Has anywhere _tried_ decriminalizing fare evasion? While the status quo seems like transit police are over-focused on this and over-zealous in enforcing the fares, if it became common knowledge that riding buses or trains without paying would have no consequence, it seems like more people might do that, and those still paying would start to feel like chumps. I think the argument for fare enforcement isn't that they're recovering a few tens of thousands of dollars -- it's that the existence of enforcement prevents the evaporation of a much larger share of fares, as the number of people riding for free jumps from something miniscule, to some double-digit percentage. This seems like mostly a question of social solidarity and norms. While those definitely seem to be eroding in the US, normal people still seem to be _pretty_ good about stuff like filing truthful tax returns, even when the chance of getting audited is very low. So maybe it'd be fine, and actually most people would still pay. But it seems hard to know that for sure, in advance.
One can imagine a system that simply detects people boarding and disembarking or entering and leaving stations (e.g. based on some kind of Bluetooth interaction, or a radio tag that you can carry, akin to FasTrak) and the system just charges your account for your trips, but (a) a lot of people would dislike the privacy implications of that, and (b) you'd still need to figure out what, if anything, to do about people who can't be identified, and you're back to the question of whether you want to have somebody confront those folks. And if you don't, is the number of those folks going to grow?
The lack of commercial activity (newsstands, corner stores, to-go food) at BART stations is just such an obvious miss. Yes I know you can’t eat or drink on BART or any transit agency. But the result is you get these oddly quiet forgotten-about spaces (e.g., that giant open ring at Lake Merritt station) that feel like an abandoned public library from the 1970s. Why is BART passing up the rental income and safety building (and community building!) benefits of having vendors?
A good counterexample is Mexico City’s subway system: great frequency, plenty of vendors (both physical storefront and mobile), fantastic way-finding (every station has its own hieroglyphic symbol so even non-literate riders can navigate), and innovative safety ideas like women/children-only cars to prevent harassment.
Also it’s always darkly funny to see visitors from other transit-rich countries interacting with systems like BART. I remember being in a downtown SF station and seeing a tourist with what sounded like an Italian accent asking a huddled group of armed, bulletproof vest-wearing BART police where the restroom was. Cops look up from their phones, point to the exit and shake their heads, “Nothing down here.” Indeed.
Has anywhere _tried_ decriminalizing fare evasion? While the status quo seems like transit police are over-focused on this and over-zealous in enforcing the fares, if it became common knowledge that riding buses or trains without paying would have no consequence, it seems like more people might do that, and those still paying would start to feel like chumps. I think the argument for fare enforcement isn't that they're recovering a few tens of thousands of dollars -- it's that the existence of enforcement prevents the evaporation of a much larger share of fares, as the number of people riding for free jumps from something miniscule, to some double-digit percentage. This seems like mostly a question of social solidarity and norms. While those definitely seem to be eroding in the US, normal people still seem to be _pretty_ good about stuff like filing truthful tax returns, even when the chance of getting audited is very low. So maybe it'd be fine, and actually most people would still pay. But it seems hard to know that for sure, in advance.
One can imagine a system that simply detects people boarding and disembarking or entering and leaving stations (e.g. based on some kind of Bluetooth interaction, or a radio tag that you can carry, akin to FasTrak) and the system just charges your account for your trips, but (a) a lot of people would dislike the privacy implications of that, and (b) you'd still need to figure out what, if anything, to do about people who can't be identified, and you're back to the question of whether you want to have somebody confront those folks. And if you don't, is the number of those folks going to grow?
The lack of commercial activity (newsstands, corner stores, to-go food) at BART stations is just such an obvious miss. Yes I know you can’t eat or drink on BART or any transit agency. But the result is you get these oddly quiet forgotten-about spaces (e.g., that giant open ring at Lake Merritt station) that feel like an abandoned public library from the 1970s. Why is BART passing up the rental income and safety building (and community building!) benefits of having vendors?
A good counterexample is Mexico City’s subway system: great frequency, plenty of vendors (both physical storefront and mobile), fantastic way-finding (every station has its own hieroglyphic symbol so even non-literate riders can navigate), and innovative safety ideas like women/children-only cars to prevent harassment.
Also it’s always darkly funny to see visitors from other transit-rich countries interacting with systems like BART. I remember being in a downtown SF station and seeing a tourist with what sounded like an Italian accent asking a huddled group of armed, bulletproof vest-wearing BART police where the restroom was. Cops look up from their phones, point to the exit and shake their heads, “Nothing down here.” Indeed.
Darrell,
Your empirical observations and narrative are cogent and your solutions well thought out. Now on to implementation.
Excellent suggestions. As a regular AC Transit rider (72R for the win!), they resonate.
Your post pairs well with the recent Substack on "visible poverty" by Adam Johnson: https://thecolumn.substack.com/p/people-feel-unsafe-because-visible?utm_source=email