Social sustainability within the MTA relies heavily upon economic sustainability. In the same way that environmental sustainability is more than simply building solar panels on rooftops or installing bike racks in front of office buildings, social sustainability is more than making sure that trains in low-income neighborhoods are on time and frequent. Clean train platforms as well as trains themselves, station and safety agents, MetroCard vending machines that accept cash, credit card and benefit cards alike are all parts of a socially sustainable picture for the MTA.

A socially sustainable MTA would decrease it’s spending on new technologies for subways and busses for the time being, instead refinancing it’s budget and allocating a significant portion of it to increased service, restoring bus lines across the city, lowering fare, better management of ADA-accessible stations and elevators, etc.

Originally, we set out to show how the MTA’s 2010 service changes adversely affected low-income and/or minority neighborhoods. After comparing old Brooklyn bus service maps with new ones and making a list of lines cut and the areas they served, however, it became apparent our hypothesis was not strong enough to be proven!

Rather, we found that the MTA’s recent service cuts were equally distributed throughout Brooklyn. However, service was not equally distributed to begin with. We looked at two low-income, minorty neighborhoods (Red Hook and Flatbush) and compared them to two high-income, white neighborhoods (Park Slope and Crown Heights). The two poorer neighborhoods had substantially poorer service (less bus lines, longer wait, and more crowded buses). The recent service cuts may have affected all four neighborhoods equally, but they preserved this inadequate status quo.