Taxi/Lyft are waaay more expensive than the subway. Unlimited subway/bus is $116.50 per month. Taxi/Lyft could easily be $50/day or more depending on how far out you live. This is not a viable alternative for most people.
Sure, if your doing this daily the bus is a much better option. Without a running subway you would expect relatively increased bus service.
But, for the occasional trip the cost benifit tradeoff of the city saving vast mounts of money and reduced delays is worth a few people being inconvenienced.
The point is that this is a daily commute for many people, not just the occasional trip. NYC is a 24/7 city and there are substantial night shifts at all sorts of different businesses, very few of which are making enough money to swing a daily hired car.
Ahh, did not realize you where trolling about a world without bridges. I mean wtf dude, the inefficiency from running a 24/7 subway reduces the city's ability to afford more bridges.
Turns out the monthly price was raised from $116.50 to $121 in 2017, so I'm guessing you moved here since then. I'll confess that I don't buy the monthly passes because I bike to work every day, and thus don't take subway nearly often enough to recoup the monthly costs.
Nope, just out of date. $116.50 was the price prior to the increase to $121.
The commuter tax deduction lets you buy the cards with pre-tax money deducted from your paycheck, which is a substantial reduction up to 45% or so depending on your marginal tax rate. Of course, because it's using pre-tax money, it's giving a bigger discount to higher earners, which makes it the opposite of progressive, which seems opposite of what's intended.
