Working parents. Students. Dancers. A 90-ride cap on monthly MetroCards will affect more people than you — or MTA bigwigs — may think.
According to reports, the MTA is considering capping “unlimited” 30-day MetroCards at 90 rides per month, and a weekly card at 21 rides. A small percentage of riders would be hurt by the caps, some say, but not everyone agrees.
“Say you’re a parent who takes the subway to drop your kid off at school, and then you get back on the subway to work,” said Bill Henderson of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “Then you do that all over again in the afternoon. That’s four rides a day, and 88 rides in 22 working days a month. That doesn’t leave you a whole lot left.”
Others who have a multi-part commute — bus to a subway to a bus — could also easily go over the limit.
Even people who only use their MetroCard to get to work and go out on the weekends may find themselves worried about hitting the cap, and then not riding the subway.
“In the outer boroughs, they’ll say, ‘Maybe we’ll just take a car,’ because they don’t want to use up those rides,” said Henderson. “Or, if you’re with three people, you may just choose to take a cab.”
