[podopie]

To be fair, this is price agnostic, and they are the same patterns they've had when the subway/bus price was 2.25. The remainders, while still more than a couple pennies, were definitely smaller than the current setup. It also allows for the MTA to continue price hiking (ugh) without people ending up with even larger remainders: "I have 2.50 on my card but now it's 2.75!"

What they should have done was update these price points alongside the price change that occurred to keep remainders at or under a dollar. A "fill to the next ride" option could also be a great way to even out the remaining cost. While this still isn't perfect and screws over tourists (particularly when they removed the 1 day unlimited!), I imagine this is non-issue for the majority of New Yorkers (myself included).

I also imagine there's good reason here. Imagine all the trash that gets created because someone will finish up their metro card completely. The extra $1 fee per new card was likely a newer solution to prevent people from throwing them in the streets or in the subway trench, and providing an odd remainder on the card may have been a historical way to do the same. Imagine, if you had an extra dollar sitting around on your card, you probably would reuse it, and not throw it out.

That said, the fact that anyone can get from Sunset Park to the Bronx Botanical Gardens (a 20+ mile drive) for 2.50 isn't so bad of a deal.