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| Re: How do you classify SIR? (1326629) | |||
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Re: How do you classify SIR? |
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Posted by Michael549 on Wed Dec 3 13:13:01 2014, in response to Re: How do you classify SIR?, posted by Lou from Brooklyn on Wed Dec 3 08:23:46 2014. Under Mayor Rudy G's 1997 plan - "One City One Fare" the idea was to remove as much as possible the "double-fare zones" in which many riders had to take a bus and a subway for travel. The free transfer between bus and subway on the then new Gold Metro-Card accomplished that for the majority of riders all over the city.However there are a number of riders that have to take a bus, the SIR or the subway, and then another separate subway or bus - three trips. The largest number of those kinds of folks live on Staten Island, the borough with the least amount of transit options direct to Manhattan, as well as the least frequent service. The free ferry ride in the middle of the journey simply means that some of the "transfer time window" is used up by the ferry ride. Now the purchase of an unlimited Metro-Card solves the "three-transfer-problem" for folks with the ability to pay the up-front costs of a monthly Metro-Card. It would be discrimination (by income which in NYC is basically racial discrimination) if Pay-Per-Ride riders did not have the same or similar transfer opportunities. Generally about half of all of the subway riders use an Un-limited Metro-Card, while the other half uses a Pay-Per-Ride card - meaning huge numbers of folks would be involved if there were major-major differences between the cards in their ability to transfer. Considering that at the time this was implemented there were only 1-2 places on Staten Island where riders could place money on their Metro-Cards (now 3 places) at the St. George Ferry Terminal and the then-new mid-island transit center - making transit more difficult to use should not be the goal. Of course it was always said that there are stores where one could purchase Metro-Cards, at least in theory. For the Staten Island issue the role of politics in the creation of the 3-ride transfer policy can not be down-played, but at the same time some of the issues with the 63rd Street tunnel were foreseeable. Just for reference on the 2-hour period of transfer-ability, one has to wait for and take a bus to the SIR, wait for and take the SIR to St. George, wait for and take the ferry to Manhattan, and then use the subway or another bus. Considering that only until recently, the ferries operated at 30 and 60 minutes apart during most of the day/evening/late night/weekends - except for rush hours where the boats run at 15 and 20 minutes apart, plus buses on Staten Island often run 15-20-30 minutes apart. Actually making use of the 3-way transfer could easily be a hit or miss affair, depending upon travel times. The free transfer situation regarding Staten Island comes out of a different set of circumstances as compared to the situation with the 63rd Street tunnel and the F-train. Mike |
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