MTA Loses $8 Million From Bus Fare-Beaters

Now I feel like a real bum for riding for free when, unbeknownst to me, my metro card had expired.. I guess it takes real balls for these lawless thugs to jump on the bus through the back door... I wish there was someone there with a big foot to kicks the slobs off !!!

The 8 million dollar "cost" calculation is as bogus as the numbers given by the recording industry and Hollywood regarding lost sales through copyright infringement.

There's no way to know how many who illegally download music for free would actually pay for it if there was no other choice, and there's no way to know how many people who hop on a bus for a free ride because they know they can would just walk if they had to.

But the MTA loses over $50 million from free Metrocards to its retired workers, their spouses, MTA cops, and MTA upper brass.

If your monthly card accidentally expires, just be polite to the driver and ask him if he'll let you off at the next subway stop so you can buy a card.

Then just ride to your destination.

Old Polish ladies are famous for this: just dig through your purse, act confused, ask the driver a question in Polish, and they'll eventually just tell you to sit down.

Honestly, bus drivers are told to do nothing. It's a big liability for the MTA. $8 million is alot cheaper than a handful of law suits from random drivers who end up out on comp from whatever reason due to a confrontation... but then again, if that were to happen, you would say that's "part of their job" or something stupid like that. They aren't cops.

And as for cops along route... then Gothamist would accuse them of ticketing helpless riders along the route... or hating women.

Yelling bus driver is my favorite. It comes with a nice false sense of superiority for myself and my fellow honest commuters.

A smooth, satisfying high.

Gothamist staff all take the bus together? That is adorable.

Once I thought I was getting on a dreaded "free shuttle bus" because a subway line was down, but it turned out to be a regular bus. The funny thing is, I entered at the front and walked right past the driver and sat down because I thought it was free, and he said nothing to me. It wasn't until a few blocks later I realized what I'd done and was very confused why he just let me get on without paying. People do it because most drivers really don't care.

This type of "getting one over" mentality enrages me. The pervasive sense of entitlement in this city is astounding.

Another way to stop it is to put in a one way turnstile at the rear of the bus. I'm sure they are on to this at the MTA. There is probably a staff of seventeen plus people costing several million a year working to solve the problem as we speak.

8 million MTA loss.

8 million in Taxi cab rip offs.

I guess it somehow evens out...

Install cameras and record these fare beaters. If it occurs as often as they say they are probably repeaters. I'm sure certain routes are more prone to the abuse, so get a cop or two riding the bus to focus in on them. Oh I forgot they are cutting down the number of cops so they are short of manpower. I guess the St. Paddy's day parade will get shorter also with all those missing cops.

How about using those "Traffic" cop idiots to do the job then?

"How about using those "Traffic" cop idiots to do the job then?"

They're not cops. They have no more legal authority to do anything about fare evasion than a bus driver.

They're not cops? I thought I saw an NYPD sign on the side of the vehicle as the fat lazy pieces of .... drove by. Shouldn't they be arrested for impersonating an officer of the law?

Traffic enforcement agents are civilian employees of the NYPD. They're not police officers, or peace officers. They're empowered only to write parking tickets.

all of your ideas are stupid. go build a model airplane or put together a puzzle or something

Glad to see you back dick head. If you had any idea how to solve a problem at all, it would probably be your first and last.

You are probably one of the people who start their daily bus trip through the back door.

Why don't the bus drivers call the dispatchers to have a police car meet them a few stops along?

In one Saturday afternoon ride on the BX12 in the Bronx, I saw 90 people evade the fare between Bay Plaza & Third Avenue. This isn't even the b.s. Select Bus where people are supposed to pay their fare in advance & can get in through the backdoor. Drivers don't say anything. Ever. And I've been on the Select Bus over 100 times & have not been checked for the metro card receipt once. The MTA has our money to burn.

Shut off the engine and sit there until the other passengers get pissed off enough to throw the guy off.

Then the bus will sit there for eternity. I remember when New Yorkers didn't take crap from anyone.

That's was my anecdotal experience in Germany. Bus driver didn't say a damn thing. He just sat there until we said something to the people who had gotten on using the rear door.

Bus fare-beaters amaze me in their range of backgrounds: sure you get the homeless types and the shady looking characters who've conditioned themselves to such things, but you also get the prima donnas on their cell phones too busy to put it down a minute, the old folks who use anything from their age to their packages for an excuse, and you get seemingly non-descript schmos who just miscounted their change (no sympathy from me though).

And of course they come in all colors of the rainbow, all accents and languages.

Oh god I saw one of these women the other day. Screaming into her phone (something about her friend and men's to women's shoe size conversions) does the putting her hand in her pocket fakeout and then sashays her fat ass to the back. She was so angry and vulgar though that no one was willing to say one word to her, just stare angrily and helplessly

I'm a bus fare evader. I never do it with the purpose of trying not to pay- I have a monthly Metrocard, so that's already done. It happens when the bus is too full to get on at the front door, and I get on at the back door. Bus drivers need to be better about forcing people to move to the back of buses, particularly if the bus is getting full.

How is it the bus driver's responsibility to move people to the back? I ride the bus every morning (Bx 40/Bx42) and the drivers constantly ask people to move back...but people just refuse to move. What is the driver supposed to do? Physically move them? A majority of people who ride NYC buses seem to be inconsiderate assholes who think the world revolves around them, and think the bus driver's request applies to everyone but them. Personally, these people enrage me every morning...but I don't see a solution.

You're not a bus fare evader. You're just a dick who wants to get on the bus before other people who were there first.

Bus drivers are not at liberty to do a lot to stop them.

Yep.

See it all the time.