Metro and fare evasion

[Anonymous]

Supposedly the new gates they put up have brought fare evasion in the tested stations down by 70%...why weren't these tested in more stations???

[Anonymous]

Also, why is metro slow to get police and guards in these stations? I guarantee if you put armed guards and make this not a fine, but misdemeanor/felony people will stop this.

[Anonymous]

I would like to see the stats on when and how much fair jumping hasn’t risen in recent years. When I was a kid taking the metro I just don’t remember this being a thing. And maybe I was just ignorant, and I’m sure some teenagers were doing it, but in the early days of Metro I think there was just more pride in following the rules

If I lost my fare card, I would literally go up to random grown-ups and ask them if I could have a dollar or two. Or go to the station manager. But the idea of jumping the turnstile just wasn’t even on my radar. Again, maybe I was not paying attention

Now I take the metro as a grown-up, it seems every other person under 25 or so is jumping the turnstile. Only suckers pay!

[Anonymous]

Oops — HAS risen, not HASN’T

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like to see the stats on when and how much fair jumping hasn’t risen in recent years. When I was a kid taking the metro I just don’t remember this being a thing. And maybe I was just ignorant, and I’m sure some teenagers were doing it, but in the early days of Metro I think there was just more pride in following the rules

If I lost my fare card, I would literally go up to random grown-ups and ask them if I could have a dollar or two. Or go to the station manager. But the idea of jumping the turnstile just wasn’t even on my radar. Again, maybe I was not paying attention

Now I take the metro as a grown-up, it seems every other person under 25 or so is jumping the turnstile. Only suckers pay!

If you’re in my age group, we used tokens to ride the bus and subway. The cost was negligible, but we paid. At some point in the last twenty years, DC began funding the cost to ride the metro system for all students. The kids constantly lose their metro passes and the schools do not have an immediate ready supply for replacement. The kids know they ride free, so they just get on the buses and jump subway turnstiles without paying. The city even provides a free metro pass for those in the Marion BarrySummer youth program to get to and from their assigned jobs. I remember my kid failed to pick his up his and his response was “it doesn’t matter. It’s free they let us just walk through when we lose our pass NBD.” I had to explain how much of a big deal it really was.

[Anonymous]

They also made it not a crime on the last few years....I see people jumping the gate out in MD too so it might s not just DC kids not bothering I also see people who are clearly not student aged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like to see the stats on when and how much fair jumping hasn’t risen in recent years. When I was a kid taking the metro I just don’t remember this being a thing. And maybe I was just ignorant, and I’m sure some teenagers were doing it, but in the early days of Metro I think there was just more pride in following the rules

If I lost my fare card, I would literally go up to random grown-ups and ask them if I could have a dollar or two. Or go to the station manager. But the idea of jumping the turnstile just wasn’t even on my radar. Again, maybe I was not paying attention

Now I take the metro as a grown-up, it seems every other person under 25 or so is jumping the turnstile. Only suckers pay!

If you’re in my age group, we used tokens to ride the bus and subway. The cost was negligible, but we paid. At some point in the last twenty years, DC began funding the cost to ride the metro system for all students. The kids constantly lose their metro passes and the schools do not have an immediate ready supply for replacement. The kids know they ride free, so they just get on the buses and jump subway turnstiles without paying. The city even provides a free metro pass for those in the Marion BarrySummer youth program to get to and from their assigned jobs. I remember my kid failed to pick his up his and his response was “it doesn’t matter. It’s free they let us just walk through when we lose our pass NBD.” I had to explain how much of a big deal it really was.

I don’t believe for a second that most fare evaders are just DC students who lost their cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Supposedly the new gates they put up have brought fare evasion in the tested stations down by 70%...why weren't these tested in more stations???

And why weren’t they tested in stations that have the highest fare evasions? Like Columbia heights and petworth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like to see the stats on when and how much fair jumping hasn’t risen in recent years. When I was a kid taking the metro I just don’t remember this being a thing. And maybe I was just ignorant, and I’m sure some teenagers were doing it, but in the early days of Metro I think there was just more pride in following the rules

If I lost my fare card, I would literally go up to random grown-ups and ask them if I could have a dollar or two. Or go to the station manager. But the idea of jumping the turnstile just wasn’t even on my radar. Again, maybe I was not paying attention

Now I take the metro as a grown-up, it seems every other person under 25 or so is jumping the turnstile. Only suckers pay!

If you’re in my age group, we used tokens to ride the bus and subway. The cost was negligible, but we paid. At some point in the last twenty years, DC began funding the cost to ride the metro system for all students. The kids constantly lose their metro passes and the schools do not have an immediate ready supply for replacement. The kids know they ride free, so they just get on the buses and jump subway turnstiles without paying. The city even provides a free metro pass for those in the Marion BarrySummer youth program to get to and from their assigned jobs. I remember my kid failed to pick his up his and his response was “it doesn’t matter. It’s free they let us just walk through when we lose our pass NBD.” I had to explain how much of a big deal it really was.

Yes, kids lose things all the time but I suspect there are also adults taking them off of the kids. They should keep track of the card IDs issued to each kid and make the kids report the lost cards to the bus driver or station manager and then they deactivate the lost ones and have new ones dropped off at the school, same day. I bet that if they did that, a lot fewer Kids Ride Free cards would be getting "lost."

[Anonymous]

This is pp … this was the 80s — iirc we used pink student fare cards that charged like 15 cents a ride. So you still paid, but just a fraction of the regular price.

And at some point they switched to kids ride free cards

On who is fare jumping these days … my assumption is it started with teens and other school kids, and people said, “well it’s free anyway, so it’s just an accounting thing really” but then that lack of enforcement then encouraged others to start fare jumping. Then they lowered the gate heights at some point too, right? So even grownups could easily jump.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is pp … this was the 80s — iirc we used pink student fare cards that charged like 15 cents a ride. So you still paid, but just a fraction of the regular price.

And at some point they switched to kids ride free cards

On who is fare jumping these days … my assumption is it started with teens and other school kids, and people said, “well it’s free anyway, so it’s just an accounting thing really” but then that lack of enforcement then encouraged others to start fare jumping. Then they lowered the gate heights at some point too, right? So even grownups could easily jump.

This I believe. However, I don’t recall metro lowering the gates.

[Anonymous]

A bunch of UMC white people discussing fare evasion. Hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A bunch of UMC white people discussing fare evasion. Hilarious.

Almost every case of crime and violence in the metro is a fare evader. Much bigger deal than the 2 dollars.