The Pizza Principle, or the Pizza-Subway Connection, in

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, is a humorous but generally historically accurate "economic law" proposed by native New Yorker Eric M. Bram. He noted, as reported by ''

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'' in 1980, that from the early 1960s "the price of a slice of pizza has matched, with uncanny precision, the cost of a

New York subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

ride." In 1985, the late

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, and

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George Fasel learned of the correlation and wrote about it in an op-ed for ''

.'' The term "Pizza Connection" referring to this

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was coined in 2002 by ''New York Times'' columnist Clyde Haberman, who commented on the two earlier publications of the theory in the ''Times,'' and predicted a rise in subway fare. In May 2003, ''

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'' magazine proclaimed the validity of the Pizza Connection (now called the ''pizza principle'') in accurately predicting the rise of the subway (and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

) fare to $2.00 the week before. They also quoted Mr. Bram (by then a

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) as warning that since the

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had announced the discontinuation of the subway token itself in favor of the variable-fare cost

MetroCard The MetroCard is a magnetic stripe card used for fare payment on transportation in the New York City area. It is the primary payment method for the New York City Subway (including the Staten Island Railway), New York City Transit buses and M ...

(also used on the buses at that point), the direct correlation between the cost of an off-the-street slice of cheese pizza and the cost of a subway token might not continue to hold. In 2005, and again in 2007, Haberman noted the price of a slice was again rising, and, citing the Pizza Connection, worried that the subway/bus fare might soon rise again. The fare did indeed rise to $2.25 in June 2009, and again in 2013 to $2.50. In 2014, Jared Lander, a professional statistician and adjunct professor at Columbia University, conducted a study of pizza slice prices within New York City and concluded that the Pizza Principle still held true. Other New York City news organizations occasionally confirm the ability of the Pizza Principle to predict increases in the cost of a single-ride subway/bus fare in the city. In 2019, ''

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'' noted that, due to a combination of a decrease in the fare bonus for a subway ride rather than an increase in the overall fare ($2.75 at the time) and the increased variability of the cost of pizza in New York City, the Pizza Principle may no longer be accurate. Inflation after the

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, plus a decision by the MTA to freeze fares, led to some evidence of a divergence in 2022.

References

{{New York City Subway , state=collapsed Economics laws Economy of New York City 1980 in economics New York City Subway Pizza in New York City

See also

References