If you live in New York City like we do, there is no possible to way to avoid taking the subway or bus. Notwithstanding the recent increase in the base subway and bus fare from $2.00 to $2.25, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) offers dozens of ways to purchase rides and receive discounts on the cost per trip. The possible combinations of savings are almost as dizzying as the Brooklyn bus map, even to this veteran rider. So what’s the most cost-effective way to ride?
Metrocards are available in pay-per-ride and unlimited forms. Pay-per-ride cards can be purchased in any amount, and cards purchased at $8 or more automatically have a 15% bonus added (i.e., a $20 card receives a $3 bonus). Unlimited cards are sold for a set period of time (one, seven, 14 and 30 days). The 30-day unlimited card is the most economical option at $89, so we’ll use this as our yardstick for price comparisons with the pay-per-ride option.
Let’s say that the average New Yorker takes two trips on the subway Monday through Friday per month, totaling 40 trips. If each trip costs its face value of $2.25, the total cost comes to $4.50 per day for 20 days, or $90 per month.
That’s about the same cost at the same number of trips with a 30-unlimited Metro card ($89). But unlimited cards allow the user to take as many trips as needed within the 30-day period, driving the cost per trip lower as more trips are taken.
Let’s compare the advantages and disadvantages of buying a $20 pay-per-ride card per week for a month. Each card receives a $3 bonus, so four cards at $20 each have a face value of $80 but are actually worth $92. Is this a better deal than an unlimited card?
With this option, a user can take the same 40 trips as s/he could if s/he purchased each trip individually at $2.25 for only $80 instead of $90. Plus, user would have $2 left over after the 40 trips that could be put toward the cost of a trip–but the number of trips would still be limited.
To recap:
30 day unlimited Metrocard = $89 = unlimited rides
Individually purchased rides for 30 days = $90 = 40 rides
Four $20 Metrocards with bonus = $80 = 40 rides
Because each options is similar in cost, the real variable in deciding which method is most cost-effective for you is to determine exactly how often you take the subway or bus per month. If you take a round-trip every day for thirty days, which totals $135 at $2.25 per ride, you unquestionably save money with a 30-day unlimited card (each trip would cost $1.48 at that rate). Just for fun, try keeping track of every trip for 30 days.
But if you travel regularly but not every day, the $3 bonus per $20 pay-per-ride Metrocard may be the cheapest option (which allows ten rides with 50 cents left over, or two free rides because of the bonus). It does make sense to purchase Metrocards for amounts that receive the 15% bonus rather than purchasing individual trips.
Recent Comments