Fare evasion on TriMet’s MAX trains hits 27%, highest ‘in recent memory’ – oregonlive.com:
TriMet found that 27% of surveyed riders lacked a valid fare during a three-week period in March, according to a report released by TriMet in response to a public records request from The Oregonian/OregonLive.
That’s far higher than the fare-evasion rates reported by the agency from 2014 through 2019, when rates began at 9% and grew to 19%. The transit agency stopped conducting annual fare compliance surveys during the pandemic and the three-week survey in March was the first in four years.
So a quarter of riders don’t pay. It’s it’s probably worse than that as another 7% of riders hopped off the light rail or bus when inspectors got on.
TriMet on Friday was unable to provide historic statistics but Roberta Altstadt, communications director for the agency, said the new evasion rate is the highest “in recent memory.”
TriMet has no idea if this is better or worse than before, but at least one person there thinks it’s worse. Nice record-keeping.
“While there is a national trend of increased fare evasion in the transit industry, TriMet is concerned about the level of fare evasion found during the surveying,” Altstadt wrote in an email Friday.
That mirrors similar language from the agency in 2018, when officials said they planned to address fare evasion by increasing enforcement. Instead, evasion rates have only gotten worse.
TriMet trots out the same old PR lines and The Oregonian notices.
TriMet operates on an honor system, with no ticket needed to enter MAX trains or buses.
Obviously, that’s a mistake. Or they don’t care.
But riders on buses typically encounter drivers, who collect or check fares upon entry. The agency found that fare evasion on a new specialized bus line serving Southeast Division Street had a fare evasion rate of just 8% during a survey in June. Buses on that line allow riders to enter through the middle and rear doors as well as the front, and the survey found fare evaders were more likely to board via the middle and rear doors.
Even minimal enforcement—a bus driver—is sufficient to increase compliance by about 20%.
New York City found evasion rates are also rising, according to The New York Times. There, 47% of riders on local buses lack a valid ticket while the rate is only 14% on the subway, where turnstiles requiring payment block access to the system.
I think the lesson is that you have to have some enforcement mechanism, or else you need to make the case to taxpayers that public transit should be free. That’ll be more costly to taxpayers, but it’d be an argument I’d be open to. (Typically, I’m inclined to think that public transit should not be free, that a minimal charge dissuades scofflaws and other undesirables from ruining the system for everyone.) Of TriMet’s $1.75 billion budget, only $62 million comes from passenger fares. That’s 3.5%. One wonders how much they spend on compliance. It’s either not enough or way too much.