But I was trying not to be to too judgmental regarding the high school kids. When they enter through the back door they do it like a bunch of thugs. (when I say like a bunch of thugs, I don’t want to say they are thugs but they are acting like thugs. Maybe they are nice kids, whatever, I don’t know them)

People who are waiting IN LINE for the bus do not get on because the kids FILLED the bus from the back.

As a group in the back of the bus they spread out and prohibit other people from sitting or even using the back door.

When this behavior is totally allowed why should we expect them to pay their fair at a station that they have been entering for free for years.

Also, the administrative costs to implement a system like that would greatly exceed a single fare.

It would be good to institute Swiss-style policies on NYCT. On Swiss transit, if a person is caught without a ticket, and can prove he had a valid unlimited card but forgot to bring it, he can get the fine refunded.

But perhaps it is good. Do the people boarding the bus through the front door all walk as far back as possible to stand, or do they stop wherever they feel like it? I generally see the latter – and the bus that pulls out “full,” leaving people behind on the sidewalk, actually has room for 15 or 20 more people in the back. At busy transfer points (where most people have free transfers anyway), drivers and dispatchers should encourage this sort of thing, both to speed up service and to make sure that buses aren’t leaving people behind when they’re not even full.

But if you insist, maybe there should be a crackdown. Then the people who now fill up the space in the back of the bus will instead clog up the front of the aisle, and you’ll have to wait in the rain for the next bus, even though there’s room for 15 or 20 in the back.

At busy transfer points like this, I’ve seen people left behind at the stop because the front of the bus fills up with standees and then pulls out, even though there’s still room in the back. It only has to happen a few times before people learn that it’s worth the risk of a summons to board through the back door, perhaps figuring that they can probably argue their way out of paying the ticket by proving that they had a free ride (student pass, unlimited card, free transfer) anyway.

I’ve even seen drivers and dispatchers occasionally instruct people to use the rear door to board in these situations.

If they don’t have cards, then how did they board the subway? Or do they all live nearby and walk to a busy transfer point just to take advantage of the crowded situation?

Nobody bothered them when they were in high school, why should they start when they graduate.

It will dramatically improve bus service if the MTA institutes a policy saying people with unlimited cards or transfers should board from any door and random ticket inspectors will check to see people aren’t beating fares.

On the topic of the SIR and the commuter railroads, it will cut costs if the MTA institutes a similar policy – buy prepaid cards, show them to the ticket inspector.