I Do Not Believe the MTA's Propaganda Lies

Have you seen the MTA's delicious propaganda about how it's cheaper to take public transportation now than it ever was? They’re plastered all over the subway:

Believe it or not.

In 1986, the subway and bus fare was $1. That’s $1.89 in 2008 dollars. Today 30-day Unlimited Ride MetroCard brings the fare down to $1.17. Believe it.

Yeah, I scoffed when I read it too. So did another blogger, Benjamin Pollack. He also thinks the poster is bogus and "just for fun" tries to figure out how the MTA came up with those numbers.

The ad makes a completely bogus comparison. There were no Unlimited Ride MetroCards in 1986. Hell, there were no MetroCards in 1986. There were single-ride tokens. The equivalent of a single-ride token today is a single-use MetroCard, which retails for $2.00. This is a 6% increase in fare since 1986.

Pollack does offer a scenario wherein the numbers match in his post “Lies of the New York MTA”, but it's so ridiculous that you wonder if the MTA just made the whole thing up.

Here’s another great breakdown by Brian Abbott. Bottom line here? The MTA is speaking nonsense.