Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Fairer Fares will help New Yorkers have One Leg up in NYC 2-4-25

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Fairer Fares will help New Yorkers have One Leg up in NYC 2-4-25 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett. So a couple of weeks ago,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I was on the train and welcome into one leg
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: up with Alex Garrett for today, February fourth, twenty twenty five.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I was on the train and I was talking up
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: with one of the ticket collectors and he almost said
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: he was going to charge me five bucks to go
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to Port Washington, and I said, you know, it's funny
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you said that, because actually it's six fifty. But my
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: thought was, and I was talking to the collector about this,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: why not make it a five dollars flat fare for
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: both seniors and disabled people across all the lines. And
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the collector agreed, yeah, it wouldn't make it easier for
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: us too. And then I got to thinking about this
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: even more because either expecting disabled people, able body people, Martians,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know to pay nine dollars for congestion pricing.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: But you know what the MTA and the Governor's office
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: did not do. They didn't lower the rates of the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: l R. I thought the whole point was to make
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: public transportation so attractive that people don't even want to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: drive it. I thought the point was to diswade people
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: from going into the city at all by car. That's
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: why they're charging nine dollars congestion pricing. But what they
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: failed to do is make the able bodied prices, you know,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: regular fare prices lower on the l R. I guess
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: you could say the MT, but really you know, on
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the subway too, but really on the l R, it's
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: still about sixteen bucks to take the train. So not
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: only are we being socked in our cars, but as commuters.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't make sense to me. So yes, I
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: was thinking of this when I wrote that piece about
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: fair affairs from both the able body and the disabled
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: slash senior perspective, because they're going to raise the rates,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and they have raised the rates over and over again,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and now they add congestion pricing to this. On the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: adapting side. This is a story to me because you're
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: even asking disabled commuters. I know there's an exemption there
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: if you apply and are eligible, but even them asking
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: them to pay nine dollars to come below sixtieth Street,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: there's no incentive right now for anybody to commute fully
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: if you're just going to keep the fares the same.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: MTA well, anyway, I write this piece in my blog
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: alexganmyc dot com. I'll tag it here in the description
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: below because I wrote it as feedback to the MTA,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and I wrote this whole long thing about why fairs
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: should be fair fairs. Then I started doing something very interesting.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I submitted letters to the editor, and wouldn't you know it,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Saturday Daily News a couple of weeks ago, my name
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: was in the paper after writing this blurb, and they
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: took this part and put it in the Daily News
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: with the word merit to discount. See merritt was a
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: big word that week because it was Trump's first week
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: in office and he was all about merits. I loved
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that merit was accounted to me too. Okay, that was cool.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Since congestion pricing is now socking New Yorkers, I wrote,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I would like to suggest fair affairs for commuters on
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the LR. The disabled and senior communities should have a
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: flat fare. By the way, they put this exactly how
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I wrote it, of five dollars, no matter of the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: zwe considering that our taxes pay salaries and considering how
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: many able bodied ferravators got away with it. While it's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: basically mandatory the disabled pay their way, it is ludicrous
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: my own words in the paper. Well, wouldn't you know it?
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: A couple of days later, people don't know this part really.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: The MTA gave me some feedback, and the portion I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: liked of that feedback was this ther your suggestion will
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: be kept on file and take into account when we
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: reconsider changes to fair policy in the future. I didn't
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: read the whole thing, but when it came to reduce
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: fair tickets, the guy who wrote from the MTA Customer
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Engagement team wrote this, When reduced fare tickets were introduced,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the purpose was to provide an opportunity for eligible customers
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: to travel for leisure purposes or medical appointments during times
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: when trains are less crowded. Let me read that again.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: When reduced fare tickets were introduced, the purpose was to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: provide an opportunity for eligible customers to travel for leisure
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: purposes or medical appointments. Nowhere in that explanation does it
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: say we want to make sure disabled commuters can get
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to work in a safe way or in a relatively
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: affordable way. The reason why they create this wasn't because
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: they thought disabled people worked. It's because when you get
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: out bout and them to medical appointments. And I'm not
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: trying to go to war with the MTA. That's not
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to bring
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: your attention to the thought process that was given to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: me that they introduced these not because they want to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: disabled people to go to work in an affordable, safe fashion.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: It's worse than that. I don't think they believe that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: disabled people did work when they put these affair tickets in.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: How degrading is that to disabled community. Yes, MTA, the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: disabled community does work. And this response. While I appreciate
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you're going to put on file this response, and I
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: appreciate the other discounts that are going on when you
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: get monthly tickets, but this response and this part of
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the response when you write when reduce fair tickets were introduced,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the purpose was to provide an opportunity for eligible customers
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to travel for leisure purposes or medical appointments. As someone
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: who is disabled and works, and though I don't always
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: feel heavily disabled, because quite frankly I'm not, but I
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: see other disabled people going to work and know other
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: disabled people who go to work in the city. As
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: someone who sees how hard working the disabled community is
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: We're not just a leisure and travel and medical appointments group.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: We are hard workers. We are contributors to society MTA,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and well, I want to think you recognize that through
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the reduced Fair program, you could make it fair affairs
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: for all who work hard and pay your salaries. The
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: MTA reduced fare tickets on the LR were not introduced
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: because they thought we were hardworking citizens. How offensive is that?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And I want to mention this because I want the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: dialogue to continue. I want the MTA to know that
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: this response is just brutal. If in a mention we
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: understand tosay what people go to work, I'd understand that,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: but there's no mention of work. And then the prior
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: paragraphs is say the additional rides that would be generated
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: by the availability of a reduced fare ticket could not
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: be comfortably accommodated. That's why we don't accept reduce Fair
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: tickets during the morning rush hour. And this was a
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: time when the majority of ampeach trade. I know before
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: COVID everything is really packed. I saw it myself. But
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this just shows that society doesn't truly believe we the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: disabled community and more in the disabled community work. They
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: don't believe it, or they refuse to see it or
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: refuse to accommodate it. But I have this message on
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the LR. We don't just take the trains for leisure purposes.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I am a production assistant in a radio station in
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: New York City. I have friends that commute in that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: need accommodations because they're going to work. We're not idlers,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and we're not just leisure folk. We are contributing people
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to to society, Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It's not just leisure
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: or medical appointments, as we have places to get you
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: because we have to go to work too. Let's not
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: forget about that. And I don't care how many initiatives,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: as great as they might be, and I'm probably gonna
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: do a monthly ticket from now on the point is
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: your reasoning behind introducing the fairs wasn't because you thought
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: we were contributing members of society. It was because you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: thought we just need to get out for a while
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: or just go to medical appointments because all we're good for, right, right,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: That's what it says to me. But we are disabled,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Yes we are disabled, but we are tax payers and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: we are contributors. To society, and we flip and pay
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: your salaries empty. Whether you want to admit it or not,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: our money that we make one way or another goes
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to your salary through taxes. We're not just leisurely people.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: We have a purpose, and I hope that you can
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: rethink the reduced fair tickets when you realize not only
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: do we have a purpose, we need affordability in this country,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: in this city, and to accept anything less would be
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: to give up. So I am so thankful the Daily
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: News published my little blurb on congestion pricing socking us.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: But I want to do more with this. I want
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to elevate the conversation. I want to find a way
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to truly make an affordable fair affairs for not only disabled,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: but able body people. Because the askts to pay nine
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: dollars in congestion pricing and then to say, hey, you
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: gotta pay sixteen dollars if you're you know, able bodied,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and only, by the way, two dollars and fifty cents
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: less if you're disabled. It's an insult. It's an insult.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: So please, thanks for the feedback response, but think about
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: this a little harder and make it a little fair
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: for everybody. That's how we can have one leg up
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: as a city Fair Affairs