I guess I just don't find this as upsetting as most of the people on this thread. The system needs the revenue, but other than that, I'm not appalled to be witnessing lawbreaking, and if you think a free subway ride is "animalistic instincts," to quote OP, I hope you never see any real serious crimes being committed. (I hope that anyway, obviously, but you know what I mean.)

I pay my fare and go on with my day, because whatever other people are doing on Metro isn't really my responsibility.

It’s not just kids jumping the turnstile. It’s adults and it’s rampant. Station managers don’t give a f***

Anyone school age wouldn't be paying the fare anyway, though — seems like the barrier to moving from swiping your Kids Ride Free farecard to just jumping the turnstile isn't that high. The system loses out on the revenue that the city would pay for the free rides, but... it's sort of hard for me to get that upset that kids who wouldn't be paying to ride the system anyway are not swiping in or out.

(Though I will say a guy jumping the turnstile the other day nearly landed on me as I was swiping into Metro on the way home from work a few weeks ago, which was annoying, though not as annoying as it would have been if he actually hit me.)

You all can thank Charles Allen for this. He won’t stop until the city is unlivable and then he’ll retire and move out to Virginia before he has to face the crappy Hill high school situation that he is also making worse.

It drives me nuts too. I see people do it every day. They need to make those barriers higher.

I see Gonzaga rugby players with their team bags hopping the fare gates on the Red Line in Montgomery County many days. It is ridiculous but I guess that’s what they’re teaching at Gonzaga these days.

Anonymous wrote:I swiped into metro yesterday (I ride it about once every 2-3 months) with $1.85 on my card, which is not enough $$ to pay the minimum fare. When I got to my destination, I couldn't get out of the exit gates. The station agent asked me if I had cash (what?!) to pay the fare difference.

And I didn't, so he opened the exit gate and I went and immediately loaded more money on my card. But yeah, I guess that's fare evasion.

You don’t understand the difference between being given something and stealing it?

Anonymous wrote:Didn't they decriminalize fare evasion years ago?

Yes.

They should arrest these people as this is the gateway into serious crime

There is zero enforcement of anything on metro. People are literally smoking weed in the train cars. Fare jumpers everyday. Metro does not care. Station managers are probably not paid enough to get into these confrontations and transit police are never there when this stuff happens. I’m glad I only commute once a week. That’s plenty of crazy for me. Societal norms have completely eroded.

Ha, I rode the metro for the first time in a long time in Bethesda. Yuppies were stepping over the turnstyle making sure to lift their commuter bags so they wouldn't snag. Metro is free now, wouldncha know? I felt foolish spening my couple of bucks.

There are signs in the metro system that they were going to start a crackdown. But I watch multiple people do it every day, in front of station managers, and one day in front of metro cops too, so clearly the posters were a waste of money.

Didn't they decriminalize fare evasion years ago?

I swiped into metro yesterday (I ride it about once every 2-3 months) with $1.85 on my card, which is not enough $$ to pay the minimum fare. When I got to my destination, I couldn't get out of the exit gates. The station agent asked me if I had cash (what?!) to pay the fare difference.

And I didn't, so he opened the exit gate and I went and immediately loaded more money on my card. But yeah, I guess that's fare evasion.

Today I took the metro from Union and got off at TP. At the TP station, I literally saw at least 3 people give zero craps and step over the gates like it was nothing. They didn't even try to hide it, didn't even, run away, and just casually strolled along with their day like it was nothing.

So sick of the normalization of this law breaking behavior and stealing. American society has degraded into anarchy and people do whatever they want with animalistic instincts. If we cannot live up to a very simple social contract of something like not stealing and paying for your rides, then what has this society and region become? I'll tell you what it is - gutter trash culture with no respect for any kind of civilization. The fact that we are forced to swallow this lawlessness with a smile is patently absurd.

Why does anyone pay for the metro if tons of lawbreakers are allowed to get away with stealing? At a minimum, why doesn't the metro install gates like NYC that require turnstiles to go through that are much harder to evade fate?

DMV needs to get a damn culture and should stop condoning crime.