The biggest problem with bus fare evasion comes from the back of buses, where fare-beaters tend to climb aboard while buses are stopped, and the front and back doors are open.
Photo by Dean Moses
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber on Wednesday said the transit agency is still examining whether the new “European-style” of fare enforcement that, he said, is coming to city buses can be done while the vehicles are in motion or will require them to stop.
Lieber, during a press conference following the MTA board’s Dec. 17 meeting, indicated that the agency is still very much in the process of mapping out how the new method to combat fare beating on city buses will work.
“That issue is being examined by transit, can they accomplish what they need to accomplish in what kinds of bus environments? While the bus is moving, or do they need to stop the bus and take people off?” Lieber said in response to a reporter’s question.
In posing his query, the reporter pointed out that in Europe, fare agents check if riders paid while the bus is still in motion. At the same time, he noted that the MTA currently requires the vehicles to stop when performing the same task with its existing fare inspector squads, dubbed “EAGLE teams.”
Lieber’s comments come after he first teased the idea that the MTA would move toward the new enforcement model, which involves replacing cops with fare agents who will check if riders paid, once the OMNY tap-and-ride system has fully replaced coin-payments on buses.
OMNY makes it easier to verify payment because riders are either using an OMNY card, their phone, or their credit or debit card, Lieber has said in the past. He indicated earlier this month that the fare checkers will use “hand-held technology” to confirm that riders actually paid.
However, the MTA has declined to say whether the devices Lieber has referenced are those already utilized by the EAGLE teams or a new technology altogether.
MTA leadership contends that fare evasion is a particular problem on its buses because riders can slip on through the back door or simply walk past the driver without paying. The transit authority lost $568 million in unpaid bus fares last year, according to a September report from the Citizens Budget Commission watchdog group.
Pressed further on whether there is a reason the MTA would not have fare agents verify payments without stopping buses, Lieber did not offer any additional details.
“Why don’t you give us a couple of months to finish that work, and we’ll report out,” Lieber told the reporter.
Lieber said the switch-up is more about not relying on the already stretched-thin NYPD to perform fare checks, instead assigning the task to MTA personnel.
“What we’re trying to do is have a system which you don’t need a cop for every interaction, it just becomes a more routine part of riding that somebody may come up to you and you know show their ID and ask you to validate, whether it’s by your phone, or by a credit card or by an OMNY card, how you paid, so that we don’t have drama,” Lieber said of the new model.
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