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Big Cities Crank Up Enforcement to Collect Dwindling Transit Fares
THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY DESIGN
Big Cities Crank Up Enforcement to Collect Dwindling Transit Fares
Agencies are spending new money — lots of it, in some cases — to crack down on fare evasion, with new fare gates, updated collection systems and beefed-up policing. But some experts question the cost.
April 12, 2023 • Jared Brey
In Brief:
• Many big-city transit agencies are spending money to upgrade fare-collection systems and crack down on fare evasion.
• Data tracking on evasion rates varies widely from agency to agency.
• In some cases, fare enforcement has as much to do with emphasizing social order on trains and buses as it has to do with revenue.
A million here, $90 million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
As big-city transit systems work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re anticipating a long-term plateau of lower ridership and sharply reduced fare revenue. The gloomy financial outlook has caused agencies around the country to cancel long-planned capital projects and consider cutting daily service.
At the same time, agencies are spending new money — lots of it, in some cases — to crack down on fare evasion with new fare gates, updated collection systems and beefed-up policing. Even as fares shrink overall, some agencies feel they need to show they’re collecting every fare they can, not just to ward off financial disaster but also to address a sense of lawlessness — real and perceived — on buses and trains. But when do the costs of enforcement outweigh the benefits?
There’s no standard method of tracking fare evasion across transit systems with widely varying payment systems. Most agencies don’t seem to know with any confidence how widespread the problem is. But there’s a broad sense that fare jumping increased during the pandemic, especially after some riders got used to not paying when agencies waived fares in the early days of the outbreak.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in Washington, D.C., made its most recent estimate of fare evasion in February 2022, and it was a doozy: Some 34 percent of Metrobus riders weren’t paying fares that year, up from 14 percent in Fiscal Year 2019 and 17 percent in FY 2020. Evasion reduced the agency’s revenue by $10 million in FY 2022.
“Fare evasion is a major issue,” WMATA wrote in a performance report published earlier this year, which estimated that 13 percent of Metrorail riders and up to 51 percent of Metrobus riders hadn’t paid their fare during the first six months of FY 2023. Like other agencies, WMATA is facing a daunting fiscal cliff when federal relief funds run out next year. But it’s still moving ahead with a fare gate modification project, with higher gates designed to deter jumping, at an estimated cost of up to $40 million.
{snip}
Big Cities Crank Up Enforcement to Collect Dwindling Transit Fares
Agencies are spending new money — lots of it, in some cases — to crack down on fare evasion, with new fare gates, updated collection systems and beefed-up policing. But some experts question the cost.
April 12, 2023 • Jared Brey
In Brief:
• Many big-city transit agencies are spending money to upgrade fare-collection systems and crack down on fare evasion.
• Data tracking on evasion rates varies widely from agency to agency.
• In some cases, fare enforcement has as much to do with emphasizing social order on trains and buses as it has to do with revenue.
A million here, $90 million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
As big-city transit systems work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re anticipating a long-term plateau of lower ridership and sharply reduced fare revenue. The gloomy financial outlook has caused agencies around the country to cancel long-planned capital projects and consider cutting daily service.
At the same time, agencies are spending new money — lots of it, in some cases — to crack down on fare evasion with new fare gates, updated collection systems and beefed-up policing. Even as fares shrink overall, some agencies feel they need to show they’re collecting every fare they can, not just to ward off financial disaster but also to address a sense of lawlessness — real and perceived — on buses and trains. But when do the costs of enforcement outweigh the benefits?
There’s no standard method of tracking fare evasion across transit systems with widely varying payment systems. Most agencies don’t seem to know with any confidence how widespread the problem is. But there’s a broad sense that fare jumping increased during the pandemic, especially after some riders got used to not paying when agencies waived fares in the early days of the outbreak.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in Washington, D.C., made its most recent estimate of fare evasion in February 2022, and it was a doozy: Some 34 percent of Metrobus riders weren’t paying fares that year, up from 14 percent in Fiscal Year 2019 and 17 percent in FY 2020. Evasion reduced the agency’s revenue by $10 million in FY 2022.
“Fare evasion is a major issue,” WMATA wrote in a performance report published earlier this year, which estimated that 13 percent of Metrorail riders and up to 51 percent of Metrobus riders hadn’t paid their fare during the first six months of FY 2023. Like other agencies, WMATA is facing a daunting fiscal cliff when federal relief funds run out next year. But it’s still moving ahead with a fare gate modification project, with higher gates designed to deter jumping, at an estimated cost of up to $40 million.
{snip}