On top of that, tourists are, for all practical purposes, unable to obtain Autogate MetroCards (it’s technically possible but extremely difficult – I go to herculean efforts to keep mine up-to-date now that I’m living on the West Coast), which wreaks havoc at stations that are accessible but lack staffing due to MTA cutbacks. Although many cities, if not all, have disability pricing, only New York restricts its wheelchair-accessible gates to people who have gone through a medical assessment process. When I lived in NYC the first time, in ’02, without knowing anything about the Autogates beforehand, I went to Borough Hall and basically begged them to issue me an autogate card because of inability to use the gates (I am very visibly disabled, in a wheelchair and missing a leg), but they still wouldn’t.

Ben’s recent post describes the connection between the IND 6th Av and the Lex IRT being rebuilt, noting that it’s the only connection between the two in Manhattan. For wheelchair users, that connection is entirely inaccessible, and every time I’ve been in New York, a trip from the 6th Av IND to the East Side always involves 3 trains. I’ve occasionally even had to detour in and out of another borough to get an accessible transfer, before Times Square became accessible.

So yeah, I would very much resent being asked to pay the full fare. The disabled fare should, of course, increase in a way that tracks the full fare, but wheelchair users in NYC receive far less service than they pay for.

i think it’s completely fair for employees as a retirement benefit to have free rides, but i also find it a valid point that if so much of the entirety of the system is up on the chopping block, then perhaps benefits of that kind should be, as well.

the issue, as i see it, is that those retired workers who get free rides were promised them as part of their retirement — to retract them now would be going back on that agreement. the same applies for the MTA’s bloated pensioning obligations.

Actually, state aid pays for most school transportation elsewhere, and NYC gets very little of that money. The state decided to have the MTA go into debt instead.

Perhaps what Bloomberg ought to be saying (given the state deficit) is the state should cut all school transportation money, not just money for NYC, and all municipal aid, not just municipal aid for NYC, and the whole STAR program, not just the STAR income tax relief for NYC.

I seem to remember that New York pioneered that concept, in 1969 or 1970, under the Lindsay administration. It was for senior citizens only, and it was probably not yet a Federal mandate.

My issue with fixing the MTA budget is that they keep trying to raise revenue to pay for these benefits, instead of cutting the benefits.

Still, he’s not going to deliver on those promises. I feel pretty comfortable saying that.