As the 2012 focus on fare evasion continues, The Daily News has learned that the city’s most porous buses can be found on Staten Island. According to Pete Donohue’s latest, the S44 and the S74 are the citywide leaders in fare evasion with a greater percentage of riders opting not to pay. Three routes in the Bronx — the Bx19, Bx36 and Bx11 — rounded out the top five.
MTA Board Member and State Islander Allan Cappelli continued his crusade against free-loaders. “The problem is so pervasive it’s really going to require a sustained and publicized effort,” he said. “In order to eradicate it, we need to change people’s perception that they can get away with not paying, and that there’s no penalty for doing it.”
Police have so far responded in turn as arrests for fare evasion have increased by over 100 percent this year. With renewed focus on the economic losses due to fare evasion — nearly $100 million across the bus and subway networks — police enforcement will likely increase over the next few months. Is it money well spent? The jury will remain out on that question for some time.
8 comments
Why no coverage of federal safety mandate?
New York media has a blackout or something?
Because it actually matters.
More atention is being paid to Tom Cruze & Katie Homes impending seperation & the church of scientolegy.
PATHETIC!
BK they catch Katie Holmes in the Subway yet. 😉
I haven’t had much time for anything lately. What’s the story here? I’ll look into it…
House/Senate approved FTA oversight Fri. Waiting for BAM’s sig. Read Washington papers.
Great, another unfunded mandate. Why don’t we do a similar mandate for auto and highway safety. That’ll get the public’s attention. I can see PATH under this act, due to interstate movements, but the NYCTA don’t cross state lines and don’t have trains that get above 45 mph except for the 60th st tunnels.
Give the S44 S74 a new itinerary for fare beaters.
Depart Staten Island arrive Rikers Island.
I have a hard time believing the S44 gets more farebeaters than the S46 (just based on experience alone). Especially considering the following lines in this article:
“The line, running between the St. George Ferry Terminal and the Staten Island Mall, has the highest fare-evasion rate of all routes surveyed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a knowledgeable transit source tells me.”
“But the average rate of fare evasion for all routes covering Staten Island is nearly 20% — higher than those in all other boroughs, another transit source said.”
“The source wouldn’t specify the percentage of S44 riders who were observed boarding without paying in the MTA’s most recent round of surveys.”
I have a feeling the “source” is that stupid survey taken by the SI Advance, but they know it’s a stupid source, so that’s why they don’t want to specify it. I have a hard time believing it’s also higher on SI than The Bronx.
I have a feeling that they picked and chose the times and locations where they suurveyed the routes. For all we know, they could’ve gotten on a tripper and said that the S__ has a 100% fare evasion rate (I mean, I’ve been on trippers where I was the only one who dipped in a Student MetroCard).
A less extreme example would be if they rode say, the S54 from Broadway & Richmond Terrace to say, Castleton & Clove, got off, and then took the S53 to Castleton & Broadway. Yeah, they set foot on the bus, but they rode it in the portion where fare evasion is highest and made it seem as if the whole route is like that.