Sunday, November 9, 2008

Where Can the Subway Take You for 63¢?

Nowhere: the standard fare is $2 one way.

A non-New Yorker friend of ours visited the City recently and bought a MetroCard, not knowing that when you pay for individual ride cards, the MTA gives you a 15% bonus: spend $10 and you get $11.50 on your card. So when he left for home, he gave us his card which still had a balance remaining; unfortunately, the money he'd added to the card had an extra 10¢ on it, too. I foolishly added more money to it—forgetting about the 15% bonus—and wound up with a balance of 63¢ after I'd ridden all that I could ride. Now, of course, I could figure out the algebraic calculation to learn the amount of money I'd need to add in order for my remaining balance to be a multiple of $2 and thus ensure that every penny on the card could be used for a fare... eventually... I think...

Fortunately, I don't have to. Thanks to the MetroCard Bonus Calculator, I now know that I need only add $15.10 to have sufficient fares for 9 one-way rides on the subway and nothing left over afterward. It may only be 63¢ but I'm damned if I'm going to give it to the MTA!

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