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Please prioritize the need for an OFF PEAK SAVINGS to reduce stress on public transportation and service, and to encourage a healthier transportation quality of life for everyone, economically and socially.
Thank you!

Will there be a distribution of the whole meeting to everyone who "participated"?

Yes, Brian, it WAS $60 when I started with the program. Now, at $81, it is no longer saving me money. So I am going to withdraw from the transit check program and go back to the pay-per-ride. Socking it to those who use the subway/buses out of need is a very poor way to repay those of us who bit the bullet earlier.

re: reducing the 20% pay-per-ride to 15%

Here's a website:

http://www.panix.com/~steveo/cgi/metrocard_bonus_calc.html

or debigulated, if line wrap does you dirty:

http://tinyurl.com/3apf6z

that calculates the amount to add to a Metro Card. No doubt Steve will update the calculation to accomodate the 15% bonus. Two sweet spots if you're starting from zero: $15.65 and $24.35

Did the "webinar" ever happen??? I was logged into the mtg site and all I ever saw were typical MTA statements about "technical difficulties..."

At 1:56PM I saw a flash of someone's desktop quickly followed by a msg box stating that the webinar was ended. Did it ever start?

I just spent the last hour attempting to participate in the MTA on-line discussion, or Webinar. It's an excellent idea to increase discussion, but it didn't work too well this time aroung. I hope they keep trying. In lieu of that, I was hoping to post my comments through your show. Here are my comments to the MTA:

I REJECT the politics of FEAR the MTA is using to justify this fare hike. Many projects the MTA is engaged in that are NOT ESSENTIAL. The MTA must open its decision-making process and explain the tradeoffs better of these projects better. I don’t know why the MTA is running a deficit, and until I do, I will oppose the fare hike.

In essence, an informed public needs to be an equal contributor in the decision making process... unfortunately, we are a captive market and cannot exit the MTA services w/o leaving NYC, but as long as we have an effective voice - key word is effective - then the MTA will find that we, the people of NY, will be more understanding when it says it needs a fare-hike

as things stand today, the ill-transparent processes w/i the MTA make this fare-hike questionable, at best, and completely unacceptable...

Leave up to the MTA to mess up something as easy as a Webinar. Nice.

The presentation so far is 15 minutes late due to "technical difficulties."

The caller who took cabs - is a perfect example, he could afford cabs, the people that will be hurt by this hike are the middle-income workers - who take mass transit everyday to work and squeeze out money for a monthly pass. There are no two dollars metrocards there are no poor people paying two dollars each time they take the train. When is the last time you people paid to ride.

I have been riding the New Haven line of Metro North for the past 30 years. The service has steadily declined yet the fares keep going up. The trains are crowded, late, lack air conditioning and/or heat, but every few years we are increased. Whenever fare hikes are mentioned, no one mentions Metro North. If the fare continues to increase, it would pay for me (and others) to carpool and drive to a subway system; park my car; and take the subway into the City.

I'm logged in and the MTA Webinar viewing screen is displayed.

The way Webinars normally work is that they have audio supported by slides or graphics, and then at the end the moderator chooses selected questions for the panel to answer.

I really don't think it will be a live conversation in the way a town hall is run. This is probably more a f8 accompli about the fare hike.

As a commuter on the G train, I already sometimes feel, with the fewer trains used on the line, like I use MetroNorth or LIRR rather than NYC transit. Will we be experiencing more frequent service with these fare hikes? Or, gasp, will we get shiny white trains like those folks who ride the L and the 6??? Joy! ...or not.

Be fair, Brian. There is a link to the webinar right on the MTA home page.

mta.info

Dan

about 20 years ago when MTA was raising fares and when there was a similar outcry about the hike, a local economist wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Times stating that as long as he could remember, a subway token was generally the same price as a slice of pizza. I belive the rule still generally holds

Annoyingly enough linux users need not apply.

Is there a budget showing the T.A.'s income, expense and capital funds?

Is there 2008 budget vs. 2006 actual and 2007 to date actual?

What I'm saying: Is there any transparnency into this fare increase?

We could sure use the ex-state Comptroller now...

Bloomberg is such a callous millionaire. supporting a fare hike is just another slap in the face to the hard working people of this amazing city. Can't anything be done to stop such schmucks??!!!

Why have a webinar at MTA's site? Why not co-host the comments period with a public-interest site, like Strapahangers? Is this just i-windowdressing?

Re: Giuliani's experience at the Justice Department was as US Attorney for the Sourthern District . I believe this had little to do with foreign policy, except for int'l crime. And it was probably almost twenty years ago. Has the world changed since then?

You could say any mayor of NYC has foreign policy experience given the city's population!

The MTA fare hike should be tied to improved service on weekends. The fare hike should not go into effect until weekend service on the L and 7 improves. The L train is always crowd and there is a long wait time between trains and the 7 train often is taken out of service during the weekends. We have long endured service cuts in the boroughs. With the real estate prices rising in all of the boroughs and the horrendous traffic in the city, more and more of us rely on the trains.