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When You Can’t Afford the Fare: How Expanding Fair Fares Can Help Working New Yorkers as Transit Hardships Persist
Debipriya Chatterjee, Emerita Torres
Summary:
Mass transit plays a critical role for New York City's 8 million residents and fuels the local and regional economy. But many New Yorkers can't fully take advantage of public transit and the economic opportunities it can create because they can't afford the fare.
Fair Fares, which provides half-price MetroCards to eligible New Yorkers, has been a lifeline for about 300,000 people struggling to afford transit. This brief analyzes the state of transit affordability in New York and the vital role Fair Fares expansion can play, along with other policy recommendations, in alleviating the transit hardships that so many New Yorkers face.
Issues: Economic Mobility & Security, The Unheard Third
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