The $1 fee imposed by the MTA to encourage riders to reuse their MetroCards is producing an unexpected amount of extra revenue for the transit agency.

The so-called “green” MetroCard was supposed to reduce the number of used MetroCards that end up in the garbage, but a transit executive said last week that more riders are paying the $1 fee for a new card than expected, The Daily News reports.

If the fee continues to produce extra cash for the MTA, the agency will exceed the $20 million in new revenues and savings that it anticipated when drafting the budget, the executive said.

The $1 surcharge, imposed in March, was expected to generate an estimated $18 million in revenue this year. Printing fewer cards and reducing cleanup costs was expected to save an additional $2 million.

The extra revenue will likely put pressure on the agency to make system improvements and service restorations, the News reports.

The post MTA’s $1 ‘green’ MetroCard produces more revenue than expected appeared first on Metro.us.

Sorry to break it to you, but nobody wants to date you if you live off the G train.

According to a report from DNAinfo, New Yorkers around the city are refusing to date their neighbors living off the dreaded G train, citing the train’s poor service as doom for relationships.

“I had to make a rule that was, literally, if you live off the G, you’re not for me,” Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Mutale Nkonde said. “To get to the G is such a monumental hike, it’s two buses plus a long walk.”

Nkonde, who lives off the A and C trains, complained that taking the G always required several transfers and often resulted in getting lost.

The short length of the train is also problematic, especially for women dressed up for a night out.

“The thing about the G is it comes in the middle of platform, so if you’re dressed in high heels you have to run what feels like 7 miles to catch the train,” Nkonde explained.

She also described the Myrtle-Willoughby station as “‘Law and Order’-ish.”

“It looks like a crime scene,” she said.

Christie Walsh recalled her relationship with a man in Greenpoint.

“I always refused to go there,” she said. “After a couple of punishing rides on the G train, I decided I wouldn’t do it.”

Walsh’s beau eventually moved to California.

“The funny thing is, I’d date someone in California, because I’d like to go to California,” Walsh said. “I’d never like to ride the G train.”

An MTA spokesperson reportedly declined to comment.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post The G train is ruining relationships appeared first on Metro.us.

Since taking on the role of Metro’s Earth Day guest editor in 2010, actor and environmentalist Matthew Modine has remained committed to sustainable living and encouraging others to make positive choices to reduce their impact on the planet. As a young surfer and lover of the outdoors, Modine became passionate about environmental concerns at an early age. An avid New York City cyclist, Modine launched the environmental nonprofit Bicycle for a Day to empower individuals to rethink their mode of transportation and start riding a bicycle to curb their consumption of natural resources.

“If I were asked about one thing to do to improve the environment, my reply would be simple: Ride a bike,” Modine said.

Bicycle for a Day has worked since 2008 to make this an easier choice, by fighting for things like safer bike lanes and citywide bicycle share programs like those in Paris, Montreal and Washington, D.C. Since BFAD was founded, cycling in NYC has gone up by as much as 30 percent. Today, the advocacy group has shifted its focus toward improving bicycle routes in school areas to encourage children to switch to a two-wheel commute.

“If I can get kids to ride to school,” Modine explained, “there is a good chance that bicycling will become part of that young person’s lifestyle.” Besides being healthy for the environment, Modine stresses, cycling is a great form of exercise and can boost overall health at any age.

New York City is rolling out a bicycle sharing program called CitiBike, which Modine hopes will encourage people to give cycling a chance. His own ride is a single-speed kickback break bicycle, which is simple and allows great visibility – “there is no need for a fancy, multigeared bicycle,” he said. Modine also encourages cyclists to ride safely and defensively.

For those who aren’t able to transition to bikes, Modine urges people to contribute to the eco-friendly movement by being conscious of their behaviors. “Remember that whatever you throw away actually goes somewhere,” he said, “There is no magical ‘away’ place. Resources were used to make the things we throw away, and the resources of our planet are finite.”

The post Matthew Modine: Rethink your mode of transportation appeared first on Metro.us.

City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn announced a plan on Thursday for a massive overhaul of the transit system.

The plan largely calls for a greater leadership role by the city, as well as expanded ferry, Metro-North, and bus service—but not subway expansion.

“We would love to be able to expand subway service, but that’s complicated, expensive, and time-consuming,” Quinn told Metro, emphasizing the importance of concrete, realistic steps “if we are going to meet the goal that I’ve articulated of making sure that no New Yorker has a commute time of over an hour.”

Quinn aims to cut commute times to an hour or less within the next decade.

In justifying the call for city control of the MTA, Quinn pointed out that city residents and workers contribute the vast majority of MTA funding.

“We know that 90 percent of the funding that ends up going to the MTA comes from the tolls, fare, and taxes of folks that are using, one way or another, the subways and the buses in the five boroughs,” she explained. “That makes us the economic engine of the MTA.”

But, she said, the board of the MTA doesn’t reflect that.

“We’re the engine, but we’ve got the voice of a piston,” she declared.

The answer, Quinn said, is for the mayor to have the authority to appoint not only the head of the MTA, but the majority of the board as well. Equally important, she added, is giving riders a voting member on the board, not just a ceremonial member.

The other major problem she called out is the way the lives of New Yorkers have outgrown the century-old system: it is no longer the case that the majority of jobs are in the central business district, for example.

“When this system was built, the majority of New Yorkers lived in Manhattan,” she said. “Its main function was to get people to jobs in Manhattan. That’s not the reality anymore.”

Though subway expansion is too ambitious an undertaking to see progress in the next decade, Quinn proposed several ways to extend transit in the five boroughs, from expanding ferry service to creating more Metro-North stops in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post Quinn pitches massive overhaul of MTA appeared first on Metro.us.