Wednesday’s Headlines: Survey Says Edition

The MTA wants you … to tell it how it’s doing.

The transportation agency has launched a new survey “to gauge customer satisfaction [and] customers’ views of their experiences” on transit. The survey focuses on your feeling of safety, security and comfort, with lots of questions about policing and Covid protocols. There are also questions that allow you to tell the MTA, “The fare is too damn high!”

Try to limit your answers to four-letter words. (We’re kidding! We love the buses — especially the ones on Fordham Road!). On the plus side, 10 lucky respondents will get $100 gift cards, the agency says.

That said, Riders Alliance was dubious about the surveys, recalling prior questionnaires that were mere smokescreen to bring in more police. The real issue, of course, is the fiscal resilience of the MTA, which desperately needs congestion pricing as a steady revenue source.

“After prior surveys, transit officials and politicians tried to pin low ridership on factors like crime and public health concerns,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein. “But the real threat to New York’s public transit system is fiscal austerity. Steep fare hikes, deep service cuts, and the persistent failure to properly house our fellow New Yorkers all threaten to undermine the city’s recovery. They all demand renewed state and federal investment.”

In other news:

• The City Council had its least-productive summer in two decades. Is that what happens when the speaker runs for higher office … and loses? (NY Post)
• Waaah, how come we don’t get to bike around with music and cycling legend David Byrne?! (NY Times) All we get is the occasional sighting on the Hudson River Greenway.
• Police are finding it impossible to keep killer drivers off the roads, but they manage to arrest would-be car thieves. (amNY, NYDN)
• It’s always good advice: Never stab someone in a car. (NY Post)
• Mayor de Blasio vowed to get the NYPD back in the enforcement game. (Gothamist)
• Hat tip to our friends at Bushwick Starr for keeping the ghost light shining. (NY Times)
• With congestion pricing meetings set to begin on Thursday, amNY did a rather anodyne curtain-raiser.
• And finally, if Facebook can put positive stories about itself in its news feed, so can we. In case you missed it, we had some good stories yesterday:
  • Dave Colon previewed the congestion pricing meetings.
  • Jesse Coburn revealed just how many out-of-state cars are getting involved in crashes (seemingly a lot!).
  • And Gersh Kuntzman kept scratching at that itch that is the city’s failure to get bad drivers off the roads.