How To Avoid The New MBTA Fare Hikes

Prices are going (for charlie card users) from $1.70 to $2.00 per subway ride, or a .30 increase. Assuming you don’t use a monthly pass, and you ride the T on average 2 times a day, you are looking at an extra (.30 X 2 X 7) $4.20 a week, or ($4.20 X 4) $16.80 a month, or ($16.80 X 12) $201.6 a year. Again assuming 2 trips a day, you used to pay $1241, now you are going to pay $1460.

The changes are going to cost you $201.60 extra a year…or will they.

Check this out.

If you own a bicycle (that thing in the basement that you have been ignoring for the last decade), you can save $4 a day by simply using it to get to work instead. To offset $201.60 you only need to ride your bike roughly 51 times.

If you only ride when its nice, say in the spring and fall, when its not too hot or too cold, and it isn’t raining you should easily accomplish this price reduction. Plus the added health bonus might even save you more money at the doctors.

Now let say you don’t own a bicycle, lucky for you Boston just installed the new Hubway system. Right now they are offering $50 yearly memberships, so you would only need to take Hubway to work ($201.60 + $50.00 = $251.60) roughly 63 days to completely eliminate the MBTA fare hike. Again assuming you do this during the nice parts of the year, or only on nice days, you should easily accomplish such a task.

The more you ride, the more you save!

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