As the MTA has vowed time and again to make every dollar count, fare-jumpers have earned headlines. Numerous reports of bus riders boarding in the back and straphangers hopping turnstiles have created some bad press, and while I think the problem is overblown from an economic standpoint, the MTA has been forced to respond from a public relations standpoint. To that end, the authority has ramped up enforcement on Staten Island buses.
As NY1’s Tina Redwine reports, undercover officers have started to target particularly vulnerable buses, and their efforts have led to the arrests of 50 New Yorkers who opted against paying. Some of those arrests, of course, lead to the discover of other outstanding matters, and Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan has vowed to put fare-jumpers through the legal process.
Meanwhile, bus drivers say they’ve noticed a difference. “The word is getting around and it’s calming things down now,” Frank Green said to NY1. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to Staten Island, I’ll tell you really, for me and the passengers.”
3 comments
If Kelly wants to net more arrests that actually leads to catching those with warrants and similar matters, they should do Operation Impact style schemes on buses and subways. They can target station entrances (especially unmanned ones) after the tampered MetroCard machines get serviced. They can target the back doors on buses, and locations and time of day with frequent theft and assault incidences.
Good, but is the MTA involved in this in any way? The NYPD is independent from the MTA.
I don’t think it is overblown at all. Fare evasion is rampant all over the outer boroughs. Let the NYPD go after and fine each and every person in the same way the mayor hired an army of traffic cops to ticket people one min past on there meter or 5 min past the three hour limit that most people are not even aware of on some streets.
Besides the money aspect, when you let someone get away with something you may consider minor, they try something else less minor
I don’t find it a minor issue when I am forced to pay a kings ransom to visit my grand mother in the hospital on staten island paying the toll on the VX bridge.