25 cents for what?!

As many of you know, or don't know, the MTA issued a fare hike effective today (March 3, 2013) in which the base far will go from $2.25 to $2.50.

Photo via Bay Ridge Odyssey News Blog

This is an injustice! You may think "what is the deal? Its only 25 cents." It's not just 25 cents; it’s a slap in the collective faces of all the people who literally depend on the MTA system to get to/from work, school and home. That $2.50 price tag ($6.00 for the "exclusive" express bus) gets us no better service. We're still left with late and dirty trains and buses. We still have to navigate through that one subway car in which the smelliest homeless person on the face of the earth has decided to setup camp. We still have to deal with beggars, “performers,” and “candy dealers.” 

We still have to deal with rude employees that don’t know the meaning of courtesy. We also still have to deal with the blatant fact that fares will continue to increase yet services will stay the same or decline. And the major problem with this is that we have no other recourse. So many New Yorkers depend on the system and have no other long-term alternatives. The MTA could decide to charges us all $50 a ride (probably not legally) and a good chunk of us would have no choice but to give in. I hope I’m long gone from NYC when/if that ever happens.