Inflation Is Here

As I was looking at buying a Metro Card, I realized that inflation has hit us.

When we moved to NYC in 2007, a 30 day Metro Card had just risen to $76. Today, that same card costs $104.

When we moved to NYC, a ride on the subway cost $2 and a 20% "bonus" was added to your card. Today, a subway ride costs $2.25 and the bonus was reduced to 7%. So in 2007, putting $10 in the vending machine gave you a card with $12 on it, which bought 6 rides. Today, putting $10 in the vending machine gives you a card with $10.70 on it, which buys you 4 rides with $1.70 left over.

No longer are 1 day or 3 day passes sold. Up until a couple weeks ago, we could spend about $8.50 and then go wherever we wanted for that day - we could easily take 10 rides (which isn't hard when you spend a day going all around NYC). Now, we will each need to pay $22.50 for those ten Saturday subway rides (that's an increase from $17 to $45 for a day of traveling for two people).

And the MTA still has a $15 billion deficit.

The funny thing is that this is making cabs look much more appealing for short trips. We could spend $4.50 to take the subway to go 30 blocks and it will take the hassle of finding the subway stop, taking Katie down a few flights of stairs, waiting for a train to come, preventing the homeless guy that lives down in there from petting Katie's face, etc. Or, we could hop in a cab outside our apartment and get to the same place in five minutes when we spend $6 on a cab. Or, we could do it for free and walk. Point is, I'm more likely to now take a cab or walk than I am to take the subway for shorter trips. Maybe the MTA will end up making money on this, but I expect that they will actually make less money off me.