Reply to DC council to hold hearings on decriminalizing fare evasion on the Metro.

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "DC council to hold hearings on decriminalizing fare evasion on the Metro."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]The reality is that fines and penalties send a signal to law enforcement on what is important to enforce.  Decriminalizing fare evasion, with low fines, basically tells Metro Police not to enforce the obligation to pay to ride transit.

We've already seen what lax attention to other rules and laws has meant to Metro's functioning.  Stung by criticism of enforcement of the eating and drinking prohibition on Metro vehicles and stations, Metro police have effectively backed off.  The result is food and drink spilled on seats and floors of vehicles and floors of stations.  Trash is accumulating on the tracks, leading to track fires sparked from arcing.  A cleanliness and public health issue has also become a safety issue.  I know of people who have been splashed with hot coffee as passengers have dropped their cups on trains and another who slipped on exiting a train because of a soda can rolling around in the car.  Other passengers routinely ignore rules to play music and videos with headphones.  More recently, people have started to bring their pets on board transit (leading to accidents) because they know that Metro will not challenge any assertion that the pet is a service animal.  One sees panhandlers more frequently on the platforms and in the trains.  The result of all this is a general deterioration in the Metro rider experience, and the perception that as some rules are no longer enforced or followed, some will feel license to engage in more lawless behavior.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics