"That and a MetroCard will get you on the Subway"

High Line 23 - Chelsea

There is an old expression in NYC: 

"That and a token will get you on the subway.'' 

In fact, all it took was a token to get on the subway for more than a century. Implication being that whatever "that" referred to was worthless. 

The MetroCard replaced the token in 2003 but a New Report shows how a MetroCard in NYC may be more valuable than a college degree. Transportation plays a very important role in the earning power of New Yorkers.

NYU's Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management studied 177 different zip codes, and found that neighborhoods with the best access to transit, usually in Manhattan, (Chelsea is number one) also have the highest median household income, and the lowest unemployment. In those neighborhoods, 79% commute by walking or public transit, and only 10.9% by car.

Neighborhoods with the worst access to transit had lower median incomes but more than 50% commuted by car. The neighborhoods with limited access to public transit, were the worst: their unemployment rate is nearly 12%, and their median household income is significantly lower.

The more jobs you can reasonably commute to within an hour, the more job opportunities you'll have, and the higher your wage will be. In New York, mass transit is the path to economic mobility.

In a previous post I wrote about Location Affordability, a concept developed by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development (HUD) which includes the cost of transportation as well as housing usually the two largest items in a household's budget to determine affordability.

New York City has the sixth highest housing costs of the 21 major cities surveyed by HUD but since NYC has the lowest transportation costs in the nation it was deemed the third most affordable housing location according to HUD. 

"Everything is relative". Albert Einstein