Fare evasion is a problem that’s not limited to New York City. Last year the MTA in Washington, DC started installing new subway gates designed to limit people hopping over them for a free ride. Out in San Francisco, the BART system also started installing new gates for the same reason.
But the situation in New York City is really bad. Beege wrote about this back in July, citing an analysis of the MTA’s budget which found, among other things, that “Fare and toll evasion cost the MTA $690 million in 2022, up from approximately $250 million annually prior to the pandemic.”
Today the NY Times reports that the situation on MTA buses is probably some kind of world record. Nearly half the people taking the bus don’t pay their fares.
New York’s long-running fare evasion problem, among the worst of any major city in the world, has intensified recently; before the pandemic, only about one…
