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Earlier this week, the Post reported on a new trend that even "grandparents, baby boomers and even mothers with carriages" are getting in on: not paying bus fares by using the back door. Dunh dunh DUNH!
Now, bus drivers tell the Post that fare-ducking riders have become more common because more people are using mass transit. Which makes some sense - sometimes those lines just to get on a bus are insane!
One bus driver lamented the problem, "The part that bugs me is that I have a 92-year-old woman who keeps coming in through the back, and when I call her to the front, she tells me, 'Shut up! I'm a senior citizen. I'm supposed to ride for free.'" Ha! Not so ha: A Queens bus driver was beaten in February when he tried to confront a "habitual bus hopper. "
The police tend to focus on subway fare jumping, versus bus fare duckers, but something is out of whack when people are giving excuses like "I'm doing it because everyone else is doing it." We bet unlimited Metrocard holders don't feel it's necessary to swipe, but we suspect some bus-only commuters might not even have Metrocards, when they can game the system so easily.
Have you ducked paying a bus fare?
Update: Free Metrocards near Grand Central tomorrow, as per the MTA:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will celebrate public transportation’s role as the “pollution solution” at an Earth Day celebration. MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot G. Sander will kick off Earth Day by discussing the agency’s sustainability achievements and directing transit riders to the agency’s exhibit – a working hybrid-electric NYC Transit bus – where a limited number of free MetroCards will be distributed. The event will take place at 44th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue at 12 noon on Friday April 20, 2007.
Photograph by specmotors on Flickr
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What do you expect from New Yorkers? They're only interested in themselves and are never, ever wrong!
A "new" trend? I remember seeing that happening on the Q41 when I was in high school *cough cough* years ago.
That $76 a month is just crushing. I can see why someone would need to cheat on fares so they could feed their families instead.
MTA Cheats NYers, NYers cheat MTA. News at 11.
Do buses have video cameras? If yes, when someone gets on in the back and doesn't pay, pull over to a cop, show them the tape, and get them kicked off. End of story. I don't care if they're 9, 19, or 99 - you want to ride the bus, you pay. What - you can't afford to ride the bus? Too bad - 'Dems 'da breaks.
Oh yeah, and another thing, I'd like to start an initiative whereby you get fined if you exit the bus in the front. You get ON in the FRONT, and OFF in the BACK. This way, you keep traffic inside the bus flowing in one direction, and you keep people moving towards the back of the bus too which makes it easier to find seats. The bus itself will no longer sit there idling (which wastes a TON of gas) while Nana Sadie hitches up her knee-highs and leans her way down the stairs. And yes, I know, the doors in the back are a bitch to open. That can be fixed easily enough. In the meantime, someone can help the old and infirm with the door because helping people is what NYers are known for...
92 year old granny? C'mon, have a heart. She should ride for free (I'd say she's earned it).
No, no need to duck paying bus fare. I only take the bus to get to LaGuardia airport and it's a free transfer on the Metrocard!
However, in San Francisco I did duck bus fare.
I don't swipe for my 7 year old nephew unless the bus driver tells me to, which has only happened once. He passed the height limit for a free rider (which is marked by an etched ring on the pole opposite the driver) at least a year ago but no one seems to care.
"We bet unlimited Metrocard holders don't feel it's necessary to swipe" ?? that's like sneaking into a movie when you have a ticket. how is anyone besides you supposed to know that you have an unlimited card?
I haven't done it since getting caught back in Dinkin's New York and spending four hours in transit jail in Union Square. Scared me enough to never commit a crime again.
i grew up in this city and most people who don't pay bus fares (not all but most) are just a-holes who want a free ride and want to be rebellious.
The only reason some people enter through the back, is because the buses are so overcrowed durning rush hour that there is no room to enter through the front & then there are people that don't move to the back of the bus to make room for people that are getting on.
Being 92 does NOT entitle you to a free ride. Does that entitle them to free hosuing and free food and free clothes or anything else they don't feel like paying for? If they aren't paying then who ultimately does? Us, the hardworking law abiding citizens who already pay our own fare.
And this is NOT a new trend, people have been doing this for years-- I grew up in NYC and I've seen old and young do this for the past 40 years.
I spend my hard earned money on transportation and I expect all other riders to pay too.
I take the bus from 96th to South ferry every evening rush hour, The only time I've seen people enter in the back was when it was soooooo overcrowded, that it's the only way for a passenger to get a ride.
Usually when that happens is when the subways were out of whack. Since I get on at 96th I always get a seat.
Of course, I take the subway for the morning rush.
"92 year old granny? C'mon, have a heart. She should ride for free (I'd say she's earned it)."
I hope that was sarcastic, but if it wasn't, explain to me how, by her not dying, she has earned the right to not pay for a service she is clearly benefitting from.
How to get a free subway ride by riding the bus:
1. Use a regular (NOT unlimited) MetroCard to ride the bus TO a destination (don't transfer.)
2. Do your business/run your errand/whatever. Just make sure it's within 2 hours of when you first got on the bus.
3. Take the subway home. The ride home will count as a free transfer. The trick is to take the bus (not subway) first.
#2,
$76 is a good deal for a month of unlimited rides. Even if you only use it once a day to go somewhere and then come back, it works out to a little less than $4/day. How much would you have to pay for insurance and gas and repairs if you had to drive everywhere for a month?
I live in BK near an extremely busy bus stop, and I won't lie...when the lines extremely long and everyones adverse to moving to the back to help with the flow, I go in through the back.
Ive got an unlimited, and half the time if I remember(and walk out the front) I even swipe it on my way out, lol.
Since I got into a screaming match with a bus driver once tho, I have stopped. Still do it from time to time. They just have to be more diligent, or just redesign the buses so its easier to get on and off.
I should clarify: if you use the unlimited card twice a day on weekdays only, it's a little less than $4/day. If you use it every single day of the month, of course the savings are greater.
bing wrote:
> That $76 a month is just crushing. I can see
> why someone would need to cheat on fares so
> they could feed their families instead.
What? New York easily has one of the cheapest transportation systems in the world. $2 to travel *anywhere* in the system with no time constraints 24 hours a day? And let's not even start with how much a driver pays alone for gas in a week even without taking insurance and maintenance into account...
The MTA needs to pay more attention to getting people to move promptly to the back of the bus and then exit exclusively from the back (handicapped excepted). Drivers should be able to press a button that plays a recorded message telling people to move to the back and exit at the back.
A solution to the problem is for the bus to be FREE.
Busses are most often used as transfers to the subway, so there shouldn't be a huge decrease in revenue for the MTA.
Buses and subways should be free. Until that becomes policy, though, everyone pays fair and square. Long lines are no excuse -- chances are that if you sneak in the back you are not only ducking your fare, you're displacing a fare paying customer who got there ahead of you, waited patiently, and now has to get the next bus. Talk about rude.
At stops where this is a recurring problem (last stop in Queens on a Manhattan-bound M60?) drivers should use their discretion to keep the back door locked. Sure it slows everyone down, but if people aren't going to follow the rules, them's the shakes.
Alternatively, the driver can refuse to leave the stop until the fare-beater exits, and announce it. You'll see 60 angry commuters ganging up on the scofflaw in about 2 seconds.
CR, you have my initials and you are channeling my very thoughts this morning, when I realized how many precious minutes we waste on the B61 while MORONS - not elderly or parents who need the kneeling bus entrance - go out the bus through the front instead of the back.
Yes, able-bodied people on an otherwise clear bus refuse to go out the back door. Most of these people don't like to open the back door because they can't read the sign that indicates PUSH ON THE YELLOW TAPE TO OPEN, which will ensure that the doors don't need to be held open - they will stay open by themselves.
These people are right up there with the morons leaning against a door opening at a stop that they KNOW perfectly well a million people are going to get out at (like, Grand central) and not moving out of the way at any point or in any fashion, but instead, stand there blocking a door while 90 thousand people attempt to exit the train.
Actually, bob, NYC has one of the more expensive systems in the country. In Austin the buses cost 50 cents and $1 will get you a full day of unlimited rides, plus they have free buses on particularly hot "ozone" days to encourage people to ride and reduce carbon emissions. Other cities (Philly, San Fran) are $2/ride but nowhere in the US is it more expensive than that.
True PT, but there is no transit system that is even close to the scale and complexity of the NYC's MTA. It would be better to compare worldwide systems and prices to our system then it would be to other systems across the country.
And compared to a lot of the big Cities worldwide, NY's subway system is actually pretty cheap.
* Comparing NYC to the rest of the country.
>Other cities (Philly, San Fran) are $2/ride but nowhere in the US is it more expensive than that.
DC actually works out to being FAR more expensive than the NYC metro, depending on how far you ride.
And it doesn't even run 24/7. Lame.
Actually, PT all the way, they got rid of the free ozone days a few months ago (they couldnt afford to keep doing it) and they are going to significantly raise fares in Austin very soon-the buses in Austin have been severely underpriced for a long time. And I agree with Kojak, there is no other city in the US whose PT system is as extensive as NYC's -I think maybe London, Paris, Tokyo are the only reasonable comparisons and compared to those, NYC is very cheap. I think the unlimited ticket is a steal and I dont make a lot of money!(although the rumor is that's going to go up soon).
I'm not trying to cheat the bus when I get on through the back door- it's just that there are so many fatasses blocking the front, there's no other way on the bus.
Bob, I was being sarcastic.
if i gotta pay, everybody gotta pay. the end.
One of the problems is the movement of people to the back of the bus. I was on a bus in Midtown recently and it was very crowded in the front, but there were seats in the raised area in the back, but people didn't want to go up the two or three steps. The driver just gave up on people paying due to the crowding.
As for fare evasion, it is wrong.
I have been waved through the slam gate with my bike on the subway on more than once by a TA employee holding it open.
I hear that the free MetroCards will not be a special edition - they will just be standard cards. But I could be wrong.
Love the idea of making buses free. Would make things move a lot faster, no?
Are you guys drunk? If buses were fre it wouldnt make like us cheat the system and sneak in from the back. We need to have fares on the bus, so people like me can go in the back. and if it was free every 1 would go on and make ya destination slow.
This goes to everyone that has posted a comment here in favor of "Bus hopping" Grow up and pay your fare ! I agree with trying to get over and all, But there's a right way to do . Anyway it gives the MTA it's excuse to put cops on the buses slowing them down even further, Or in a worst case raising the fare because there losing money due to fair evasion . Just pay your fare and move to the back of the bus !
How to get a free subway ride by riding the bus:
1. Use a regular (NOT unlimited) MetroCard to ride the bus TO a destination (don't transfer.)
2. Do your business/run your errand/whatever. Just make sure it's within 2 hours of when you first got on the bus.
3. Take the subway home. The ride home will count as a free transfer. The trick is to take the bus (not subway) first.
wrong. If you take the subway first then the bus you will still get a free transfer, as long as you get on the bus less than two hours after you got on the subway.
why the hell should anyone pay for riding the bus? all NYC buses should be free except for the express buses. the only people who take buses to their destinations are kids and the elderly.
just make buses free! most people on the bus will end up at the subway at some point, so you will collect their fare, and most importantly IT WILL SPEED UP THE BUS RIDE if ever single person does not have to swipe to get on the bus.
this is such a non-issue.
Nothing is free. If the MTA does not collect fare on buses, it will be required to collect it elsewhere--like subway fare. The MTA might instead ask for more money from the city, which then requires higher taxes, and more money lost to the bureaucracy. But you still pay for it, even the part you don't use.
The whole issue is: life would be better if it were less taboo to ask someone to stop being an a-hole. Our society rewards and idolizes people who just don't care about anybody else.