foot: 14 minutes.
Total time spent waiting: 53 minutes.
Total time unaccounted for: 16 minutes.
From this breakdown I can ascertain that the average trip time for a (literally) five minute ride is roughly an hour, and more importantly, that the MTA LITERALLY stole 16 minutes of my life while it was eating the other 83 with nothingness.
I left my house at 10:09, aiming to meet with a friend and catch the 10:30 ferry. I arrived at the bus stop at 10:16, all the while looking through the treeline in my way to watch for passing buses. None passed, despite being a minute late. The next scheduled bus is at 10:49, thus pushing me back to the 11:00 boat.
My friend waiting at the terminal was kind enough to stay until this boat instead.
44 minutes passed. The bus arrived at 11:00 on the dot, as the boat is leaving. I got on anyway, assuming that I might catch the 11:30 ferry instead. I told my friend to go on without me, I didn't want to hold them up for a full hour because I'm running late.
While on the bus, I immediately noticed that the driver was busy talking to a friend of his, a middle aged woman that can't seem to shut up. Judging from the way he drove, he was caught up talking to her and now had to make up for lost time.
I arrived at the terminal at 11:06. Quite a bang-up job from the talkative driver that couldn't understand punctuality and urgency. The next boat was, in fact, at midnight. Rather than waiting, and arriving at the pool hall at 1AM, I called, wished L my best, and walked up the bus ramp for the next ride towards my house.
I was in luck, a bus was parked in it's loading zone. As I walk to the half full unscheduled bus, the driver pulls away. I waited another 20 minutes in the cold. The next one showed right on time, at 11:30. Apparently the only way to catch a bus on time (sometimes) is to catch them at the first stop.
The rest of the trip was quiet. I got off the bus at 11:40, I got in at 11:47.
Total time spent out: 99 minutes.
Total time spent in buses: 16 minutes.
Total time spent in transit on foot: 14 minutes.
Total time spent waiting: 53 minutes.
Total time unaccounted for: 16 minutes.
From this breakdown I can ascertain that the average trip time for a (literally) five minute ride is roughly an hour, and more importantly, that the MTA LITERALLY stole 16 minutes of my life while it was eating the other 83 with nothingness.
November 15, 2009 (abact repost)
I'm waiting at an S44 bus stop, one of my usual stops. All commuters have a handful of stops they spend more time waiting at than they do on the bus they're waiting for. A well built man in an MTA coat comes to the stop, looks at the schedule, and groans. We talk for the duration of our wait.
Apparently this man works for a main dispatch in Queens or Bronx, despite living on Staten Island. He used to work locally, but the money moved and he was willing to tack on a few hours in travel time. He tells me that the bus run we were waiting for was probably removed in secrecy, as the MTA has been looking for ways to cut corners. Any schedule run that does not have a minimum average capacity is slowly being phased out, despite the schedule's statements otherwise.
This is distressing to me. It means that certain hours immediately after the morning rush and late at night will have little to no service, unless there's an exception to this for late night buses by way of compassion. Two months from now I will understand that compassion is absent from this corporation.
After 40 minutes of waiting, we finally get on the bus and go our own ways. Our communal misery binds us in the time it's there, building a community around our hate for the very company that we each have our own individual stakes in. While mine was only to get to work (now nearly an hour late) and the $20 I put down on the MetroCard that sits in my pocket like a lead weight, his was actually his livelihood. Much in the same way that one does not become an IRS agent because they love money or the government or chasing after people, he's in it because he has no choice.
In the most simple way possible, the MTA of New York is monopolizing my city. It isn't just about transit anymore, it's about time. I can't walk to work in the hour it sometimes takes to wait for a bus, but that hour of my pay is still gone none the less. It eats and eats but is never full, and becomes a bloated mess of fat and waste. It becomes something that no one ever wants to get involved with, but they have no choice.
Apparently this man works for a main dispatch in Queens or Bronx, despite living on Staten Island. He used to work locally, but the money moved and he was willing to tack on a few hours in travel time. He tells me that the bus run we were waiting for was probably removed in secrecy, as the MTA has been looking for ways to cut corners. Any schedule run that does not have a minimum average capacity is slowly being phased out, despite the schedule's statements otherwise.
This is distressing to me. It means that certain hours immediately after the morning rush and late at night will have little to no service, unless there's an exception to this for late night buses by way of compassion. Two months from now I will understand that compassion is absent from this corporation.
After 40 minutes of waiting, we finally get on the bus and go our own ways. Our communal misery binds us in the time it's there, building a community around our hate for the very company that we each have our own individual stakes in. While mine was only to get to work (now nearly an hour late) and the $20 I put down on the MetroCard that sits in my pocket like a lead weight, his was actually his livelihood. Much in the same way that one does not become an IRS agent because they love money or the government or chasing after people, he's in it because he has no choice.
In the most simple way possible, the MTA of New York is monopolizing my city. It isn't just about transit anymore, it's about time. I can't walk to work in the hour it sometimes takes to wait for a bus, but that hour of my pay is still gone none the less. It eats and eats but is never full, and becomes a bloated mess of fat and waste. It becomes something that no one ever wants to get involved with, but they have no choice.
November 12, 2009 (abact repost)
New York has a wonderful mass transit system, one that ranks above most other cities (besides London and San Francisco, I'm told). We have an intricate network of subways that link the city together, a web of buses that grid the pavement, and boats. Boats are awesome, as we're an island-city. If we were more fancy and pompous, we'd be an archipelago like Hawaii and Japan.
That said, I can't stand the Metro Transit Authority of New York. The MTA is notorious for disrupting schedules, moving off the designated times, and placing buses at terrible intervals after dark. This is mostly a problem for Staten Island, as we get the short ends of all sticks, as we rely solely on buses.
"Oh, but Andrew, you're wrong. There's a train too."
That train is worth half a steaming pile of animal droppings. It does not travel along any vital locations of this island, only caters to residents on the Eastern coast, and has a schedule worth all the ducks in the Sarah desert. It only qualifies enough to be thought of because it's mostly free if you avoid the last stop (a residential township) and the first stop (the only direct way into Manhattan). This train is less useful than a mucus encrusted Kleenex.
The buses, on the other hand, are a whole other beast. It's important to note that I have semi-environmentalist tendencies. One such trait is that I will use mass transit in almost every situation when possible. This becomes impossible after 10 PM, as many buses will run hourly at this time or have no night hours at all. One such bus is the S62, which runs along Victory Blvd.
Last night a cluster of my friends and I went to a restaurant/diner (same one referenced in the Yankee's Suckfest) and finished up after midnight. This normally isn't an issue, but no one in this particular group drove. The bus I would've used to get home stopped running fifteen minutes prior, and the only bus in the area still in operation was the aforementioned S62. This bus had only passed three minutes prior, and the next scheduled run was in 57 minutes. One goddamn hour.
We collectively decided that it would be better to walk the length of Victory Blvd. rather than wait for the bus in the cold. For any readers not from this area of NYC, this is a very long street with many hills. Normally they don't seem so bad, but normally one is in a motorized vehicle. The six of us marched on, passing something like two hours' worth of scenery. As we neared our destination, the bus finally passed. One friend commented about it's worth, and I pointed out that we would have paid $2.25 after waiting an hour to save five minutes. The sense of triumph thickened for me.
At this point, I'm still recovering from the night. It's not that I'm unable to walk two miles in the cold, it's that I haven't in a long time. Had I expected it, or had it been earlier in the day, I would've been fine. When you're working on the fumes of zombiehood, however, two miles feels closer to five.
Maybe I'm bitter because this happened to me. Maybe I'm an instigator because the MTA deserves to get ripped into until they provide better service at a lower price (as they did five years ago). Maybe I'm just sad that something that should be so influential could turn out to be such a menace to the people that keep it alive. I'm too tired to make sense. I'm going to fucking bed. I'll post more of this when I'm conscious.
That said, I can't stand the Metro Transit Authority of New York. The MTA is notorious for disrupting schedules, moving off the designated times, and placing buses at terrible intervals after dark. This is mostly a problem for Staten Island, as we get the short ends of all sticks, as we rely solely on buses.
"Oh, but Andrew, you're wrong. There's a train too."
That train is worth half a steaming pile of animal droppings. It does not travel along any vital locations of this island, only caters to residents on the Eastern coast, and has a schedule worth all the ducks in the Sarah desert. It only qualifies enough to be thought of because it's mostly free if you avoid the last stop (a residential township) and the first stop (the only direct way into Manhattan). This train is less useful than a mucus encrusted Kleenex.
The buses, on the other hand, are a whole other beast. It's important to note that I have semi-environmentalist tendencies. One such trait is that I will use mass transit in almost every situation when possible. This becomes impossible after 10 PM, as many buses will run hourly at this time or have no night hours at all. One such bus is the S62, which runs along Victory Blvd.
Last night a cluster of my friends and I went to a restaurant/diner (same one referenced in the Yankee's Suckfest) and finished up after midnight. This normally isn't an issue, but no one in this particular group drove. The bus I would've used to get home stopped running fifteen minutes prior, and the only bus in the area still in operation was the aforementioned S62. This bus had only passed three minutes prior, and the next scheduled run was in 57 minutes. One goddamn hour.
We collectively decided that it would be better to walk the length of Victory Blvd. rather than wait for the bus in the cold. For any readers not from this area of NYC, this is a very long street with many hills. Normally they don't seem so bad, but normally one is in a motorized vehicle. The six of us marched on, passing something like two hours' worth of scenery. As we neared our destination, the bus finally passed. One friend commented about it's worth, and I pointed out that we would have paid $2.25 after waiting an hour to save five minutes. The sense of triumph thickened for me.
At this point, I'm still recovering from the night. It's not that I'm unable to walk two miles in the cold, it's that I haven't in a long time. Had I expected it, or had it been earlier in the day, I would've been fine. When you're working on the fumes of zombiehood, however, two miles feels closer to five.
Maybe I'm bitter because this happened to me. Maybe I'm an instigator because the MTA deserves to get ripped into until they provide better service at a lower price (as they did five years ago). Maybe I'm just sad that something that should be so influential could turn out to be such a menace to the people that keep it alive. I'm too tired to make sense. I'm going to fucking bed. I'll post more of this when I'm conscious.
Why I Hate the MTA
My name is Andrew Oppenheimer, and I am a New Yorker from Staten Island. I have lived here my whole life, and am a student in CUNY College of Staten Island. Since my sophomore year high school I've taken the bus nearly every day. I do not drive.
In this time, I have met many wonderful people through mass transit, including girlfriends, close friends, entertainers, and homeless philosophers. I have many wonderful memories of these times, and I am thankful for them. I am grateful that the MTA facilitated my getting from point A to point B. This is all.
I hate the Metropolitan Transit "authority" in a way I have never previously experienced. They have stolen my money, my time, my patience, and harmed interpersonal relationships. They have made me late for work and class more times than I can remember, and (literally) stolen days of my life from me.
The list of reasons why I hate the MTA grows every day, and this blog is dedicated to that disdain. It is my hope that this page inspires others to do the same, and share their experiences of this unethical, immoral organization in an effort to see real change to the practices and ethics of the MTA.
Truly yours,
Andrew Oppenheimer. December 16th, 2009
In this time, I have met many wonderful people through mass transit, including girlfriends, close friends, entertainers, and homeless philosophers. I have many wonderful memories of these times, and I am thankful for them. I am grateful that the MTA facilitated my getting from point A to point B. This is all.
I hate the Metropolitan Transit "authority" in a way I have never previously experienced. They have stolen my money, my time, my patience, and harmed interpersonal relationships. They have made me late for work and class more times than I can remember, and (literally) stolen days of my life from me.
The list of reasons why I hate the MTA grows every day, and this blog is dedicated to that disdain. It is my hope that this page inspires others to do the same, and share their experiences of this unethical, immoral organization in an effort to see real change to the practices and ethics of the MTA.
Truly yours,
Andrew Oppenheimer. December 16th, 2009
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