Toward the end of January, the MTA had instituted fare collections at the Staten Island Rail Road’s Tompkinsville, and this week, cops nabbed their first fare-beater at the station. As the Staten Island Advance reported on Tuesday, not only did the cops get their first Tompkinsville fare perp, but the man arrested had an outstanding warrant in Massachusetts. Police say he will most likely be extradited back to the Bay State after he clears up that $100 fine.
At first, I was amused by this story. It’s fairly apt that the first person to get caught evading the new fare control measures was wanted in another state. But then I realized this is a far more common occurrence. Nearly three years ago, I noted how cops often find subway perps have outstanding warrants, and this is a prime example of that phenomenon. I’ve always wondered why people who are on the lam continue to break the law, and here it is again.
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I often take the train to Sheepshead Bay and then need to take the B36 bus at 9am. All of the high school kids go in the back door of the bus. They use the back door as if it is the way it is meant to be done.
When these kid grow up why should they pay their fare?
Actually, if they have unlimited cards, then they’re doing everyone a favor. The MTA gets the money either way, and the dwell time falls because fewer people board at the front.
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.
I don’t think they have cards. The lost them, forgot them, sold them on Craig’s List…. Whatever. I am just saying, when they grow up they are gonna jump the turnstile.
Nobody bothered them when they were in high school, why should they start when they graduate.
Not necessarily.
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?
No, it’s notsogood. Yes, under the El on Sheepshead Bay Road is busy at 9 am on a weekday morning. Lots of grownups waiting for the bus. Sometimes in the rain, cold, whatever… standing in a line, not everybody will always get on the next bus. Then the bus comes and the HS kids get out from the deli or the station itself and fill the bus from the back door. Notsogood
I didn’t say it was good. I said that their motive probably has nothing to do with beating the fare, and they probably all have some form of MetroCard that they just used to ride the subway.
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.
I think we have been talking about two different things. I agree it would be good to fill buses from both ends. Yes it would be quicker and more space efficient.
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.
In Switzerland, those students would be able to beat the charge by arguing they had a ticket, but not in the US. Subway riders have been made to pay fines for turnstile jumping even when they jumped only because the turnstile asked them to swipe again repeatedly. Possession of an unlimited card doesn’t matter.
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.
I don’t see how that could be systematically implemented as long as unlimited cards are transferable. Did I forget to bring it – or did I lend it to my wife for the day?
Also, the administrative costs to implement a system like that would greatly exceed a single fare.
Because people who think they don’t have to pay for subway/bus service are selfish enough to commit crimes to get what they want. It’s all about them, all the time.
One of the main ideas behind the “broken windows” theory is that people who commit major crimes think nothing of committing smaller crimes. Those crack teams of cops who caught fare beaters in the early 90’s often bagged hardened criminals with guns and outstanding warrants.