Posted on 04/13/2019 7:24:55 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Q65 bus came to a stop along a residential block in Queens and a construction worker stepped onboard. He walked past the farebox without paying. The driver pushed the F5 button on his dashboard.
At the next stop, an older woman with a cane climbed on and gave the driver a hearty wave. She, too, did not pay. Again the driver pressed F5.
Over two and a half hours, the driver pressed F5 — the button that records fare evaders — at least 50 times, and there was still a half-hour left on his morning route.
“It’s getting worse,” said the driver, Luis, who declined to provide his full name because he did not have permission to discuss his job. “How many? On my bus, hundreds a day. Hundreds with an ‘s.’”
Transit officials recently announced a remarkable figure: One in five bus riders in New York City does not pay the fare. The statistic stunned even Andy Byford, the leader of the subway and bus system, who said it was “wholly unacceptable” and at least double the rate of other cities across the world.
“We look at what other transit authorities are suffering, and this now really stands out as an outlier,” Mr. Byford said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency that oversees the subway and buses, says fare evasion is on the rise on the subway and buses, costing the system $225 million in lost revenue last year. But the problem is far worse on buses, where nearly 22 percent of riders do not pay, compared with 3.4 percent of subway riders.
An informal survey on several routes found that fare evasion was widespread and the reasons varied. Riders did not have exact change. They knew they would not get in trouble.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
But they live in a city with a communist mayor, run by a socialist party. Why should they have to pay for essential transportation?
I guess they have to be allowed on the bus.
What do you expect from a city full of RAT filth.
This is a result of having the police ignore “quality of life” crimes. One of the first things Giuliani did was to arrest subway turnstile jumpers. That set the tone for success.
Escape From New York.
I guess they have to be allowed on the bus.
What do you expect from a city full of RAT filth.
NY City needs to go bankrupt.
Its being held together at this point by the printed, fiat US dollar, massive debt and ultra-low Federal Reserve interest rates.
Easy. Just raise the fare another 20%. Do I have to think of everything?
Okay, 25% I didn’t say I was good at math.
Easy to solve this problem, stop pushing F5
Wow! I’m so out of touch!
Haven’t ridden a city bus in decades. Back then, you HAD to pay to ride.
But I guess lots of things have changed since those days.
The Demo NYC Rats pols in power steal from their DemRat voters who in turn steal back like this scenario and yet they are all wedded in dysfunctional kinship. When all the cheese runs out then lookout.
How much money does the MTA spend on bureaucracy and overhead? Maybe it should do an audit of itself, cut unnecessary expenses, modify some lanes, and introduce a flat $1 fee for everyone (yes, including kids), instead of this group getting reduced fare, and that group of people not paying because their Muslim or something.
If the reported figure is 22%, the true figure is almost certainly much higher.
Years ago we dropped quarters and other change into the box and took a seat. Rare was the exception where the fare was not paid. In a normal society no fare, no ride. And it didn’t cost a fortune to ride the bus either.
No sweat it’s a socialist state. Everything is subsidized by high taxes.
The F5 button should summon a police car where the evader is taken off the bus and given a ticket at the next stop.
Repeat offenders get called in to the judge to explain themselves.
Ruin their day AND make everyone else wait, and the problem will take care of itself. No one has common sense anymore.
I have a friend who uses our bus system. You either pay upon entering the door, exact change, or wave a bus pass in front of pass reader. The driver is right there to stop you if it’s not all kosher. Before you actually board.
Giuliani followed the broken window theory. The current policy will lead to more problems. Human nature is something liberals don’t understand, although they are good at exploiting negative traits.
Tomorrow we be F5...... why pay when there is no penalty!
It’s gotten too dangerous for the bus drivers to try to collect the fares. An increased number of the “freeloaders” are violence- prone
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