[Sustain] New Transit Fare Evasion Study Shows Inspectors Worthless

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

I just got through watching today's Municipal Transportation Agency 
commission hearing in which the MTA staff announced the release of its 
fare evasion study.

The study shows the following key results:

1) The fare evasion rate is only 9.5% (costing the system about $22 
million at most).

2) Even when MTA fare inspectors and SF Police engaged in highly focused 
and expensive 'saturation' enforcement actions at specific transit 
access points, the evasion rate was only lowered to about 4% (a 60% 
reduction)

3) Fines for fare evasion are now $75 - The previous, much higher fines 
for second and third offenses have been abandoned due to the difficulty 
of establishing prior evasions when writing a ticket.

4) People cited with fines only pay them 60% of the time. (A police 
chief describing the saturation actions, and MTA chief Nathaniel Ford, 
both admitted openly that these saturation actions do not pay for 
themselves in fine and fare revenues.)

5) The transit lines that experience the highest rates of fare evasion, 
also have some of the highest rates of low income and people of color 
ridership. MTA staff recommended enforcement at targeted locations to 
make enforcement more efficient. (This would absolutely result in biased 
racist and classist enforcement.)

6) 50% of riders boarding at back do not have proof of purchase. (Anyone 
who has ridden the bus frequently, knows that many of the people who 
board at the back without paying are doing so because they are too poor 
to pay the fare.)

What all of these revelations show is that the revenue from punitively 
deploying fare inspectors and police enforcement will never exceed the 
actual cost of deploying the inspectors and police in the first place.

The only way to achieve better results with this punitive model would be 
to -reduce- the number of inspectors and then more selectively target 
lines and transit stops on which the poorest riders and people of color 
access the system.

On the other hand, simply enabling most riders who -can- pay, to much 
more easily buy fast passes and multi-month passes would likely bring in 
just as much revenue if not more, without paying any fare inspectors at all.

And of course, -free- Muni, paid for with business and car taxes would 
solve the problem entirely.

Finally, on an ominous note. MTA staff indicated that they will soon 
move to the Translink system for Muni passes. Translink is the system in 
which you carry an electronic card charged with funds for Muni riding 
(much like a phone card).

Once this Translink system is put in place, poor people are going to 
have a much harder time circumventing the system so that they can ride 
free...

It's been a while since we had a Transpo working group meeting. Let's do 
one soon to develop a response strategy based on this report.


peace

Eric B