As the MTA’s fares keep going up, so too does the number of people trying to evade paying. According to Metro, arrests due to fare evasion climbed to over 2200 last month, and Transit officials are attributing the increase in jumpers to the higher costs of a subway ride. “There is usually a slight uptick [in fare-jumpers] anytime there is a fare increase,” Transit spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to Metro.
Meanwhile, fare-evasion summons were up by nearly 11 percent in 2010 over 2009. In the post-station agent era, cops made 21,803 fare evasion arrests, up from 19,567 the year before. The MTA says it is “targeting high-incidence locations” in an effort to catch those sneaking into the system. Ultimately, the station agent crowd will decry this as a sign that the system needs more eyes, but the bleed rates seem to be well within acceptable margins as total paid ridership was 1.6 billion last year.
6 comments
I would attribute an change in the amount of fare evasion arrests only to any change in the level of enforcement.
My thoughts exactly.
arrests?? what kind of nazis are you New Yorkers?
Unlike the LA system, we actually care about fare evasion. Plus, my guess is this is along the lines of the NYPD “Frisk and Search” program. NYPD/Transit probably figures if an individual is evading fares, the individual is likely guilty of other crimes (weapon or drug possession) or has outstanding warrants issues against them. Is that approach right? Who knows, but welcome to the 21st century NYPD enforcement code.
What’s the cost of doing fare evasion audits, like they do on POP systems?
MTA Fare Jumpers cost nothing unless an arrest in made. A fare jumper wouldnt pay anyway. If he had the money he would pay but If he didnt then he will jump the trunstyle or walk to his destination. but the actual arrest cost tax payers big. too big Let the MTA guard their own turnstyles and stop costing the taxpayers big money.. It costs an average of 2000 per arrest. With 20000 arrests annually, that equates to 20 million per year arresting poor people.. I dont want to spend for that.