Fare Evasion Citations Up 50% Last Quarter
Today’s Chronicle reports that Muni wrote just over 10,000 fare evasion tickets last quarter, for a total of over 26,000 for the year. It’s still a drop in the bucket compared with the total amount of fare evasion, but every little bit counts – particularly because fare enforcement on the buses allows legal rear door boarding, which speeds up service.
Reminder: Sign up for Translink to speed up your own fare payment – and avoid a ticket!
SF Weekly has an excellent response — Is Muni Losing Millions on its Fare-Evasion Program?
That’s an interesting point from the Weekly. My understanding from other POP systems is that the deterrent is the main point – by making it clear that you may be cited if you don’t pay, you’re more likely to pay.
For this to really work on the buses in SF, however, the POP cops need to actually ride the buses, and CITE the guys getting on the back doors without paying. Anecdotally POP enforcement is much less common on the buses than on the trains or in the stations.