Mass transit notwithstanding, over one million cars enter into the streets of Manhattan each day. In 2003, the Regional Plan Association of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said that more than 800,000 cars enter the island south of 60th Street into the business districts of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Studies show that around 80% of drivers in those cars ride alone.

On the other hand, in 2007, the New York City subway averaged over 5.3 million passengers each weekday, according to the New York City Transit bus and ridership statistics. An additional 2.3 million took the bus every day.

Silver said that keeping the magnitude of current service was essential, and that in the end, maintaining the vastness of the service would in the long run benefit those individuals who do choose to use their cars. "When you raise fares, you encourage people to take their cars," he said. "When you cut service, you encourage people to take their cars; that in turn increases traffic."

When asked about free shuttles to subway lines for individuals living in outlying areas of the outer boroughs that many argue are underserved by mass transit, Silver tells GlobeSt.com there might be some assistance in the form of shuttle to trains in the future. However, he says, financing could present a problem.

Nonetheless, Silver tells GlobeSt.com that New Yorkers clearly face increasingly challenged economic situations all around, including transportation. He acknowledges that a tax hike and imposing tolls on toll-free bridges are not options that "people want to embrace. But this is an option that I believe is the lesser of two evils. We need affordable mass transit service. We need more service, not less service, and the way we get there is the lesser of two evils: the toll over the bridges, the tax, etc."