How many metrocards are there in the city ?

Question

specifically in New York City, since i see metrocards littered all over and an approximated number ? just out of curiosity

Answer 1

easlily over a million..

Answer 2

With 1.45 billion riders per year on the system and one time use of cards fairly popular to use compared to other choices.  So let's say 500 one time cards are issued.  Assume only 1% of people drop them on the ground instead of disposing of them properly which I think is a very conservative estimate.  You would have 5 million cards on the ground per year.  That's over the whole year though so each day has 1/365 th of that total.  So it might look like less than you think.

I wouldn't besurprised if 10% of cards get thrown on the ground in a year though, so the total could be 50 million cards a year.  Man, that is a lot of cards!