Unlimited ride MetroCard? (apartment, purchase, live in)

[spressobean]

I'm moving to the city in a few weeks and, in making a budget for myself, I'm trying to figure out what MetroCard to get... From your experience, is the unlimited ride the best bet for residents? I noticed they raised the price to $89.

Few facts:

1) I'm comfortable walking a lot.
2) I'll be in Morningside Heights.
3) I don't have a car.

[lhf1979]

I have it and I do a lot of walking. Of course I use it extensively to get to the places I'm going to walk.

[canyontothesky]

Haven't paid for a subway or bus ride separately in a long time, but a ride is $2.25 now, right? So you need to make 20 round-trips (or 40 one-way) a month in order to make it worth it, so I guess you can figure from that?

[Fred314X]

The more you use the system, the better deal an unlimited ride MetroCard is. Plain and simple.

[Dewdrop93]

It really depends on where you will be going. If you live in Morningside Heights but work 5 days a week in Midtown or the financial district - you will certainly want an umlimited metro card. Unless you are going to spend the majority of your time in Morningside Heights - you will probably want an unlimited metro card. Even if you like walking - Morningside Heights is pretty far north. It's about 20 blocks to a mile - so if you need to go somewhere in the 50's - that's at least 3 miles. And 3 miles of waiting for crosswalks and traffic - so it's going to take you longer than you'd expect. However, if you are mostly going to be within a 10 block radius of your apartment - then you probably will not need one.

[spressobean]

Thanks everyone - yeah, I'll be getting the unlimited.

[crescent22]

Unlimited- $89
Paying per ride- $2.25 / 1.15 (discount for any purchase above $8) = $1.96

$89 / 1.96 = 45 rides
You use more than 45 rides in 30 days, get the unlimited.

If they raise fares, which they will, the pay-per-ride and price of unlimited will go up about proportionately, making the relationship still the same.