Passenger Trains > Restoring Order on BART

Common sense comes to BART.

https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-bart-blitz

"Three months ago, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system that serves San Francisco and surrounding counties began a “blitz” to deter morning rush-hour fare evasion at four downtown stations. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the first month’s results were startling: proof-of-payment citations rose 13 percent, new ticket sales rose 10 percent, add-value transactions to existing tickets rose 29 percent, and—most significantly—average weekly calls to police dropped a remarkable 45 percent. This rapid turnaround in behavior was achieved simply by staffing the stations with extra police officers, fare inspectors, and BART managers wearing bright yellow vests so that anyone trying to jump a fare gate or use a bypass door saw their way blocked by an official.These results should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing..."

 

Keep it up!  Make fare evasion very expensive and inconvenient.  

When NYPD and NYCTA implemented their version of broken Windows / strict enforcement, many detainees had weapons, outstanding warrants, etc.

Posted from Android

They should do this in LA....

CPRR Wrote:
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> They should do this in LA....



The new policy is apparently not popular with passenger rail foamers.

Hope they continue this and have more police onboard the trains enforcing the various rules--no food or drink, no feet on seats and no music without headphones. I've had to move from my seat numerous times now because someone across the way can't be bothered to wear buds or headphones. And trying to remind them by pointing to the sign they're sitting under doesn't work.  

There were some interesting statistics on improved fare collections in the piece and in the linked-to article in the SF Chronicle. It seems turnstile jumpers can afford the fare--they just choose not to pay.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-blitz-on-fare-cheats-gets-results-13953556.php

"BART called it “the blitz”: For weeks, teams of yellow-vested managers and police officers swarmed the downtown San Francisco stations at dawn, causing would-be fare cheats to turn around and nervously pat their pockets.

By several measures, it was a success. Tickets sales shot up 10%. Police calls dropped 50%. A third more riders added cash to their tickets or Clipper cards, suggesting that many people who gate-hop or piggyback actually carry enough money to pay.

But the crackdown also had an intangible benefit. It gave the agency’s front-line managers a closer glimpse of a problem that riders complain about every day: the thousands of people who sneak in and out of the system without paying."

 

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

Decades ago, the Vancouver BC transit authority deployed flying squads of fare inspectors and police to enforce the "honor system" for fare payment.  You would come down the hallway from the ferry and be confronted by crowd barriers and inspectors.  Turn around, and there would be other inspectors.  They would also work through trains, intentionally stopped between Skytrain stations.

I haven't seen anything like that in my more recent visits.

(I did see fare inspectors in Baltimore light rail a few months ago.  Many people didn't have tickets, but that seemed OK.  "Well, you better get one next time")

On the Metro Red Line in Los Angeles, California I have observed evaders reaching around the emergency exit gates, and pushing the 'panic bar' to gain entry. Clearly, the physical design of the facility is lacking.
...Lorenzo