The Proposed Fare Hike Revisions and a Roosevelt Island Family of Four

Upon reading in today’s New York Times about the current revisions to the fare hike proposals I went back to my September 25, 2007 post where I concluded it still made sense to buy two unlimited monthly Metro Cards at $86 / card as opposed to buying single trip cards and trying to take advantage of the off peak discounted fares proposed at that time.

Certainly my computations below show that a monthly Metro Card still makes sense taking into account the revised plan for a $81 cost for a monthly unlimited fare card. With the proposed rate hike decreasing $5 I would have been shocked if all of sudden the monthly card was not better than other combinations of weekly cards.

With one child now over 5 years old I also should take into account the “pay-per-ride” card I now need to buy for that child when he travels during non school hours or on weekends as his school issued Metro Card is not applicable for those times. The added trips could not save us with the added discounts the the savings already achieved with the monthly cards.

To be honest I believe I have underestimated the number of trips we make a week as this schedule does not take into account weekend usage and other miscellaneous events like Mom and Dad if they are lucky getting a night out and off the Island.