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| Fare inspectors on Bx12 SBS article (198916) | |||
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Fare inspectors on Bx12 SBS article |
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Posted by GOLD_12th on Fri Jun 18 14:47:07 2010 Daily News did a complete turn around from their investigation on fare beating on the Bx12 SBS to watching the fare inspectors do their job. In which there is still a major problem.You won't find a free ride here ... MTA inspectors keep Bronx's Bx12 fare-beaters in check The 26-year-old woman rolled the dice - and lost. She boarded a Bx12 bus in the Bronx last week without first paying the $2.25 fare at a curbside machine. A few stops later, an NYC Transit inspector stepped on, asked riders for receipts - and wrote the woman a $100 ticket for fare-beating. Welcome to the honor payment system - with teeth. The Daily News got an inside look at how Transit's Eagle Team of inspectors keep fare evasion in check along the Select Bus Service route in the Bronx - and how they'll soon do the same on Manhattan's East Side. Some straphangers suspect the system, designed to speed bus travel by having riders pay at the curb, will encourage more rampant fare-beating. Transit officials and Mayor Bloomberg, though, disagree, pointing to their special team of inspectors. Every day, at least two pairs of inspectors ask riders along the Bx12 line for their receipts. And several times a week, they perform a "surge," stopping a string of buses at a stop and asking every passenger for proof they paid. Transit officials say fare evasion has dropped on the line since Select Bus Service started, from 13% to 10%, due to the roaming inspectors and the greater threat of fines. But some estimates put it even lower. From January through May, inspectors checked 17,856 riders during surges and just 668 riders (3.7%) lacked receipts, said Eagle Team Superintendent Robert Diehl. Inspectors, instructed to use discretion, issued just 341 summonses during the surges. The others received warnings, Diehl said. "We want people to pay the fare," Diehl said. "It's not to issue as many summonses as you can." Several riders about to board without a receipt last week were directed by inspectors to a curbside payment machine. Some who lacked receipts but had unlimited-ride MetroCards also were spared a ticket. In all, just 17 out of 174 riders didn't have receipts. And of those, nine were ticketed. Fare-evasion enforcement is rare on other buses because the NYPD has higher priorities. Citywide between January and May, police made 247 bus fare evasion arrests and issued 488 summonses. The Eagle Team, operating on just one bus route, averages 330 summonses a month. "I agree with them checking," Janelle Davis, 17, a high school student said. "I don't think it's fair some people pay for the bus and other people sneak on." Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/06/17/2010-06-17_dont_do_the_crime__or_you_may_pay_farebeat_fine_on_bx12.html |
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