How much money does the management from elsewhere siphon off the city?
4
The picture looks contrived. It is too perfect. How is it possible that the photographer was there just at the moment the cheater cheated? The shot was taken from behind as the fare beater jumped. Who would be so naive to cheat with a photographer standing there? It's almost like a photographer asking "can you jump the turn style why I take your picture?"
Perhaps it's time to invent a better turn-style or exit gate. The image shows that the cheater can use the sides to support himself as he jumps over. A second bar higher and a third lower might do the trick.
Also, it seems to me that the single fare are far too expensive, causing people to cheat. If one compares the wage rate for fast food jobs to the cost of a ticket. On a relative level basis, that is a lo
4
Reverse current revenue by not charging for admission to the subway but taxing large corporations and wealthy individuals who make more then one million a year. There is no reason to charge for transportation while political leaders give subsidies and tax breaks to large billion dollar corporations. Political leadership is so mixed iup currently that Bezos who is worth 100 billlion the wealthiest man in the world got a 3 billion dollar tax break while poor people have to sneak on the subway to survive so they can feed their families. Have you seen all the homelessness all over the city. The mentally ill who are screaming through the day without anyone understanding them or helping them. The city has a record amount of homelessness and the current city housing is rated poor filled with lead paint and heating systems that don’t work.Now go ahead and give Bezos more. No simply make the system free and put a new tax on hedge funds , Amazon, and all the top corporations that get to many tax subsidies. Either give up your subsidies or face a new transportation tax. Stop charging car drivers to pay for the MTA incompetence.
17
One fare-beater a minute at Times Square is really no big deal; that's just noise.
2
Fare evasion adds to the burden on taxpayers and our transit system ... Nothing is free in life! Hopefully NYPD and MTA stakeholders can aggressively enforce the issue. Time will tell ...
23
1. The authorities must have an action plan that works to stop fare evaders and follow through.
2. Have an action plan to run trains on time , keep the stations clean ( whole lot of washing with bleach might be a start)
3. Train transit workers to be more helpful, friendly, and effective.
Just do your work .
12
Time to crack down like on the squiggie people in the 1990‘s. The system cost money and most people pay, want to protest it‘s service boycott it but stop freeloading on those that pay you are not working for the greater good.
15
When all other excuses fail, let’s call it racism?
There is a fare to enter. Jump the turnstile, go under, enter through the emergency gate, use the back door of the bus to enter because I am late, mad, don’t feel like paying, it’s easier - is cheating and stealing.
Yes, service is pitiful! But are you allowed to go to Macy’s and steal the sweater because it’s not well made or ugly? Pay your fare!
For the record, I am a brown New Yorker.
61
I'm a middle class professional who has lived in the city for more than 20 years, and this year I evaded my first fare. Was headed to work, couldn't get the metrocard to swipe, and a man who comes almost everyday and holds the emergency exit only was at his post, completely unsupervised. I thought of all the rides I've been cheated out of over the years and thought "F*** it."
My take on the slow-motion MTA meltdown is that it is well past time for the city and state to get serious about how *both* can step up their funding for the system, instead of squabbling back and forth like that have for years.
15
In Berlin, one pays on the honor system. You buy ticket( at machines that actually work!)for the zones and timeframes that you desire. No turnstiles, nor requiring drivers to take your ticket.
The whole transit works like a charm. Randomly, transit officials will come aboard a subway or bus to check your voucher. If caught you end up paying a fine.
NYC could learn from the Germans on how to move people with efficiency and without "profiling" their riders....
10
@Tony Um, New Yorkers have already learned from European transit systems.
That's exactly how ticketing on New York's Select Bus System works.
10
Please list the top 100 salaries at the MTA and put the current system up for bidding to the private sector. Set up a retail store with low rents st each station who then provide and maintain rest rooms.
Currently the homeless who have no place to go due to the poor political leadership, very high rents, live on the subway system.
After they figure out how to rip us off again they will waste 40 billion and claim success.
Ever really see the current system cleaned!
5
New York city is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, with one in ten public school students being homeless, a 20% poverty rate and 40% near poverty rate.
15
More cameras, etc. and punish evaders. Simply put get the revenue as it is not fair for those who pay to use the system. If you do not want to initiate action NYC do not complain about the lack of lost revenue.
9
What's the suggestion here? That we can flount the rules we don't like? That's there's a moral justification to stealing services?
24
I'm trying to understand the premise of this article.
Is there some kind of ethical or moral ambiguity here?
I was taught that taking goods or services that you didn't pay for is theft.
If you aren't happy with subway service, start a petition or write a letter; don't steal...
39
I'm an American in London for 2 years now - still amazed at the efficiency of the tube. In addition to the reusable 'oyster' cards you can also use any contactless credit card to instantly pay your fare (on the busses too) - beep you're all set. Also the barriers are gates that go almost to the floor instead of turnstiles. So not only is bring late no excuse... it's almost pretty much impossible to jump over or under.
17
@Nathan
I travel to London often (I’m headed there again in February) and cannot agree with you more about the efficiency and reliability of the Tube. I also learned that my city’s subway system is modeled on London’s, with the Charlie Card and the barriers instead of turnstiles. Though I rarely take our public transportation system, the T, at home, I love taking the Tube (and the buses, which provide a great way to get one’s bearings) in London.
As a Yankees fan (yes, I know, I’m from Boston; still, I was “raised right” as my father would say, and therefore am a Yankees fan), I travel to NY a couple of times a year to watch games and have questioned why a city which considers itself the epicenter of everything modern, innovative, and chic still has turnstiles, a clearly bygone security mechanism.
22
When the subways are working the way they are supposed to work, you can get almost anywhere for $2.75. When I lived in New York, people appreciated what they had. If it takes some time and money to restore adequate service, that is a delay that will be remedied soon enough. If you appreciate what you have, or what you will have soon enough, there's no good reason to abuse the system.
11
@michjas
Sorry but the subways are filthy, constantly delayed. When was the last time you actually saw the subways cleaned. Disease is spread from the current system. I have not seen any cleaning for years. Subways should be free with higher taxes on the wealthy or ketvggecorivate sector takeover.
6
Just finishing up a week in London, riding the Underground everywhere. One thing we noticed, beside the fact that the trains are always about 1 minute away, is the lack of stench in the stations. (Boston subway stations are awful too.) I don’t know how this city does it with the amount of people and riders, but the stations were clean even with the crowds at Christmas.
16
@Dengallo
Air pollution is a serious problem in London, considerably worse than in New York or Boston. If the Tube smells clean to you, it's because it isn't that much worse than the outside air.
3
The London system is not open 24 hours a day.
6
the subway system needs $40 billion by an estimate of the current MTA head to fix itself in a sustainable manner. there is zero checking at big stations for fare evasion. i don't care if it's a black, Latino, purple pink or blue colored person. a fare dodger is a fare dodger. MTA should make a target of issuing at least 500 tickets for fare evasion a day of $500 each - combined with Times Square, Herald Sq. , Union SQ., West 4th, WTC, Flushing, Atlantic-Barclays, Flushing Main St, Jackson Heights - This should be easy peasy - I see at least 10 fare beaters everyday. That'll bring in at least 100K of revenue everyday just from checking fare evasion. Within 6 months, we'll see a massive change.
31
@nikhil And exactly how many of those people do you think are able to pay a fine of $500? How much money is the City going to spend catching, fining, dragging into court these "offenders" and exactly how much do you think it will get in return?
7
@ellienyc It's not that I am not empathetic to people who genuinely can't afford a subway ride - that number is extremely small though. I reckon within the first 10 - 20 offenders being ticketed, the incidence will reduce drastically. The problem is the lack of respect for law and order and fear of justice - and that needs to be restored. Everyone knows / thinks they can get away with it by using some type of free pass: teenager pass, student pass, too old pass, too broke pass, rebel pass and what not. The bottom line is that the city and its systems works if we make it work.
28
@nikhil It's not a question of empathy or the lack of it. It's economics. It just isn't practical, and not only would they not be able to collect much from those they ticketed; I suspect it wouldn't serve as much of a deterrent to others.
2
Just put a camera in front of every turnstile and upload the videos to a website for public humiliation and fines. In the future facial recognition software will allow the mta to mail the fines to the people once they are identified.
24
It's not just subways; many people do it on the buses now, entering through one of the sets of doors at the rear
And I have done it. I was on the wrong side of 2nd Av one night when not one,not two, but three of the "SBS" express buses pulled into the stop across the street. I figured if there was a clump of three there then, it would likely be another 30-40 minutes before another one or two or three showed up. I had time to run across the street & board, but not to buy a ticket at one of those machines on the sidewalk, so I just hopped on the bus without buying a ticket. And have done it again since then. Riding without paying, at least on the buses, wouldn't be so tempting if the busers had some sort of schedule you could rely on.
10
Careful. Transit police periodically enter those select buses and check tickets. If your going to scam a bus ride do it on a local by entering the back door without paying.
4
Was in NYC recently, turnstile jumping seemed rampant. No enforcement.
As long as people feel they can get away with it, they will take the calculated risk. It is incumbent upon the MTA to do a better job to curb evasion.
33
Here in Washington, DC, as you report, the city council, which is majority black with a few white "liberals" who are terrified to say or do anything that might antagonize their black counterparts, has decided to lower the fare evasion penalties by saying that blacks are being targeted, just as your article says this is true in NYC, some allege.
I am a white Jew who did a residency in a hospital in Washington, DC in 1988. When I was targeted as a Jew by black residents and the assistant head of the psychology department (Black, the head was a Jew and son of holocaust survivors) I was told by the residency head, This is Washington, DC. You are on your own. I am not getting involved.
All too often we are told racism is to blame for things like fare evasion and "unfair" law enforcement.
I don't buy it.
50
@simon sez I am sorry for your experience in 1988, but that doesn't negate the reality of 2018. As you can see from the video accompanying this article, all types of people are eating the fare. This should have been borne out in the arrest statistics for fare evasion, but it wasn't. Everyone did the crime, but only black and Hispanic people were arrested for it. That is the unfairness. If everyone was getting hauled off to jail for fare evasion, then things would have been equal. Whether jail is the appropriate penalty is a matter of opinion, but if that is the decided penalty then it should apply to all.
4
@simon sez Where I live, in Manhattan,most of the people I see doing it are white (including me, on the bus). I have also seen well to do looking, well dressed, women on the Upper East Side doing it on the bus, in part I think because they can just roll their baby buggies onto one of the rear entrances without folding them up (which they area required to do if they board at the front).
3
Me neither , when you don’t pay for a service it’s called stealing . Plain and simple
14
Perhaps MTA should just completely shutdown operations each year for the amount of days worth of money that is stolen via scofflaws.
18
At the 23rd/Park 6 train station today (downtown side), a police officer entered through the emergency exit and *encouraged* several people to come in with him. He said "Come on! It's Christmas!" I am not making this up. This was at 12:48pm or 12:49pm. MTA: Do you possibly have footage of this?
32
One thought… some of the entrances are those full metal bar gates. I know the MTA already needs plenty of funding but one solution would be to make every turnstile of the full gate variety.
Right now there are two options to evading the fare. You can go through the emergency exit, or you can hop the turnstyle. If you take away one of those options, it should in theory lessen fare evasion.
11
@Mark I've seen 2 people (they were tin) squeeze into a turnstile and go through on one fare.
3
People misbehave unless there are consequences.
Zero tolerance for those who litter and don’t pay their fare.
32
Anything that makes it less likely that people will need cars to get around should be free of charge. Doing that would lead to less overall traffic congestion, and less pollution. Automobiles are already massively subsidized in terms of funding for highways and bridges so why not subsidize mass transit.
11
@Charles Justice Exactly. We have thousands of cars coming into Manhattan every day for free over the East River bridges. Further,when they run over old people like me in crosswalks there are no penalties if they say "I didn't mean to do it." Why not accept the same excuse from fare evaders?
13
They were riding sub(way)-rosa.
3
At the Ditmars Station in Astoria, I've seen the emergency door swing open and people just use it because the lines at the turnstiles back up. This is because the MTA doesn't clean the card readers enough, even at a station that is half under construction to be completely rebuilt (illegally, by being non-ADA compliant). The MTA also didn't think about a contact-less system until a year ago. so your average Jane just walks on through those gates. But Jane is not trying to avoid the fare, she's trying to get to work. She might even have a monthly unlimited Metrocard, in fact, it may even recharge itself automatically as part of a pretax transportation incentive offered through her job. But this ride, like thousands of others, needing to simple get somewhere, now is not counted. It doesn't matter, only a year or so ago the MTA leadership was blaming overcrowding for issues while saying ridership is down. There is no trust in the system. On buses, drivers blatantly open rear doors telling folks to pile in, skewing numbers by 50% each time. All the buses that stop at 21st/Queensbridge do this just to keep moving. Everyone is frustrated with leadership's ineptitude, so a blind eye is turned knowing that it perpetuates the situation by throwing off ridership stats for funding. This systemic dysfunction leads the every day folks in the system (both the workers and the customers) to simply give up and come to an unspoken agreement. Andy Byford , don't survey people - watch them.
15
I have seen plenty of fit young white men in suits and ties jump the turnstiles.
I have seen many well dressed white women with expensive handbags walk in through open exit gates
I have seen lots of hip looking white parents tell their old-enough-to-pay children to slide under the turnstile.
The tone of this article, with repeated mentions of “poor” and “black”, is just wrong.
Blame for this issue is all around, and if you only see one kind of fare beater, it says something about you...
26
@Michael c
Must be where you live, Michael. I have never seen "white women with expensive handbags" or "fit young men in suits and ties" evading fares.
On the other hand, I get around the city, so it can't just be that I live in Flatbush.
I have seen, on rare occasions, "hip-looking" parents, though, pushing through emergency exits, but that's because they think that parenthood bestows immunity from having to live by society's rules.
12
@Michael c
Where are the videos?
5
So just how much are the homeless individuals who reside on the E train night and day, making it so filthy commuters can’t use multiple cars, paying?
17
the comments posted here are simply stunning. everybody is 'holier than thou.' get real. fare-beating is part of a syndrome. people living, sleeping on cars, making them uninhabitable because of odor. continual begging performances, loudly. really bad service. trains not running after work hours, rerouted in such confusing fashion a PhD couldn't figure it out, stations simply closed. it's all of a piece. oh, and all you law-abiders: you break other laws all the time. stop hating.
6
I hate MTA, always an issue, always something wrong, always delays, always bums on the train, $3 is outrageous, .30 cents, maybe
6
@Gene I hope you do know that $3.00 does not come remotely close to covering the operating budget, let alone capital improvements. Where is all the money going? Unions and bureaucrats. As we learned in these very pages, constructing a mile of track here cost *seven times* what it costs in comparably developed countries.
19
I look forward to the day when all of those arguing 'a crime is a crime' turn themselves in to the police for jaywalking and speeding. After all 'a crime is a crime'. Perhaps leaving the american lust for vengeance out of the dialogue and looking at how to actually make changes to the system that makes it far easier to comply with the rules might be a better place to put forth effort.
8
Public transportation in the city should be free of charge for all and financed by taxes and other sources. In addition, cars should be discouraged from coming into the city by various methods. The combination of free public transportation and charging or prohibiting some vehicles from entering the city would reduce vehicular traffic and improve the air quality.
7
Financed by what sources ? Is it ok that the city raises the water bill ? Or how about the sales tax? , free is never free, liberals never will never understand that math
5
The planned phase-out of the obsolete MetroCard should eventually at least lower the frustration of paying fares and entering the MTA system.
Having lived through the Boston MBTA's transition from coin tokens to proximity cards and more spacious gates (vs turnstiles), I have to say those things helped a lot and really leap-frogged the MTA at least in that respect. Now to fix those legendary service problems...
6
This article (and especially the comments, which don't try to sugarcoat things) describes a third world city inside a first world country whose leadership elite clearly prefers to literally "ride above" the struggling groundlings under the streets.
The solution? Take away the cars and the parking spaces for the city's leadership elite (all good caring Democrats who care deeply about "the people", right?) and force them - under penalty of heavy daily fines and removal from office for repeat offenders - to live within city lines and use mass transit every day to get to and from work. Starting with the Mayor on down, no exceptions.
Improvements should quickly appear.
26
@Yankees Fan Inside Red Sox Nation
the MTA is not run by the mayor of nyc council. the governor and his alabany cronies have control.
2
Simple solution, announce a five dollar tax on every pay check issued in the five Boroughs each week until fare evasion drops by fifty percent. When Eddie King was governor of Massachusetts (1979-1983) he raised the MBTA fare by twenty five cents to cover revenue loss, everyone screamed and the evaders backed off fearing retribution from paying customers. When mischief or being a scofflaw has a price, attitudes will change.
7
Revolutionary suggestion: Why don't we let people ride for free? Lots of agony and money is spent on catching fare beaters. MUST be a way to figure this out!
6
Have any of you ever thought that the reason more people are sneaking in is that they truly can't afford it? It's almost 3$ a pop.
Teenagers are tight on cash, particularly ones from poor or working class backgrounds. Yes, easy to tell them, don't use it then. But they have to get to school, work or family.
How about we lower the fare for economically challenged folks?
Even more, how about we fix this sorry excuse for a transit system, that's unreliable, filthy and run by the MTA crooks. Where is their fine?
Go to Europe and see what a functioning transit system is. ours is a joke, a very costly one.
12
@Bocheball We could go to Europe and see what functioning public transit, public education, justice, corrections, infrastructure, healthcare and social safety systems look like, to name a few more. But, no. We prefer to pretend we know best, we be best! We have the highest maternal mortality rate, wow! The only way to continue to do that is to practice willful ignorance and stubbornness, as in McConnell and the rest of the nihilistic Republicans. And we waste trillions while also allowing immeasurable stress and suffering. Finally our insane country has a leader who truly represents our dysfunction.
6
NYC students get special free metrocards at the start of each year.
17
Can’t afford it? How do they afford iPhones?
28
High jumping fair beater, slipping, falling, breaking leg, suing.
5
Part of the reason people aren't paying is the stations are no longer manned. It's become too easy, with little chance of being caught. That and rising fares are emboldening people.
In Europe, many cities don't have any form of turn-style. It's totally on the honor system, except that agents come around and ask to see if your ticket's been punched. If not the fine is steep, similar to ours. I don't think people don't pay because of how terrible our subway is, tho god knows, you can't blame them.
Why do we have to pay for lousy incompetent service?
4
Jail these criminals....or make it free for everyone.
12
Rationalization and justification!
These excuses for not paying the fare sound pretty lame to me. I doubt that there is even an element of protest in most fare beaters' decision to steal these city services. And it only serves to rub it in the noses of honest fare paying customers when the trains are delayed.
I have a decent job now, but back when I was just barely making it, If I did not have money for the fare, I did what decent honest people do - I walked!
If you get caught not paying the fare, you should pay a fine AND get an orange vest and two days with a broom and a dust pan in a subway station or some city park.
48
@Oh Brother Slave labor it is, then? Hi ho!
@YQ
"Slave labor"?
Most of us New Yorkers slog to work, have to take garbage from bosses who treat us like dirt (no matter how high up on the ladder we are), and don't quit because we need to pay the rent.
And you think that cleaning some subway benches because you've tried to cheat the MTA and, by extension, the rest of us, is slave labor?
13
It’s easy. Use a system similar to other subway transit systems in the world. Not only do you have larger glass or metal partitions that open and close to allow riders in and out (no jumping over). You make riders card in to enter AND card out to leave.
27
It also used to be bad here in Stockholm, but large plexiglass sliding barriers put a stop to that. Not to mention the frequent control checks at the exits. A 90$ fine if caught!
26
“I’m sad that Metro’s losing money, but I’m more sad about what’s happening to black people.”
What's happening to black people? They're getting caught committing a crime? Maybe they should just stop committing that crime.
107
Wow, how do you board the bus without paying without the driver coming after you?
8
Exactly what I was thinking! I live here in town and I can’t imagine how any human can possibly sneak onto a NYC bus! Those lady drivers are especially intimidating...
2
@You’re kidding, right?
4
Several of the crosstown buses now make you purchase a ticket from machines at the bus stops. You use your MetroCard and get a receipt. All the bus doors open and we all just pile in. Periodically transit police will be at the next stop and will check your receipts. If you don’t have one, they make you get off the bus and you get fined.
3
I see folk entering via the emergency door rather often when taking the E train to JFK. Seems on a subway line like the E or A that run to the AirTrain the MTA would install a turnstile that allows riders to pass through them with suitcases/roll aboard bags. I can navigate entering by waiting and choosing a turnstile that I can wheel beneath the bar but when leaving I use the door and see many folk entering the subway when I open the door. Yes some of this is always going to happen but remove an easy way for folk to not pay, and you will see some of this go away.
5
L.A. buses have enormous revenue losses because people simply refuse to pay. The driver is afraid for his or her safety because they work alone. They don't even try to make anyone pay. You can't blame the drivers.
25
Suggestion: retrofit the emergency exit doors so you must break a glass panel with an attached hammer and pull a lever to unlock it (with a loud alarm). In an emergency, it will only have to be done once, by the first exiting passenger. Maybe adds ten seconds. The turnstile problem is tougher.
8
It would cost a fortune to continually keep repairing them.
5
Half the time my MetroCard. filled w money, never works. (Or it will say, Insufficient Funds) I'm told to fill out forms and mail em in, blahblah. It's a big racket. Bring BACK tokens !
23
@Spectator Bring back tokens indeed. I've been scammed so many times by the MTA, I prefer to take a cab. Which, by the way, is easier to get since Uber joined the fray.
10
Why go after this and not keep the pressure on the mta and their mismanagement on construction and labor cost. Personally I don’t care if you beat the fare, i care about station and track maintenance. The mta has failed us and this whole campaign on fair evading is just propaganda, to keep our eyes away from the mta real problems, which is construction cost
7
@Danilo Bonnet - Yes, people are frustrated, but since when is that an excuse to break the law? I have seen a few people jump the turnstiles and - no surprise - they are all young men who seem to be flaunting their bad behavior. I suspect these same people crash about in life, defying authority, looking for freebies, cheating, lying and trashing the city. I say arrest them. No one who depends on the MTA should be turning the other way when others are busy sucking hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue out of the system.
25
Danilo = intellectually modest!
1
Bring back the subway token!
Thanks for linking the Gothamist video to show farebeating is an equal opportunity exercise.
9
The long lines for Buses in Winter often means that Riders rarely have time to whip out their Metrocards,as they try to remove their gloves,etc. to retrieve them. So,they get shoved to the back of the bus,and often wind up with a free Ride.
3
What a farce. The MTA has continually shown it does not prioritize the pursuing of fare beating.
It decimated the booth staff making it so easy. How come the MTA doesn't factor in the savings on those salaries to offset the fare loss. Clearly that was part of the decision.
It turned off the alarms on the exit doors -- presumably because there were no transit workers to pursue any farebeaters.
It removed fare collection on several bus lanes. While traveling hundreds of times on these routes, I have seen a fare check only once.
After traveling the 5 boroughs on a fact finding mission, our new transit messiah can only come up with this?
Shame on him, and shame on you for drinking the Kool Aid.
11
Now my family's story.
My cousin the math whiz was an undergrad at Columbia in the early 1970s. His shrink was in the East Village. He was running late to the shrink. He adored his shrink visits.
He evaded the fare, was caught. His brilliant attorney-cousin-by-marriage, who was in fact an attorney for a mattress factory and not a criminal defense attorney, got the charge thrown and the record sealed.
He never made it to the appointment, BTW.
My cousin, like me, was born and raised in Nebrasba, but he took to NYC and shrinks very well.
But anyone (see comments, below) who thinks this issue began with "liberal" Mayor DeBlasio is deluded. It's been going on for decades.
4
I would love to go where these people work and steal their products and see what the reaction would be.
16
The idea of civic responsibility - that is, the citizens share responsibility for assuring functioning governance - is quaint at best but is mostly maligned. You pay taxes not to purchase government services but because we are obliged to pay taxes. Likewise, if you hate the subway or the politicians who don’t run them, you still pay the fare, and you vote your dissatisfaction or register a complaint with your elected representative. If you jump the turnstile or otherwise dodge payment, you are not protesting. You are not helping to fix a problem. You are stealing and making a problem worse. Most of all, if it’s condoned - as it almost is here - you are making suckers out of those who pay. And that can lead to much worse outcomes.
27
A sad sign of the times- the virtue of selfishness and no regard for the good of the city-- in a country full of cheaters the center will not hold, not what I was expecting after the idealism of the 60s
22
@John Quixote The 60's were enormously cynical. Elitist upper-middle class whites (like my forebears) took pains to play dress up as the downtrodden in order to fit a chic aesthetic whilst ignoring their duty to their fellow man. The younger boomers and others of the time were playing and indulging while the rest of the world suffered- the selfishness of their indulgence is legendary, though they were only children and so should be forgiven.
What can't be forgiven is how they never learned to recognize their own immaturity and grow up.
4
Why does the Times always feel the need to make excuses for criminals? The intellectual gymnastics this article attempts to justify fare evasion is worthy of a gold metal. I am a working class POC and I seethe when I pay my hard earned fare only to see others jump the turnstile.
92
There is a huge disparity of income in NYC...from the rich and famous to the poor and homeless. And, some folks are just more nimble and innovative than others. Fare beating is just the cost of doing business. You factor the loss in and move forward. It is, in effect, an informal example of wealth redistribution and unless you put up impenetrable turnstiles, manned by guards at an enormous cost it cannot be stopped. And, honestly, it is public transit after all...."from each according to his abilities ( leaping, hurdling, slithering, squeezing) and to each according to his needs..."Hey ..I gotta get uptown and I am flat broke...fugetaboutit" Just think of all the creme broulee that won't get it's sugar caramelized properly, the laundry that won't get washed, the hotel rooms that might not get cleaned, the filet that won't get grilled or the bagels that won't get boiled if that fare beater has to pay....anyway, As long as Trump is setting the law abiding example I wouldn't clamp down too hard on fare beaters.
3
@Harley Leiber
"It is, in effect, an informal example of wealth redistribution."
Perhaps if the elderly black lady to whom I offered my seat yesterday jumped the turnstile, but not the young chaps I regularly see doing so. They do it for a lark. Their sneakers cost a lot more.
And for some of them, their guns.
8
To the lady who stated she did not feel bad about stealing the fare: you may not be so lucky next time and face a stiff fine. That will probably reset your moral compass.
16
When I lived in Manhattan in the late 60's, subway tokens were 10 Cents each. Then U had to get on no later than 7:30 to avoid the crush. I remember this guy who had the NYT cross word finished in 3 stops! U had people who had the same exact schedule and you would see them every morning. Mike Stroud, a former British Royal Marine Sniper and I would make our happy hours rounds starting at 51st and Park and ending up on 2nd and 75th. When I ended up with my tie in my beer - time to get to my tiny single room efficiency apartment with a water bed and the brand new French Quisinart I saw demoed at Bloomies. That same morning when riding my new 450 Honda motorcycle I saw this well dressed woman struggling with 2 Bloomies shopping bags to get in a taxi. Another older woman said, Did U recognize her?
Put together a list of fantastic inexpensive restaurants and when New York magazine came out I looked at the cover hoping none of my favs had been discovered. Once when looking out my bathroom window, I saw this guy wearing madrass shorts and then recognized him - Bill an old Navy buddy. He worked for some small airline that only few MD 80s. We had a couple of beers then I said let's grab a bite. Well the slice joints were everywhere - but those things were awful. While crossing the street - saw a new place just around the corner where we both lived, "Goldberg's". We were looking in and this tall skinny guy motioned us to come in. Larry Goldberg - WOW!
2
There are some ways to deal with these issues.
For people who are to poor to afford transit fares, discounted fare cards can be created--as Seattle has done. There are people for whom this is the case.
For crowded buses where many people get on the back, there can be fare card readers at the rear door. That way those boardings can be legal. San Francisco does this on every single city bus.
It may well be that MTA has calculated that the cost of fare evasion is less than the cost of station agents. But fare evasion makes people feel like there's a lawless atmosphere, and station agents are a safety factor.
8
In Geneva, Switzerland, nobody checks your transit pass until your bus is the one boarded by agents who do check. The resulting fines are large enough to make it less likely that people will travel without a valid pass. I don't know if this would work in such a large city as NYC. I am also sure, there are those who are willing to take their chances and the occasional cost of not buying a pass is offset by free travel.
Not enforcing the laws of the transit system, makes it more expensive for the law-abiding citizens when fares rise to cover the operating costs. They need a big crackdown to show people that theft of service is a crime. In return, buying a transit pass and using it should be easy and efficient.
13
A dozen times, I've entered the station, paid my fare, gone to the track, then found a sign that basically says - THERE ARE NO TRAINS RUNNING.
Did I get my 2.75 back? Nope. The MTA stole my money. Instead of an hour and fifteen minutes commuting, it takes 2 and a half hours. Why ? Because the MTA provided janky buses to 'replace' the train. (and I DO mean janky - these buses tend to stall...repeatedly. Or maybe the drivers are ALSO so sick of it all that they're stalling the buses? I don't know.)
The janky buses meander along some bizarre route and dumps all us passengers at a local stop in Brooklyn where we eventually fight to get on a train because even after 40 minutes with the MTA most of us aren't halfway to our destination yet. And woe to anyone who needs to make a transfer - the whole procedure takes so long that your transfer expires and the MTA takes ANOTHER 2.75 from you.
23
One rider a minute — that’s nothing. Every single time I get on the eastbound M14 bus at Union Square/Irving Place, a bunch of people come in the back doors without paying. Just now counted six coming in one of the two back doors. Adding insult to injury, they take seats before the paying customers can get there. Hello, enforcement??
27
The MTA needs to introduce contactless bank payment such as what we have on the London underground. Practically everyone over 18 has a contactless bank card, so unless you're totally broke there is no reason not to be able to top up.
7
Good for these people. The MTA has made fares so difficult to purchase, and entry through the turnstiles so painful, they deserve to lose money. Go back to tokens already, and let people use the gates. The turnstiles are too narrow and cause pain and injury. The electronic fares waste passenger's money and are too expensive to set up and maintain.
4
Why aren't there metro fair card kiosks by every turnstile? The Metro Subway in DC has them in every station by the entrance to the trains, literally not more than 30-40 feet away from the turnstiles.
5
@Libby - Of course there are kiosks near almost every set of turnstiles. Trouble is - they don't work. I've been to a station - the A Train Station in Howard Beach - where ALL FOUR kiosks were malfunctioning at the same time. Subway passengers were able to get help from the station clerk. But the Airtrain passengers literally had to jump the turnstyles to find other machines to pay their fare. I'm not kidding. An MTA station clerk can't help passengers get an Airtrain-capable metrocard because Airtrain revenue goes to the Port Authority, not the MTA. Anyone needing an Airtrain metrocard HAD TO JUMP a turnstyle to find a working kiosk to pay the fare.
7
I see many entering the Bx9 bus through open side doors. They ought to close behind a person but do not, and the driver often leaves them open much longer than necessary. School age kids often enter through side doors, and many kids do not use a Metrocard even when they enter through the front door. Those whose Metrocard has insufficient funds are often waved on by the driver which may become a repeated scam for that reason.
2
How much money will it take to make the trains go? Amtrak, just tell us! MTA, how much money will it take to make this work? Because if it is not worth it, then pull up the tracks and dump the the trains in a melting pot. Carpet the subway for electric bikes and pedicabs and then employ Richard Anderson at Amtrak to pack it up and begin overhaul to renewable sourced public transport as Amtrak doesn't allow more than 2 carry on bags now it won't matter if Richard Anderson hauls us to Poughkeepsie in a rickshaw. Actually, I'd pay more than $40 to get hauled up to Poughkeepsie in a rickshaw by Richard Anderson.
Really, if there is no way to satisfy this demon's with bales of dollars lets just GIVE UP!
2
@rubbernecking UNQUENCHABLE appetite for dollars.
2
Even assuming the rate of 1 fare evader per minute 24/7, you get 1440 evaders among 208,000 riders. That is .7%, a truly minuscule number. Let's assume a fare of $2.50. The money lost is 1440 x $2.50 = $3600, but fares paid (206,500 x $2.50) = $516,250. So, again, as a percentage, the fare evasion costs $3600/$516,500, again .7% of revenue. Or think about it this way: how much money are you willing to spend to chase the $3600 that is being stolen from the system at this station.
Or consider that .7% as equivalent to shoplifting. I betcha there isn't a public business that would not accept -- and be happy! -- with this level of shrinkage.
2
@David McDonald
A half a million dollars a day...that's $182M per year.
I'd call that real money.
11
@David McDonald 208,000 is the estimate of how many people evade tolls in the system each day, not the total of people using this one station (Times Square alone gets ~177,000 riders per day, but fare evasion is happening throughout the system). The subway provides roughly 6 million rides per day, so 208,000 is 3.4% of all subway riders each day. The fare has been $2.75 since 2015. If their estimates are correct, they're losing ~$572,000 every day.
9
@David McDonald That's losses of $1,314,000/year. That's a few more salaries...or improved maintenance...cleaner cars...you're ready to give up.
3
Among the reasons to evade paying a fare is outright disdain for the MTA, or at least that would be a reason for me. Among the reasons for MTA disdain is my perception that the MTA vending machines are rigged to steal money from you and fill their coffers.
Has anyone else noticed this? The base fare for a subway or bus ride is $2.75 but a MTA vending machine will not let you buy just $2.75. If hypothetically your metro card has a balance of 3 cents, which will happen with the “bonus” amounts you purchase when you’re not buying an unlimited ride amount. So if you have 3 cents left on your metro card, you can’t add $2.72 to get one ride and leave your balance at zero. I’m always left with metro cards that have arbitrary amounts of money left on the cards. That money just stays with the robber barons who run the MTA to help fund their huge salaries.
12
Rule of law is essential foundation of democracy. If citizens believe that other people are not following laws, the whole government loses credibility. In essence, all of the excuses given are just that—excuses. For those of us who pay every time for public services, we feel increasingly taken advantage of by people who feel laws are only for "other" people. At some point, law-abiding citizens will understand that they are being duped and join the ranks of criminal-citizens. Why pay for the subway? Why pay taxes? Why feel obliged to support the less fortunate? Our democracy will eventually collapse.
56
@Common Sense, our democracy WILL eventually collapse.
The majority of riders at the 181st and Fr. Washington Avenue stop seem not to pay. I've seen some impressive athletics there on many an occasion. The temptation is understanding as it's bereft of any monitoring.
3
When I moved to Manhattan in 1966 the fare was one nickel. It should have stayed that way.
Subway fare was a nickel until 1948. It was raised from 15c to 20c in July 1966. If it were still at 50-70 year ago levels, NYC & NYS taxes would be even higher today and the subway would go unused by commuters because it would be full of homeless people.
5
@Barry Interesting--according to the BLS cpi inflation calculator, $.05 in 1948 would have the buying power of $0.52 today. But $.20 in 1966 would buy $1.53 worth of goods today.
To equal today's fare of $2.75 the fare in 1966 would need to be $0.36. An average inflation rate of more than 4%.
1
I'm surprised no one brought up how often the turnstiles eat you fare. You'll swipe, it'll take money off your card and then won't let you through. At an unmanned station what are you supposed to do?
14
I remember the day, a couple years back, when more people entered the M116 bus in Harlem that I was riding... from the back exit-only door, than from the front door.
There are people who will take advantage of an open door. Checks must be put in place to preserve our transit system from those who steal a ride. The transit system is doing poorly at the moment. Ride thieves make it worse.
22
I’ve entered the subway without paying a half dozen times in the past year. I often use the NE entrance of the West 4th Street station (by the closed Duane Reade). The Metrocard readers there malfunction constantly.
There used to be an agent there if you had problems before the MTA budget cuts removed the booth, so now whenever I can’t get in it’s a 3-block walk to the other entrance where I’ll wait 10+ minutes for the sole agent to let me in.
I’m not doing that. I think the increase in farebeating is a problem the MTA created.
40
@Frank I agree. I am a woman in my 70s and had never failed to pay a fare until a couple of years ago, on one of the SBS buses, which tend to run in clumps without regard to any particular schedule. I did it because I didn't have time to both make the bus and get a ticket from the machine n the sidewalk. And I have done it since then. I still can't understand why MTA buses have to run in clumps of 3 and/or can't run at the right frequency even if they can't stick to their schedules.
3
I just watched the video over at Gothamist. The jumping over, the crawling under, the "two for one fare," well, lots of creativity in their brazen displays of law breaking.
5
No subway fare in New York Towne;
when tolls go up the folks sneak down.
Their reasons for evasion might
be so legit or really bite.
Whatever causes them to shirk,
it gives 'em all that New York smirk.
2
@tim torkildson
I am puzzled as to what doggerel contributes to this issue.
3
@tim torkildson
Does Utah have a "smirk?"
1
I don't like the product so I'm going to steal it.
Yeah, right.
The far leftist who runs this city is running it into the ground.
36
Deblasio does not run the subways,it is ran by Albany.
4
@Will, the subways are controlled by gov. cuomo, not de blasio.
4
If Jeff Bezos doesn’t have to pay his share I’m sure as heck not paying mine either.
7
It is public transit afterall....from each according to his abilities ( leaping, hurdling, slithering, squeezing) and to each according to his needs..." hey ..I get get uptown and I flat broke...fugetaboutit"
1
Can we please position cops or other security guards at these turnstiles to cut down on this type of theft? The amount of fare theft which they prevent will be many times what they earn.
20
No matter how people rationalize not paying their fare, it is theft of service and totally a crime of opportunity. If you stand at the particular entrance cited in the article, you will see many fare beaters wearing designer clothing and carrying iPhones. What is particularly troubling about all of this is that it shows a shocking lack of respect for law and order and the state of public services in the city. Makes me yearn for Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg and broken windows policing!
48
Last night I went to the movies at 11:15 pm. It was a multiplex and there were 5 other people at the show and around 20 employees. It was $13 and change for a senior. And oh don’t see Vox Lux. There is a price point at which the subway ceases to become public transportation and the MTA has passed that point. If you live in Manhattan you will be able to get where you are going and you can probably afford it. If you live in the boroughs you can lay odds about when you will get to work and you will surely be late for your fare beating court date, leaving everyone to smugly wonder about “these people.” There is another point at which the MTA becomes the thief of service, when you just give up and walk through the gate to turn around and go home. Also don’t count at Time Square because the Turnstiles and — well Times Square — are so clogged with tourists now that it makes up for the fare beaters who are New Yorkers on their way to. And they too take an inordinate amount of time to get through the turnstiles with their wheels bags. Also put a fare card machine inside the gates. It will give people a chance to up their cards while they are waiting as opposed to watching their train go by while they are waiting in line for a broken down fare card machine to board a broken down train.
9
Ive watched as police in Grand Central Station observe people flood through the exit gate because the 2....TWO....turnstiles at the Lex Ave entrance were so jammed with people both entering and exiting...and did nothing about it.
Even the cops know the situation is ridiculous, the stations incompetently designed, and that for many its just a question of practicality at packed rush hour times.
14
@John If you ask the cops why they don't do anything, they will tell you it's not their job; they are there "to fight the war on terror," and nothing else. This also goes for cops standing around doing nothing (except accumulate pension credits and pose for tourist photos) all over the city.
2
“Come Fly With Me”...of all the turnstiles!
I feel that the MTA needs to do better enforcement when it comes to fare evasion. Perhaps putting better surveillance cameras will help prevent that especially to those who don't want to be seen doing it. Also, I feel that the penalty for fare evasion should be more than just a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, there will be transit advocacy groups that will be crying foul to this and claim that the MTA is picking on them or others that tend to do it. Please understand that fare beating is one of the causes to why the MTA feels that they have to raise the fares especially due to those who feel that they deserve a free ride and whatever they don't pay forces others to pay even more just to cover for that. A better crackdown might actually make the fare hikes less constant. BTW, I'm tired of those saying that it's racism or some class warfare to go against them, because there are really fare beaters of all kinds, so this isn't limited to just some particular groups. If they can afford the clothing they have on, they can afford the fares very easily. The only reason they know that they can get away with it is mainly because there is very little enforcement stopping them from doing so. Then again, I won't be surprised if some of the fare beaters are part of transit advocacy groups, which could explain why they might be defended by them.
16
@Tal Barzilai, i'm all for increasing the penalties is we create prison terms for mta executives who collect six-figure salaries while presiding over a system that became broken on their watch. board members should be prosecuted as well.
7
Fare evasion is commonplace on the Metro Rail lines in the Los Angeles area. There seems to be little will to address the problem.
2
It would probably be cheaper to make the subways and buses free. Not only would there be millions saved in collection costs, but people would definitely use public transit more, freeing up the streets for essential deliveries and emergency vehicles. As usual, it's Utopia or oblivion.
7
@Carl Hultberg
Free means who pays?
8
@SR: Tax business and real estate interests to fund service.
4
so it's not free.
3
"But there is a growing sense that New Yorkers are feeling more emboldened to skip paying because the trains have become so unreliable."
If the service is unreliable, then *don't use the service*. Using the service without paying for it, will only make the service more unreliable in the future.
19
...and they should do what as an alternative to get to school or work? That is an utterly unrealistic and unhelpful comment.
2
"But there is a growing sense that New Yorkers are feeling more emboldened to skip paying because the trains have become so unreliable." So a protest turnstile jump? I don't think so.
"Last year, the Manhattan district attorney’s office decided to stop prosecuting most people arrested in fare evasion incidents, a policy change that transit officials say has contributed to the increase." BINGO
20
I’m shocked there’s no mention of the criminal gangs that abuse the unlimited ride cards by physically damaging the ticket machines, forcing riders to buy their ‘discounted’ fares and requiring repeated expensive repairs of the machines. The MTA is complacent in this activity, the booth workers, I suspect, are in on it, and the justice system just releases the perps to re-offend. Is there a public record of the loss incurred? Seemingly, nothing is being done about it.
7
The Paris Metro turnstiles make it impossible to get inside without using a ticket. It uses a tall, double door system. When a person swipes the outdoors open permitting him/her through to the second set of doors. The outer doors close before the inner doors open. The process is extremely fast. There is no dedicated emergency door. Why doesn't the MTA sue this system?
While I am sure that a number of fare-beaters simply don't have the money for a fare, many others jump the turnstiles with cash in their pockets. For them, those that pay are wimps.
As for buses, fare-beating is encouraged when the buses are so packed that customers with metrocards often have to enter through the back door. Under these circumstances, there is no way to distinguish the honest from the dishonest.
21
I watched four teenagers jump the gates in Paris after working as a team to boost each other over. The design reduces those evading fares but doesn’t stop everyone.
anyone who enters through the back door of the bus for any reason at all without using a Metrocard or paying the cash fare has no valid excuse. they are stealing from us all
1
@Alan Mass Why doesn't the MTA use this system? We refuse to learn from superior cultures. We refuse to acknowledge that we are number zero.
1
People just feel if you can do it...do it!
In any matter, it is we people who are honest and would not be caught cheating anyone as someone also ends paying if we do cheat that take up the moral slack and pay for our services.
5
Fare-beating is theft. Plain and simple.
60
@Eric
And no bankers went to prison after the 2008 financial collapse. What's the bigger scourge on society?
13
@LEM “whataboutism” is not the solution
13
@LEM
What’s the point in throwing a false-equivalency smoke bomb into the situation? If someone murdered a person near and dear to you, should I counter the charge of murder with, “Oh puh-leez, governments murder people by the thousands all the time. Get over it!” It’s a way to sound clever while not putting any thought or humanity into the actual concern.
18
Hold up! Growing up in NYC, the narrative was "people who didn't
pay fare were Criminals", now what is this article saying?
15
Just because the MTA is poorly managed does not give one the steal. If you do not pay the fare then you should go to jail. A ticket will not deter fare beaters. This is DeBlasio's fault for decriminalizing fare beating.
53
@Will
Jail time for a $2.75 fare? No, that's not right and you know it.
That's equivalent to saying you should go to prison and lose your license for driving 10 mph over the speed limit.
9
@LEM No it's equivalent to saying you should be arrested for stealing a cheap item. Now, I'm not sure that jail is the right punishment, but fare evaders should certainly be arrested. As others have written, one of the core tenets of democracy and strong civil societies is respect for the system. When people brazenly abuse it like this, the underlying system, which is based on mutual trust and tolerance, starts to collapse.
With Corey Johnson's Fair Fares program enacted, there's no reason we should be both providing so many people with free and discounted MetroCards and also tolerating this nonsense.
6
i suppose youd call for the arrest of jay- walkers, people who walk on prohibited grass, and for chucking a ciggarrette out their window. Obviously these should be penalized but get off your incarceration high horse.
If you want to live in a place like that move to a developing nation with a poor infrastructure of law enforcement.
2
I’ve never evaded paying the fare but.....in the past month on three separate occasions my subway train shut down and I was left at stations that had no alternative ways for me to get to work short of using Uber. I paid about $60 each time to get to my job. Will the MTA be reimbursing me for this expense? I use a monthly metro card so I can’t even get the single fare refunded to me. As a statement about the continuing disfunction of the subway system I can see evading the fare. Mr. mayor...why don’t you use the subways to get to work like the rest of us? You need to be a part of it all to be able to respond knowledgeably about a solution. Of course, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to live in public housing so that you can fully appreciate a winter without heat. Hmm....how about you and your family living in public housing and taking the subway/bus to city hall everyday. I wonder if you’d still be able to go to your gym in Brooklyn and make it to work on time.
28
@dearworld2 Bold of you to assume he cares about getting to work on time.
10
Signs of small civil decline such as this are worrisome.
Usually it signals major negative societal outcomes or future collapse.
If you add up all of these seemingly small infractions of daily life they create disorder and mayhem. Sheer anarchy is not conducive to a civil society. Ignore at great peril.
68
I agree. The broken windows policy worked for a reason. Now that they choose to decriminalize fare beating this is the result.
16
As an ex-New Yorker, i read the article and letters with sadness. I live in LA now. Every morning and evening i get upset at the dozens if not hundreds of cars illegally passing us in the car pool lane with only the driver in the vehicle. There is zero law enforcement. There are similar reasons why some of the turnstile jumpers and car pool lane violators break the law. But race and poverty don’t appear to be factors for breaking the law on the highway and I don’t hear anyone advocating a broken windows policing philosophy for BMW - Mercedes owners in LA. I wonder though if we checked their tax returns we would see the linkage between their sense of privilege or entitlement and law breaking behavior?
30
Subway fares are way too high. I bet there would be more people paying for their rides if the fares were $1 lower.
10
@DD
This! We should be encouraging people to ride transit, not penalizing them if they can't afford it.
11
So the mayor announced a while back that fare evasion would be treated on a lighter scale and then we have articles like this pondering why fare evasion is skyrocketing.
82
@Dave Fried
Bingo!
5
At least once a week I go to add money to my MetroCard and find a bank of machines that say NO CARDS or OUT OF ORDER. An entire station with no way to pay in unless you're carrying cash. Though I'm too nervous to risk getting caught fare-beating and typically just give up and walk, I completely understand why people choose to jump the turnstile.
If the MTA wants to crack down on farebeating, will they also start refunding us the $2.75 when we swipe in and find the trains aren't running (no signage at the turnstile) or are 20 minutes late? Telling me to mail in my MetroCard for a refund that takes a month is absolute nonsense.
152
@R.E
If you're not using a weekly or a monthly Metrocard, you might want to consider applying on-line with the MTA for an Easy Pay Xpress card. Your Easy Pay Metrocard is linked to your credit card and automatically refills so that your Metrocard never runs out of money.
Here's more info: http://web.mta.info/metrocard/EasyPayXpress.htm
6
@R.E I have a similar complaint, except mine is that I am always running into machines at Grand Central that say "cards only, no cash. Yesterday I went up to a machine with a $10 bill in my hand, which I wanted to add to the value of my senior card. Apparently, when the machines run out of change they stop accepting cash, whether you need change or not. Why not have a sign that says "exact change only" when they are no longer able to give change? So I had to use a credit card when I didn't want to.
To the people who say you should sign up for monthly cards or automatic top ups, this doesn't work for everyone. Some people go relatively long periods without using their cards.
7
Enforcement of the law is necessary for society to hold together. It's one thing when someone gets frustrated with card failure and somehow gains entrance after multiple attempts at swiping. It is altogether another issue when you see a bunch of youngsters laughingly jump over the turnstile. That behavior breeds simmering resentment.
106
@Jake
Stealing is stealing. Dog whistle justification is wrong.
5
Crack down on those who do not pay and sneak in! I do not want the fares to rise because of those who do not pay! Fares shouldn't rise - proper management of the whole transit system will cut back on fare evaders, broken signals, and late over crowded trains!
18
Hmm...seems like a lot of this is MTA needing upgrades and more staff onsite. I can’t say how many times my monthly card hasn’t worked. I keep two spares with cash on them in my wallet just in case, after learning the hard way. One morning, late for work, card reader wouldn’t register my card, which had plenty of fare on it. Swiped slowly, fast, from different angles.... no dice. There was no subway agent box, so no assistance. The ticket machines both were out of service. I swiped one last time and gave up, hopping over the turnstile rather than going back up to the street to find a taxi. Bad call, I two cops swoop in and I get a $100 ticket instead of a $20 cab ride. And am extra late and angry to boot. I would prefer City allocate funding to more MTA staff and equipment to run the system properly as opposed to cops giving tickets. Not saying we don’t need police around, we do. But we need functioning MTA more.
34
Closing subway clerk booths was the choice for cutting staff during Bloomberg’s tenure. What we call the Republican in Democrat’s wool move. He also closed secure housing, one each borough for runaway, or abused youth, male and female housing, one each per borough with educational, supervisory, food and housing. There was a recreational component for after school learning, crafts, art. And an allowance. The City was the parent. Bloomberg imported a team from Ayn Rand country—Wisconsin— that took over and depopulated the social services sector of government services.
The next year, Riker’s population bloomed. Foisting childcare onto “agencies” that underpay, undercare was the Bloomberg tradition. And we have another Democrat acting like Repub-lite. Open some booths, repopulate the train stations, problem solved.
8
@Lleone, the number of voters who believe the mayor is responsible for the subways is a key reason why the governor, who is responsible, feels he can ignore them.
15
@mark you’re right that it’s on State, thanks for adding that in.
4
People who steal and break laws always have a long list of excuses handy. If we weren't hearing them in this article, their employer would be hearing them when they are late, their spouse would be hearing them when they make a mistake, and their friends would hear them when they are let down in some way. This will never change.
What we CAN change is the enforcement of the laws so that we can recuperate at least some of the money these people cost to the public every year.
36
$100 fine seems not steep enough to deter fare beaters. Maybe I should start doing it. Before it was a gamble that a few were willing to take. Now that no one is even attempting to watch the gate, people are emboldened to break the law. Contrast that with parking meter fines which are usually about $80 but enforcement is tight and people never expect to beat the system so they pay that meter.
11
@Goyo P I agree. Maybe liens should be placed on people who do not pay their summons for fare-beating.
I also agree. You bought up a good point about parking meters fares being enforced without much difficulty. Maybe the MTA can learn from that.
3
What’s an elderly or disabled person supposed to do if they hobble into a station, have money on their card, but the card won't properly swipe? There are no tellers at most stations thanks to "cost saving measures" enacted during the Bloomberg Administration, when there was plenty of money. At that same time Mayor Bloomberg refused to pay the City's portion of MTA financing, (de Blasio refused too, only very recently agreeing due to enormous public pressure). New York Governors going back to Pataki use a fraudulent financing scheme to steal massive amounts of money from the MTA. Cuomo takes even more, giving money already allocated for repairs to luxury Skiing Resorts owned by donors.
I've actually seen elderly people unable to enter a station on numerous occasions. Two people I'd never met before, both on canes, insisted on trying to pay. I helped them up the stairs and at least a block away. In one case the teller was of no help, in the other there was no teller anywhere.
This life-long New Yorker is disgusted. Cuomo and de Blasio refuse to fix anything, but have no problem gleefully giving the wealthiest man in the world 2 billion dollars of our money during a mass transit disaster and while homelessness is at Great Depression levels, shelters filled with families with children. If you want to find out why people are not paying fares, first ask why the politicians and the wealthiest have for decades be stealing far more than all the fare evaders put together ever can.
65
@Robert B
[[What’s an elderly or disabled person supposed to do if they hobble into a station, have money on their card, but the card won't properly swipe?]]
Mmmmm, most of the fare beaters http://gothamist.com/2018/12/05/subway_turnstile_jumping_nyc.php are able-bodied and look like Edwin Moses running the 400 meter hurdles.
10
@Third.coast I don't doubt that many fare beaters are able bodied and strong; I've seen it myself, and I really hate that people evade paying fares, but I also dislike that there's no context for fare-beating. It was what I was actually writing about, but you seemed to somehow have missed it. Lawlessness is related to a lack of enforcement, but it's primarily caused by systemic dysfunction, criminality, and lawlessness, and that starts at the very top, with the most politically and economic powerful, and not at the bottom.
I'm old enough to remember being scared to go onto the subways, because like all of my childhood friends, we took our life in our hands when we took the subway. Back then, if someone jumped a turnstile they were far too often going onto a platform to mug someone. This was so apparent that when I and a childhood friend saw several men jump a turnstile we left a station even though we had already paid our fares. Upon leaving we tried to tell an adult not to go into the station, but he wouldn't listen to a pair of kids. So he wound up being brutally attacked and robbed. How many of these people jumping the turnstiles now, even if they are in excellent shape, are actually violent criminals?
My larger question however was: How much moral authority do the Governor and Mayor, along with their wealthy patrons, have when they speak of fare evaders since they’ve spent decades deliberately stealing billions of dollars from the mass transit system? None.
15
@Third.coast I am one of the hobbling elderly fare beaters. I do not jump over turnstiles, but I do board buses at the back without paying when I know this clump of 3 buses is the last clump for a considerable while and I don't have time to swipe my card at the ticket machine on the curb.
3
Where in Times Square is there a subway entrance with an emergency exit gate that doesn't have a Metro Card vending machine right there, let alone "one block away" as referred to in the article? It doesn't seem likely.
5
See it virtually all the time at Lincoln Center station.
Even the non-voters seem empowered, like Trump, to abuse and milk what should be an equal system.
8
@mef One of the probems with the Lincoln Center station is poor management.
I am elderly. When a senior loses or has stolen his or her Metro card, he or she has to wait a month for a new one. In the interim, we are allowed to purchase only one round trip reduced fare ticket at a time ( and it has to be bought at a station with an agent,not from a machine), and it is not reloadable, like permanent senior cards. One night this year, during a period when I was waiting for a replacement card, I left a performance at Lincoln Center at about 10.30 only to find the agent in the subway station had disappeared. When I asked the person cleaning the floor if she knew where the agent was, she shrieked at me that the agent is "entitled to 20 minute breaks." Okay, fine, but one can't help wonder if it has ever occurred to the MTA that this could be inconvenient when a lot of performances at Lincoln Center are ending and literally thousands of people are headed to the subway station. Maybe they could find a sub to fill in during the "breaks?" The only thing that surprises me about fare beaters at Lincoln Center is that there aren't more of them.
5
"Last year, the Manhattan district attorney’s office decided to stop prosecuting most people arrested in fare evasion incidents..."
So the Manhattan DA is giving a free pass to fare evaders the same way it gave a free pass to Harvey Weinstein.
So heartening to know the poor get the same treatment as the rich.
18
60 years ago the big big problem was people hacking public telephones and making calls for free. Now it's the subway. Tomorrow, who knows?
Solution? Implant everybody with an RFID chip.
I'm sure Trump would go for it.
2
My solution: tax the rich and make the rides free.
18
@NYC
Rich New Yorkers already pay most of the taxes in NYC. Ever hear of killing the goose that laid the golden egg?
10
I have my metro card set up to refill automatically. I don’t have to use the stupid machines.
That said, I bike almost every day. It takes half the time to get to work.
11
The ghetto culture is reclaiming New York City. Bratton was right about fare-beaters, that's how thieves and muggers entered the transit system. Look for a gradual increase in subway robberies over the next year as the criminal element figures out that it's their subway system now.
37
@NYC Taxpayer meanwhile, NYC literally has never felt safer in it's history. Can't speak for y'all over at Staten island, where some of your stations literally don't even collect fare (do you see the irony, the white ghetto of NY?? You literally don't have turnstiles to jump, walk right in for free). But over here in ghetto Brooklyn, you can walk places you wouldn't dream of 30 years ago. These are the nicest "criminal element figures" you can find.
7
@NYC Taxpayer
I agree, not mentioning that police is nowhere in sight whenever “subway acrobats” terrorize riders with doing saltos and other antics in a full subway car...
12
@Kevin m
When somebody puts the word "Taxpayer" in their handle, you can be sure it will be followed by a rant against free-loaders, minorities, thieves, immigrants or any body else who said Taxpayer thinks is not paying taxes ,,,
6
From 1992. "In a typical fare-evasion sweep in Bushwick and East New York, about 25 percent of those arrested for fare-beating have warrants for previous crimes."
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/17/nyregion/open-season-on-fare-beaters.html
20
More of deBlasio leading us down the path to anarchy. We know from painful experience that if we allow "broken windows" to fester eventually everything goes to Hell.
23
Where are the cops?
15
@paul at 7-11 or playing soldier at the Times Square security theater.
10
@paul, Donut shop?
7
@paul
Stuck in traffic driving in from Westchester and other suburbs. Cops do not live in new York City!
4
Not that I condone people avoiding to pay for their subway rides, I do think it's fair to point out that this is a direct result of the neglect that the MTA has shown towards its riders for decades.
It's clear the MTA doesn't value their quality of service, and the rise in fare evasion is a response to that.
From someone who uses the subway on a daily basis, the conditions are on the verge of being inhumane, and the accountability of the MTA is non existent.
Dear MTA, improve the conditions of the subway and maybe its riders will be compelled to pay for an actual service, rather than paying for an unreliable and dilapidated system that should have received this attention a long time ago.
Sincerely,
Concerned rider
15
The closing of staffed token booths and the unlocking of emergency exits has contributed greatly to this problem. Lock the exits again. Turn on the sirens. Wider deployment of facial recognition devices and videography with the law allowing summons to be issued based on this method may help. I do not know what to do for buses.
11
I say that enforcement is too lax. Punish the behavior. No one has earned the right to a free ride.
23
Some farebeating is just to not pay, but a sizable number are due to frustration. I have certainly been tempted to walk through an open gate when the lines at the turnstiles were long or the card readers at two of three weren't working. I have a monthly pass, and must say that the way the MTA collects and enforces its subway fares has to be one of the least customer-friendly I have experienced in subway systems on three continents. The design of both "swipy" and exit-only turnstiles leaves much to be desired, and there aren't enough of them in many stations. Many stations have sufficient space to install additional exit-only turnstiles that would ease congestion. This would also allow to make at least some turnstiles "entry only" during rush hour. However, my sneaky suspicion is that the turnstile bottlenecks also exist as a way for the MTA to "manage" overcrowding of platforms and trains. That, of course, totally ignores the needs of us, the customers, but is easier than running more trains.
11
more should do it I do it whenever I'm in the subway, which is almost never. MTA deserves to fail.
3
@Martin X Says the man who can't hack it in New York City.
8
@Third.coast says the man who doesn't know me.
2
[[A commuter who gave her name only as Janet was also unhappy after receiving a summons. She said she was late for work and it seemed easier to use the emergency exit.]]
The first job I ever had as a kid, the boss said to never come in late and blame traffic or transit or anything else. "If you're late," he said, "I'd rather you just turned around and went home rather than blame external forces."
Something tells me "Janet" will set her alarm clock ten minutes earlier.
9
I'm curious to know how many people who jump have an unlimited card.
A pretty common occurrence for me is that I swipe and the turnstile tells me to swipe again and then when I swipe again the turnstile tells me that my card was just used at this turnstile and it locks me out unless I wait five or ten minutes.
What else am I to do but jump? I've already paid anyways.
70
@AGuyInBrooklyn
A pretty common occurrence? Can't be.
5
I did this once. The turnstiles have to be maintained to function correctly, but it’s not uncommon to find that you have swiped your card in a filthy one that leaves a sticky residue on the card. On one occasion, at a station where there was no booth, I went under the turnstile rather than miss the train that had just pulled it, or wait necessary 15 minutes before I could try my card at a different turnstile. I had a 30-day card, and it cost the MTA nothing, but it cost me some unnecessary aggravation. The turnstile gunk has to be cleaned off the card if you expect it to work properly again. The card readers on the buses don’t seem to have this problem.
Fare evasion is definitely increasing on the bus lines that I use. At a couple of stops, like the eastbound M14 stop at 1st Ave., people often enter the bus through the rear door. But sometimes this happens simply because the bus is so packed that no one can get in at the front. No one with a 7-day or 30-day card should feel bad about boarding in the back if it’s the only way they can get on the bus.
4
@AGuyInBrooklyn you don't know how to swipe.
2
Focusing on fare evasion is the MTA's way of trying to deflect the responsibility away from themselves and their lack of any semblance of competence.
20
@RFB
Absolutely, when someone jumps a turnstile to avoid a 2.75 fare , it is called theft. When the politicians mismanage budgets of billions, it is called bureaucracy....
5
When I see fare evaders do so with such lack of fear or shame, it leaves me feeling insecure and angry. I don't accept that fare evasion is an act of protest, but rather a sign of social decay and inequity. Either way, I have little sympathy for fare evaders, as these and other petty crimes contribute to the decay of civility that we share as people inhabiting this or any city.
I believe it was a grossly myopic decision by NYPD and the Mayor to decrease monitoring and prosecutions of fare evasion for this reason alone.
126
@Steven
That decision was not made by the NYPD and the Mayor. It is DeBlasio's decision and his alone. He sets the policy and the police have to go along with it if that's what the mayor really wants - and that IS what the mayor wants.
The mayor doesn't believe in cracking down on "low quality" crimes. Well, this is what happens when you make that decision.
6
From my first-hand experience, and as someone that lived in the South Bronx for years, among many folks who do not pay for public transportation, this is why I have seen people not pay (ran out of characters):
1. In areas where buses are used for every jaunt, people cannot afford the $5.50 rides ($2.75 to/from their destination), particularly when they have multiple members of their party. If a mother with 3 children needs to run an errand two stops away, it comes out to $22 round-trip.
2. Many folks have Unlimited Metrocards. Beggers will wait at the entrance to the turnstyles waiting for Unlimited card-holding folks to exit, begging them to swipe him/her in. Someone always does, believing that he/she is helping the person. He is, albeit at the expense of our system as a whole.
3. In outer boroughs, there is little-to-no enforcement in the back exit of the bus for those that walk in.
4. People come in the front entrance of the bus and complain as long as it takes for the bus operator to allow them a free ride. Almost every time the tired bus operator relents.
5. Spaces to exit subways at some stations are far too small for the crowds that they serve. The only realistic way to exit the station in under 10 minutes is to go through the emergency exit, thereby leaving the door open all day. This is what caused the original removal of the door alarms.
6. There is little criminal deterrent for hopping the turnstyles anymore, unless you meet the req described in this article.
24
NYC ID cards should be issued to all city residents. The ID should then give unlimited access to subway and bus services.
Non residents would need to join a monthly automatically renewed subscription. Or pay a higher single ride fee.
A tax would fund the subway based on income. Providing a reliable source of income for the MTA. Since it is spread out to all 8 million citizens, the tax would not be that high. Maybe around the same as what a monthly pass already costs, for middle class citizens.
People would be incentivize to use mass transit since they have already paid for it. That along with congestion pricing would reduce congestion while funding the MTA.
5
@Jack
Very few elderly people use the subways, for a myriad of obvious reasons. Should they be taxed "around the same as what a monthly pass already costs"? Think before you pontificate!
5
@Joe Pearce The elderly would benefit from quicker commutes on the street due to lessened congestion. I don't have kids, I pay for public schools because it's a service that improves civil society.
5
The elderly have low to little income so wouldn’t be charged much, if anything.
So many elderly people how still ride the subway and bus would end up paying less than what they currently pay.
4
two things. people complaining about the conditions of the service have no idea how bad it was in the 70's and 80's. the assault on one's senses as well as one's sensibilities was beyond belief.
natives will tell you that the brief upswing during the tech and stock boom was nothing more than spending easy money like a drunken sailor and doing just enough as the city was becoming hip to a new influx of wealthy hip people with no experience of how poorly the city was managed in the past. this fueled another boom which also papered over the problems, however the functional issues and long forgotten bad trade-offs were never rectified as these were not sexy enough.
easy dirty money makes people forget the underlying problems and leadership gets the opportunity to hide them.
another factor is that the new wealthy overwhelmingly select surface travel usually of the four wheel, rubber tired variety, hence Uber and other slave class servants. NYC pushes its slave class to the outermost reaches of the tax farm and subjects them to brutal commutes into where the rich live and consume. a little thing to remember about controlling people is to keep them working long hours and commuting counts towards this. in this manner they have little time or energy to effect change. these little affronts to the system are insignificant ways for them to feel in control. let them have it as without, things could get nasty like the 70's. do not think that the powerful do not know this.
9
@Chris But at least the fare was only 50 cents back then, and the Guardian Angels were standing guard.
1
[[The aggressive enforcement of fare evasion has also drawn criticism nationally over concerns that arrests target black and Hispanic riders.]]
What! The police are stopping "black and Hispanic" people who have paid their fare and are falsely accusing them of fare evasion!?!?! That's an outrage! Call the ACLU!!! I demand....
Oh, wait, you mean these "black and Hispanic" people haven't paid their fare and the police are doing their job by issuing citations.
Well, cry me a river.
You know how you avoid being "targeted"? Pay your fare. What percentage of fare beaters are carrying $600 smartphones with unlimited data plans? I'm going with 100%. If you can't afford to ride the subway, maybe you can't afford to live in New York City.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Meanwhile, raise the fine for fare beating to $300.
216
So nuanced. Maybe the larger question to ask is whether, like with marijuana, disproportionate numbers of Latinos or black people are being arrested, despite the "crime" being generally committed by white people.
12
@Sam
"despite the 'crime' generally being committed by white people." Um, who is nuanced now? Your statistical support for this claim? Where I live in Manhattan--a mostly wealthy and white neighborhood (I'm rent stabilized older hanger-on)--and I only see kids (teens and early 20s) of color jumping the turnstiles. Maybe some do have their reasons (can't afford it), but I haven't done a study, I'm just reporting what I see fairly often.
33
@Third.coast Thank you for this. I am fed up with the complete lawlessness we need to put up with now. De Blasio's last day in office can't come soon enough.
18
Despite the chatter of woke ideologues, a crime is a crime, whether committed by rich or poor, black or white. We need people to pay for government services, or else the whole system continues to get worse. Subsidize fares for the poor so they ride for less, but if you allow lawlessness or lighten fines for illegal entry, you’re setting a dangerous precedent that “rules don’t apply to me.”
133
@IntentReader The funny thing is that there's a call for the super rich to pay their "fair share" (which they should) but the working class "don’t feel like going all the way there to put money on my card," because "sometimes it’s easier to use the door."
"I don’t feel bad."
Well don't expect the rich for doing what they can to avoid paying their "fair share."
14
a crime is a crime yet Donald Trump is President.
3
There are some subway stops where there is no token booth or clerk at an entrance. If something is wrong with the turnstile door entry, you have to go back upstairs and walk at least a block outside to get into the station by swiping your card at a working turnstile. Unacceptable. If your turnstile equipment is broken, you cannot blame people for entering without swiping.
18
To help people jump over turnstiles, put two secure handholds at exactly the right height to enable people to vault the turnstile.
That’s what I learned from the Gothamist video. It’s as if the structure to which the turnstile was mounted was specifically designed to facilitate vaulting.
Put the turnstiles between vertical walls.
5
@Djt
NYC will quickly become the city of hurdling and vaulting champions... Perhaps the health benefits of such a fit populace would outweigh the fall in fare collection. In fact, I think that's a fair trade-off ..pay a fare or do a 50 yd dash followed by a long jump ....
4
"Washington City Council"?
That would be the D.C. Council, in common use, or the Council of the District of Columbia, under the federal law that established home rule.
2
i cant count how many times i've hopped the turnstile after getting a "swipe again" message only to have it then say "just used" (which means you have to wait 15 minutes to use it again). the MTA is junk through and through and you could pay a sack of potatoes half of what a station agent makes and it would do twice the work. this isn't on the riders.
37
@Slim that's probably your attempt at using an unlimited card for multiple people. I have lived in this city through the entire Metro Card era, and this has never happened to me.
5
If this has never happened to you, you are very, very fortunate. It happens pretty often, and it is incredibly frustrating when it does. When it happens where there is no token booth, you either have to find some other way to get where you’re going, or you have to wait for 15 minutes.
16
@db you are very fortunate New Yorker, if this hasn't happened to you, as it's happened to me more than a few time since the introduction of the metro card
4
There are cops in the subway ? I never see them anymore . It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a uniformed cop either on the platform or train . What happened to the Guardian Angels ? As the POTUS always used to say, “ There’s something going on “ !
2
Well, in the early Seventies, Dark-Subway-Agents roamed Columbia's Campus 116th Street and sold us Y-Tokens at half off, that was a good deal, and no need to jump a turnstyle. I had a car.
1
I remember a decade or so ago when the MTA was running a surplus. Beating their chests. And through mismanagement and incompetence, they squandered it all. Now I watch them disrupt the commutes of millions to install Bill Wegman dog mosaics and touch screens no one uses, while the infrastructure crumbles. People aren’t stupid. They see all this and they resent it. You reap what you sow.
11
I am 100% sure that corrupt politicians, through nepotistic hirings, overpaying of contractors, etc., have ripped off the system far more than fare beaters have.
21
@mijosc
Right on. Politicians are doing bad things so now I'm entitled to disregard laws and do whatever I want.
3
I thought the current administration wanted to cut back on punishments for low level crimes like this, no? Wasn't this outcome inevitable? Even if the subway system improves marginally, people aren't going to feel any less guilty about getting a free ride if it's there for the taking. On top of this, we know that a fare hike is coming. What is the message to the people who actually pay for their ride? You're a sucker, and you're going to pay more to make up for those who ain't paying.
13
There is truth to the “broken windows” concept.
When fare beating is rampant and is readily observed, paying some customers feel foolish and join in.
Rationalizations soon follow, eg. I’m protesting, It’s not conveinient, It’s too far.....etc.
The simple truth is they don’t want to pay and will steal until stopped....
17
Oh my! In the earliest years when Dad and I visited Macy*s from the 'burbs to see Santa at Macy*s, he'd tell me to scurry under the turnstiles. I recall the time I ducked under and he angrily called me back, sternly telling me I was too old to travel free.
Dad was poised to pay for my travel, but I insisted .... it was 66 Christmases ago, but I remember him handing the token (!) to me and how I felt as I reached to put that token in the slot. I walked through the turnstile standing taller and feeling so darned grown up -- I knew right then and there that the world was now mine.
10
I see people every day jump over or crawl under the turnstyles at Lincoln Center, where I work. Cheating is widespread, and not just on the subway.
Look what sits in the White House.
92
@MAW Agree. Afternoon & evening at the entrance by 65th St, evasion is rampant & I've never seen a cop around.
5
Electronic vehicle radio tags are utilized to pay the crossing fees on the bridges and tunnels; sometimes going going as fast as 70 mph!
2
NYC's subway system is on the verge of a death spiral due to a lack of investment and upgrades in it's infamous signaling switches which date back to the 1940's, and it's physical infrastructure and cars.
But the real danger is a riding public which has lost respect for the service. When that tipping point is reached people will evade fares, trash the stations and cars and civility and norms will give way.
16
Surprised to see so many bashing the MTA for what is a brazen crime. Fare dodging is prevalent and turning a complete blind eye to it is not fair to paying customers. I am not discounting the fact that there are people who cannot afford it - there should be systems in place where they can acquire a ticket to become legitimate by meeting some criteria or something. The answer shouldn’t simply be that people resort to stealing.
22
@Tom: I think we'd all have sympathy for a destitute person who cannot afford the fare, or a welfare mother with only so much on her Metrocard (but 3 kids and herself who need a ride)....but it really looks like the cheaters are perfectly able to pay. They just don't want to, because they feel they can get away with it.
The same "rule" applies to shoplifting and other petty thefts of all kinds.
9
The MTA callously breaks its contract of faith with the public at every turn. New Yorkers should be documenting every swipe and overcharge with iPhone video camera. Oh, wait, the MTA could do that with a small investment in technology at each turnstile station.
5
You say the subway is overpriced, then you run up the fares, stealing from the working class.
8
I'm guessing here. I can buy a bottle of water, or cup of coffee with the simple "swipe" of my cellphone...but the NYC Transit has not upgraded to that technology? Airlines let me board via my hand-held, no paper...but the NYC subway system...? (buzzer sounds) Nope!
Im sure that's the case. As the NYC Transit system is never up to date on technology. Look how long it took them to put in ticket vending machines...which by the time they were installed were outdated, and as usual difficult to use.
No one should cheat, prepare to travel and have the card topped off at all times. Apathy and laziness are the only reasons for not having a ready Metrocard...which should be akin to a credit card, better made, and easily filled.
But there will always be those who do. Just demands better surveillance. Maybe its time to put a face scanner right there at every turnstile...snapping pictures all day long.
But who am I kidding? It'll be 2040 before the NYC would even pilot that program, and by then we'll have our chips implanted...but the turnstiles will not be capable of reading those either...
Long live the NYC mismanagement syndrome!
3
@Boregard.
[[Airlines let me board via my hand-held, no paper...but the NYC subway system...? (buzzer sounds) Nope!]]
Do you trust the MTA with the data they'd require to manage that system?
2
I remember riding the New York subway back in the 1970's. People used to put stickers on the broken doors that said "Fix Me," with a place for the date it was reported. Some of those stickers would be on the broken doors for months.
Time to go back to the stickers, only this time, just place them anywhere in the subway.
Why should people pay for the right to ride on this broken down system?
9
@george eliot: sorry, but nobody has an inherent right to "ride for free".
You don't have to take the subway, you can take a bus or taxi or Uber or walk or bicycle.
3
I have a granddaughter who is attending a New York City high school. She lives almost 1.5 miles away – and that means that she is not eligible for half fare on the bus. She would have to live 1.5 miles or more away from the school.She is a child and her parents are poor so they cannot pay the almost 6 dollars a day and $30 a week that it would cost for her to ride the subway full fare. It takes her 45 minutes to walk to school. Her parents do not feel it is a safe enough neighborhood for her to ride her bike to school. I do not understand why High school students in New York City are not given free metro cards so they can attend school in an affordable manner. She would have to live 1.5 miles or more away from the school.As far as I’m concerned, she is entirely justified if she decides to jump the turnstile.
29
Francesca, at nearly 1.5 miles away from school, your granddaughter has a reduced price metrocard which cuts the price of transportation in half to $1.50 a day or $15 a week. Still think it’s ok to encourage her to steal?
20
@KRA This is half price BUS only. Not half price train. The busses take longer and are more unpredictable than the trains. Many high schools won't accept homework for the class if you are a minute late. I am in the same situation. I pay $116 a month for one of my students, while the other one gets 3 free rides a day. Every middle school and high school age student should receive free subway transportation to and from school regardless of the distance they live from the school.
7
@Francesca how could it possibly take a high school kid 45 minutes to walk 1.5 miles?
21
Protest vote? Too expensive? Opportunist? Putting the "public" back in public transportation?
I'd say all of the above. The MTA is over priced. The service is terrible. We shouldn't have rider fees for mass transit anyway. There is usually safety in numbers.
I generally paid my fees when I lived in New York. However, that's only because work provided a monthly pass to my spouse. Two-for-one beat playing the odds jumping turnstiles. I left that behind after high school. I don't remember ever seeing an exit door in those days.
I do remember having to get buzzed-in through the exit door whenever I took my bike on the subway though. You swipe in front of a teller and they'll let you through. That's another system that's totally broken. I had to swipe at turnstile to enter an exit door in front of a teller so I could carry my bike down two flights of stairs. This after paying $2.75 for the privilege. What?
I don't remember anyone specific following me through the exit door but you could basically just hold the door for people all day long. The teller isn't leaving the booth. He or she would simply radio for security. Don't be the person who gets caught.
2
If the MTA is so hot to collect fares, what are we to make of the taping over of bus fare-boxes on the Bx10 route? Those of us who take the Bx10 believe it is a trick to undercount ridership so that MTA can continue to underserve the riders. Sometmes, the discouraging of paying fares is so blatant that the driver is ordered by the dispatcher to simply put his hand over the fare-box.
Not all uncollected fares have to do with service theft. Some has to do with MTA actions to prevent paying of fares.
34
@Rodrick Wallace Just in case, be ready to take a picture of that fare box while the operator (driver) covers it with their hand. In SF, you can be fined $125 for non payment even if the operator covers the box and then lies to the fare inspectors about preventing you from paying. That happened to me, and I wasn't savvy enough to capture the moment. Luckily, other passengers backed me up. After watching fare beaters rule with impunity in SF for years, now people who pay are being harassed, fined unfairly (especially those who look like good marks to the inspectors) and forced to take time off work to challenge bogus fines. NY'ers, don't let this happen to you. The system will find its money where it can. Document your experience. Defend yourselves.
4
A big problem in my opinion is that the card readers at the turnstyles often malfunction. Once at the station at 25th and 8th Ave, neither turnstyle functioned. I paid once and the turnstyle wouldn't let me through; I swiped again and was charged again, but the turnstyle still wouldn't let me through. I tried the other turnstyle -- charged again and not let through again. About 15 other people within a minute had the same problem. There were only two turnstyles and both had the same problem. Yes, I, along with all the others, went through the emergency door, but I paid triple fare. Keep up the card reader maintenance please, MTA. Problems like these are major.
135
@Alice Most often, though, fare-beaters do it because there are no tellers anymore.
4
@Alice - Thank you for this! I visit NYC often enough (from MN) to arrive with a MetroCard in hand to save time and it never fails that I encounter a malfunction. The card is not expired, the magnetic strip is not damaged and I've swiped and I've paid. Yet I'm standing there unable to move and like you and the people waiting behind me, very frustrated, so it's off to the emergency door.
24
@Alice I ride the subway about 10-12 times per week (often, but not always, on the same line, granted) and I almost never run into this problem. Far be it from me to defend the MTA's service, but I don't think this issue your raising is as pervasive as you make it out to be. It's probably specific to some (how may, I don't know) stations.
2
Also, don't forget that there used to be station agents (token sellers, or whatever their title was) at every station entrance. While this didn't stop all fare beating by any means, it did at least let people know someone was watching, and for many, many people that was enough to persuade them not to enter without paying.
Financially, the MTA might be better off not paying for these positions and accepting more fare evasion, but it is still a factor in the overall amount of fare evasion.
52
@A Mann
I imagine that the financial trade off benefit is long gone.
@EdNY
Not really. Not paying salaries is a gift that keeps on giving.
3
I returned to the city for a visit a short while ago. I was full of Nostalgia, eager to see what had changed since I lived in the city in the 90s and pleased to see the waking park on the Hudson.
I was also shocked to see how the subways had deteriorated. My metrocard wouldn't swipe and then I got in I was caught *for an hour* when the red line stopped because of a snowstorm. Because of snow in New York in November! To say nothing of the cattle car like crowding . . .
The subways are broken, no wonder so many avoid paying.
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@DanInTheDesert
Same here!! The station I used, for just 6 local stops to the Met, was awash in garbage and filth and after wading through whatever was congealed in front of the metro card vending machine-it was out of service!
Frustrated myself, I then watched people trying to use their cards and in return getting rigid turnstiles. Those unfortunate NY’ers facing this every working day have my utmost sympathy! (of note, this is what I endured in the 70’s living in the Village so it brought back all those negative feelings-but then reinforced why I don’t live here anymore!) The corruption of the M.T.A. and it’s so called ‘leadership’ should make front page news every single day until the riders get what they pay for.
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@DanInTheDesert
[[The subways are broken, no wonder so many avoid paying.]]
If I need something from BestBuy and I think it's overpriced, can I just steal it?
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@DanInTheDesert: I agree -- from my readings here, I don't live in NYC -- that the subway system is severely strained and broken and neglected.
But none of that justifies stealing or cheating.
If you feel it is broken....write your representative. Call everyone at City Hall. Call the mayor. Call city council. Call the local news. Organize protest marches. Organize strikes. DO SOMETHING.
But cheating and stealing are not the answer to this problem.
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Something this article doesn’t consider — how many of those people entering through the emergency gate are actually holders of unlimited metrocards? If my card mis-swipes, I’m certainly not going to let the MTA charge me twice for a ride. If a train is just arriving and it’s faster to go through the gate, why not just do it? I don’t consider it to be fair evasion if I’ve technically already paid.
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@Don Leistman You'll think otherwise when you get caught.
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I echo the argument that silencing the emergency alarms greatly increased the number of people evading fares. At my local station it saves 2 blocks of walking to exit through the emergency door, and more often then not folks are waiting to stream in. For what it's worth, I appreciate the ability to exit through these gates without setting off the sirens!
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There are multiple problems with the subway system. Fare evasion is one of them...but it isn't near the top. It should be addressed but not before fixing the pricing model that has existed for subway repair, development/improvement. Consider the total cost to the City of fare evasion versus building a mile of new track. And consider that most of the evasion is being done by people who have difficulty meeting the price of commuting on the subways. Yes, it makes a good human interest story....and yes the subways need to raise funds for repair. Please pay more attention on the places where there is savings in big bucks.
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@daniel a friedman
From a year ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html
"How excessive staffing, little competition,
generous contracts and archaic rules dramatically
inflate capital costs for transit in New York."
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@Third.coast Am in agreement...the Times should keep their eye on the ball....but fare evasion is a topic that reaches readership self righteous indignation.
I use the subway at all hours and find it most reliable during the off hours. From my station I know there are trains at about 3:10 & 3:30am and rarely are they off by more than a minute or two. While there are many issues with the subway which need to be addressed I feel most people want to complain for the sake of complaining. Entering through an exit because you’re late? That’s not the fault of the MTA. A monthly Metrocard is $121 for unlimited rides, I’d argue that’s the best deal in NYC.
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I cannot speak for the masses who use the transit system, but I believe that one of the biggest problems is the poor reliability of the Metro Card system. Almost every time I swipe my card at a subway turnstile, I get the message "please swipe again at this turnstile". Sometimes it takes three tried before my card is accepted.
I can easily understand how frustrating this can be for a regular commuter.
That said, I have never, and would never try to beat the fare. If my Metro Card won't work after repeated attempts, I normally use a second card I carry for just that purpose.
I understand that a "non-contact" type of system will replace the Metro Card by 2023, with implementation beginning as early as mid 2019. I look forward to this new system, and I believe it will have a positive effect in curbing fare evasion.
I fear that another fare increase will only exacerbate the fare evasion problem. People are already frustrated by poor service, overcrowded trains and buses, and a fare system that is unreliable.
Adding a fare increase will only frustrate them further, leading to an increase in fare evasion.
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@Frank The MTA is moving to a contactless fare payment system over the next few years. Testing will start in 2019 on the Staten Island express buses.
http://www.mta.info/press-release/mta-headquarters/mta-introduce-new-fare-payment-system-replace-metrocard
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The world of 1970s New York a/k/a, "the bad old days" included turnstile jumping. We need to revisit Bratton's "broken windows" and realize "jumping" is part of the low-level enforcement strategy; unattended to, "jumping", et. al. adds up into collective offenses that create an overall perception of lawless NYC. Please ask an effective elementary, middle or high school teacher about classroom management - great teachers manage "the small stuff" so it never gets big. Please try to look at broken windows as a sensible strategy for allowing 8M people to share common space - pleasurably.
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“I’m sad that Metro’s losing money, but I’m more sad about what’s happening to black people.”
More black people will be hurt if there is no Metro or if Metro cuts its service.
What a dumb comment by an elected official. No good will come out if lowering standards out of some sort of bizarre notion to be fair to black or poor people. The system will simply collapse upon itself that goes for public transportation, schools and even a country.
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@Ed: someone above mentioned "broken windows", a theory that if you let the small stuff go by....very shortly a neighborhood (or transit system) goes to heck, because nobody bothers with ANY rules....they throw trash, break stuff, jump turnstiles, etc. etc.
In a short time, it is a miserable failed system or neighborhood that NOBODY wants to ride or live in.
HOWEVER....that theory is now out of favor with lefty liberals. WHY? because it is "mean to black people", who apparently should not have to follow the basic rules of civilized behavior in society.
It also equates "all black people" with "all poor people", because I kinda doubt that Michelle Obama is jumping turnstiles to get even with white society for slavery and Jim Crow in the historical past.
And as for your "system collapse" theory -- look at NYC SCHOOLS! the most racist, the most SEGREGATED, the most overpriced and failing schools in the USA -- and did I mention "over 115,000 HOMELESS CHILDREN"???? No "red state" in the Deep South can even compare with NYC's massive, pathetic failures here.
23
Please notice that most of the people cited by transit police are women
The police never stop the rough boys or men
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@Mary M Not true. I can attest to that.
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@Mary M
Totally off base and untrue.
4
At 23rd St & 8th Ave earlier this week, no machines accepted card payment - even the card-only machines (there’s something particularly Kafka-esque about a card-only vending machine accepting one’s card for a refill, only to then announce: “temporary: no cards accepted”).
Like many, I pay for transit via monthly commuter benefit cards from my company. This time, I topped up in cash, but the temptation to send it to the incompetent MTA - who cannot even be bothered to accept the commuter benefits directed to them - by walking through the gate was very, very real.
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In Brooklyn at the B6 bus stop at Brooklyn College, hundreds of young college students enter through the rear of the bus daily. They do this to get a seat and to avoid waiting on the line at the bus entrance. People on the bus get hit with knapsacks, get stepped on etc. just because these kids think it is too much to ask of them to pay their fare and board properly. This action also prevents paying passengers from getting any available seats. I take this bus all of the time and see this behavior occurring daily. This is costing the MTA thousands of dollars a day in unpaid fares. The NYPD must be aware of this situation so why do they choose to let it continue? College students should have enough sense to realize that what they are doing is illegal as well as disrespectful to those of us who pay our fares. More action by law enforcement must be instituted to stop these "ride thieves" and stop the money drip that affects the MTA so needlessly.
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People who do not pay for their ride, obviously make the system worse (more crowded with less funding), and forfeit any right to complain about the service.
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When systems break down, big or small, people will either get very annoyed and try to circumvent them, or they will try to hack through them to avoid perceived injustices. There is something to be said about the limitations of complex systems. Stuff breaks down when too many people use it and abuse it. Says something else though too. Something lingers about a breakdown in the social fabric, when a sense of community disappears, and perpetrators feel no misgivings--on any level--for breaking the law. A law they increasingly feel neither makes sense nor applies to them.
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@James R Dupak: AND what is the end result of that?
Do you think it will give you clean, flawless run bullet-trains that cost $1 a ride?
Or do you think it has actually resulted in the present day system of chaos, breakdowns, incompetence, lousy service, slow service, overcrowding, lack of updating going back 80 years?
Yes, duh -- stuff breaks down when you abuse it, because you feel justified because "it's not any good, so you deserve to steal it".
If you feel the subway is lousy -- and I have no doubt it is lousy -- the answer is protests, strikes, screaming at the top of your lungs to legislators and representatives -- surround the Mayor's mansion 24/7 with protests. I promise you, you'll get change.
Look at the Yellow Jackets in France. Do the same.
3