"If you don't give them another source of revenue, then the likelihood of less mass transit and higher fares is clearly there".
But the fate of the unlimited cards, which cost $104 for a 30-day pass and $29 for a 7-day pass, remained one of the nagging, if less pressing, transit questions in the storm's wake.
If they are displaced, the San Francisco Bay Area has a weaker and less integrated transit system.
The key to a less traumatic transit, according to the experts, is one's ability to recognize it's happening.
He also questioned whether the $600-million- to $700-million-a-mile cost of the Purple Line could benefit more people if it were spent elsewhere on less expensive transit improvements.
As petroleum prices decline, interest in fuel efficiency slackens, and automobiles are used more and mass transit less.
Yet with the city competing to sell development rights, the revised rezoning proposal would almost certainly translate into less revenue for transit improvements.
The authority's threat to cut the student fares may have shaken a few extra dollars from the budget tree, but the $25 million figure being floated on Thursday was far less than what transit officials had hoped to receive.
After almost a year of research, debate, public dialogue and fine-tuning, New Yorkers are eager to move forward to our future of less traffic, better transit and cleaner air.
We should focus on providing better and less expensive mass transit from the suburbs, expanded express subway options throughout the city, incentives to companies to use trucks that pollute less, strict enforcement of laws against idling, reduced fees for registering vehicles that meet tighter emission standards and safe bicycle lanes throughout the city.
