Angie Schmitt on StreetsBlog USA laments the mistakes of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority:
Nobody gets thrown in jail for not paying a highway toll or a parking meter. But for some reason people who break transit fare rules are subject to criminal penalties.
In Washington, DC, jumping a turnstile is punishable by a fine of up to $300 and up to 10 days in jail. A bill in the City Council would make these penalties much less severe, treating fare evasion as a civil violation instead of a crime. It has majority support in the council, but WMATA is resisting.
Now the push for decriminalization in DC is gaining momentum, reports Eve Zhurbinskiy at Greater Greater Washington. The Save Our System Coalition — composed of transit unions, the local Black Lives Matter chapter, and other activists — is drawing attention to the use of excessive force and racial profiling by police enforcing transit fares. …
In the end, WMATA isn’t even helping its own bottom line, because obsessing over strict fare enforcement slows down service and repels would-be riders. Transit experts recommend implementing convenient, proof-of-payment fare collection methods that speed up service, with non-punitive inspection systems. Make the fare system work better for riders, and more people will ride — and pay fares.
Smashing your riders’ teeth when they forget their fare cards, on the other hand, isn’t a good way to encourage people to use your service.
Transit systems don’t exist to directly make money. They exist, at least in part[1], to reduce traffic congestion throughout their service area by reducing the number of cars traversing those roads. While it makes sense to require some sort of payment in order to bring in some revenue, that revenue (and profits) is not the purpose, and to try to find a way to make people value their system enough to care for it and pay for it, coercion isn’t the answer.
My suggestion would be to decriminalize the anti-social behavior, as Angie suggests, and then post prominent signs that say:
If you see someone cheating your transit system, don’t report them to us. Point at them and start chanting ‘Cheater, Cheater, Parasite, go stick it where the Lampreys bite!’
OK, so perhaps that’s a bit obscure. Public shaming, though, has a long history of efficacy (and fun!), and this would be the gentle way of doing it.
1Other goals would include reducing highway construction, which brings with it increased ecological benefits.
