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What should the MTA do with the 13 acres of prime Manhattan
property it owns and the proceeds from its possible sale?
Use
it to benefit mass transit and offset the harm caused by the
doctrine of the self sustaining fare, a law that Governor Dewey
had the State Legislature enact in 1953, says NNYN founder Ted
Kheel.
Kheel believes that the revenue generated from the sale of the
MTA's property in Manhattan could go a long way to alleviate
the perennial deficits faced by the MTA in operating the transit
system and some of the major problems that resulted from the
doctrine of the self-sustaining fare. Specifically, the problems
of congestion, pollution - and global warming.
As far back as 1958, Kheel wrote a report entitled "The Self
Sustaining Fare is Self Defeating" in which he commented critically
about the law Governor Dewey had the State Legislature enact
in 1953, still on the books. The law then compelled the Transit
Authority to raise the fare when "necessary to produce sufficient
revenue to meet the expenses of the Authority and to maintain
such operations on a self-sustaining basis." At that time, the
fare for the subway and buses of the City was 15 cents. It is
now $2 dollars and destined to go higher under the doctrine
of the self sustaining fare.
The major point Kheel made in the report was that the evidence
was conclusive: The self sustaining fare is self-defeating since
riding on mass transit continues to go down as the fare goes
up and riders switch to automobiles.
In the 1940s, New York City's subways provided more than 8 million
rides a day. On Monday, December 23, 1946, the number reached
8,872,244 -- a standing record. The fare on that day was 5 cents.
Currently, riding on an average weekday is 4.5 million rides
a day, just about half of what it was on December 23, 1946.
In his 1958 report, Kheel spoke of the traffic strangulation
the fare increases were creating. There was no consideration
at the time of the impact of automobile transportation on the
production of carbon dioxide, now likely the main cause of climate
change in the New York Metropolitan Area. Today, the exhaust
emissions from the millions of cars that use New York City roads
each day is the greatest source of pollution in the metropolitan
area.
The result in terms of its impact on the general public in the
Metropolitan Area is surely more costly than the revenue fare
increases provide. Not only does the city have to deal with
congestion, traffic delays and their serpentine impact on businesses
but also on remediating the impacts of pollution. Says Kheel,
"It is simply a matter of who carries the burden, the bus and
subway riders or the tax payers in our system of progressive
taxation."
Kheel believes it would save the general public money if mass
transit was free and the cost paid by taxpayers as we do with
police and fire protection, water and garbage collection and
other traditional municipal services. The only justification
for a fare is to regulate use during rush hours. The rides should
be free before and thereafter.
The proceeds from selling the MTA's Manhattan goldmine can go
a long way in correcting Gov. Dewey's doctrine of the self-sustaining
fare and making mass transit an environmentally supportive resource.
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