Hey, there! Log in / Register
Fare evasion as political protest
By adamg on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 10:47am
Yesterday at Park Street (start around 1:25 to see the fare-evasion action). Didn't appear to be any CSAs or transit cops to make a stand against the roughly 50 Occupy MBTA protesters.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Whenever my weekly
Whenever my weekly charliecard pass says "See Agent," there's usually no agent to be seen. That whole system was a horrible idea, and cost way too much for anyone to handle now...
Horrible idea? Um, NO! The
Horrible idea? Um, NO!
The smart cards have increased the speed of boarding and gotten rid of the long lines at token booths. The same booths that used to be staffed with the 'hard-working' agents you are complaining about.
It's also much easier to add value to a card at various locations and carry it around than always having change or tokens on hand.
The old fareboxes USED TO SHRED DOLLAR BILLS to the point that very little money was recovered from buses and trolleys. There was also the very significant revenue losing issue of not collecting outbound fares on the Green Line because it took way too long. If anything fare collection significantly improved with the switch to smart cards and the new boxes just from collecting fares where none were previously and not having all the bills being shredded. Many bus routes are relatively on time now thanks to the drastically reduced boarding times.
If anything the smart card system and the NextBus tracking system have been the two major things which have SIGNIFICANTLY improved the quality of MBTA service in the past decade with wifi on the commuter rail falling into third place.
I support the protest but the tactic is a loser
T riders and former riders (service cuts) will be responsible for $100 million of the $150 million shortfall. Riders provide the new revenue from fare increases and former riders do via service cuts.
The state legislature found $50 million to fund the difference.
I heard the average increase in fares is about 29%. Did anyone get a 29% raise this year? But it gets worse, the elderly, handicapped and students have a much higher increase that others. So yes, I support the protest.
To be successful as a protest, the protestors must be recognizable as the public being victimized unfairly. The contrary is what appears to be the case when a person or a group evades fares. Time for a new tactic. Put on your thinking caps. Creativity is the hallmark of the 2012 social justice movement in the united States. Thank you occupiers and all like-minded activists. I want the protesters to win this debate.
When was the last time the
When was the last time the fare went up?
January 1, 2007.
January 1, 2007.
Terrible math
A 29% fare increase only impacts your budget by 29% if your budget is 100% transit costs. I expect that for your average T rider, it's under 3%. For a full-time, minimum wage employee who uses a monthly pass and incurs no other form of travel cost, a monthly pass is 8% of his/her budget. For that employee, the fare hike constitutes a 10% increase in his/her transit budget, and under 2% overall, to a total budget share of 10.4%.
Granted, minimum wage employees don't frequently get raises, but just pointing out that nobody needs a 29% raise to afford the increased MBTA fares, and I don't foresee a FTE making minimum wage riding the subway (I don't recall what the bus-only monthly pass is going up to, but it's currently 2/3s the price of the regular monthly pass). Also, if the employee is paying any tax whatsoever, the increased fare will likely go into federal tax deductions (or at least $42 worth, since a year's worth of monthly subway passes currently reaches $708 and the annual transit deduction is $750.
Wrong math on tax deductions
There is no general federal income tax deduction on transit fares.
There is a Mass. state income tax deduction on transit passes. It covers a maximum of $750 paid per year (per person) for T passes, with a $150 deductible -- in other words the maximum deduction is $600, for a commuter who pays $750 or more for T passes over the course of the year. At this year's tax rate of 5.25% the maximum deduction would reduce your annual income tax by $31.50 per year.
As Cutriss noted, the old Link Pass (before the fare increase) cost $708 per year which allowed a $558 deduction on the tax form, reducing the tax by $29.30. So with the new pass prices you could save $2.20 per year on your state income tax.
To get that deduction you must fill out an extra page on your tax form so I suspect that many people don't take the deduction even if they're entitled to it.
If you get your monthly T pass through your employer, as part of a payroll-deduction system, and if your employer fills out the appropriate paperwork with the IRS, then your pass is fully deductible from both your federal and Mass. income tax. But your employer has to do everything correctly -- this option isn't available if you buy your pass at a T station, for example. With this option, the "taxable income" line on your W-2 form will reflect your net pay after the transit passes have been deducted, so the employee doesn't have to fill out any special lines on the tax form.
There is an upper limit on how much per month you can deduct this way, but it's higher than the basic T Link Pass (subway + bus). That upper limit has actually been in flux recently, as the Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been debating tax policies. For years the maximum deduction for transit passes equalled the maximum deduction for employer-paid parking subsidies, but that's no longer the case -- Congress reduced the transit deduction and increased the parking deduction. Transit advocates in Washington are trying to get the transit deduction increased again.
Ah, didn't realize that's how
Ah, didn't realize that's how the tax deduction worked, thanks for the correction!
it's only a raise of 4.7% per
it's only a raise of 4.7% per year since the last time there was a fare increase
I don't know what T universe you occupy...
Drastically reduced boarding times on busses?? You've GOT to be kidding me. The new system has slowed down Blue Line, for example, bus service drastically. For saftey reasons drivers will often not move the bus until all the passengers have paid and moved into the bus, and the fare system takes forever. It may have been primitive, but he old method of dumping change in the hole and getting into the bus was faster by far. Even drivers have told me so. I'm sorry if it incovenienced you to have to carry around tokens or change.
You beat me to the punch. I
You beat me to the punch. I was going to post something similar in response. I'd like to know what bus route(s) anon @1:07 takes where "the smart cards have increased the speed of boarding." The original intention of the charlie cards (faster boarding times) have been rendered useless because the T in its infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to allow passenger to refill their cards on buses thus holding up the bus for everyone else.
not only that, but their
not only that, but their recent initiative to only open the doors at the front of the cars on the green line above ground is about the least convenient thing ever. it's not the riders fault that there's no practical system in place to collect fares above ground, and this isn't the solution.
Yeah, I've often wondered
Yeah, I've often wondered what the best way to eliminate bottlenecks on the above ground Green Line would be. I don't think adding a second fare box would really work, unless you had a T employee to monitor it. People would just get on, and not pay the fare because there is no T worker observing you. Perhaps during rush-hour trains the MBTA could have a second fare box watcher? Not sure how effective that would be though.
The best solution would to be to create some sort of turnstiles outside that passengers would have to go through in order to access the platform where the trains stop. But then you'd have to erect all this fencing, and have Charlie Card machines out in the elements. OR perhaps you could enclose a smallish area to house a turnstile and a Charlie Card machine? That seems like it would be cost prohibitive though.
I can't think of a reasonable work-around to the 'only open the front door' method. It's a tricky situation.
Proof-of-payment
The correct solution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-payment
For all but the most heavily used systems, fare evasion costs less than turnstile installation and maintenance. It's self-defeating to spend more money on loss prevention than you would have lost in the first place. Though, complaining about fare evasion does allow a bunch of self-righteous asshole politicians to grandstand.
Hopefully the front door-only boarding goes away once the customers realize how pointless, slow and stupid it is.
Then again, they ARE riding the "B" line :)
This.
It's what they use in Amsterdam. It works there.
Would it be an equitable
Would it be an equitable alternative to put a second farebox in the middle of each bus and disallow board-time recharges?
Part of the problem as I understand it is that a sizeable chunk of folks don't have Internet access and rarely/never go to a subway station where they can charge the cards.
So, put one on the buses that won't interfere with boarding. Let's assume each of these boxes cost $50. Throw in labor costs on retrofitting 1070 buses, call it $100k even.
Will you make back $100k in one year of recovering customers due to *far* faster boarding/departure operations and thus much better on-time performance?
The solution is to put vending machines
in stores and at major stations, and disallow ALL on-board purchases. This is what was initially promised by management as part of the original Charlie System pitch over ten year ago
But the T, which has wasted countless dollars with useless "get train information from your car radio" and needless "automated on-board announcements - although we have human crew members on board" systems, is suddenly crying poverty when it comes to putting ticket machines in commuter rail stations.
The problem isn't refilling
The problem isn't refilling cards, so much as it's how slow it is to feed coins, or how often bills get rejected.
For years, bus fareboxes have had a funnel that took a handful of coins, and a dollar bill acceptor that scrolled bills past a window so the driver could see them (rather than finicky automated acceptance like a soda machine).
Unfortunately the Charlie boxes lack either of those features.
How does the Charlie system slow down the Blue Line?
I don't see how that is even possible, since no fares are collected on board Blue Line trains.
Busses
I was talking about Blue Line busses, not the trains. The 120 bus. You'd be amazed how long it takes everyone to board and pay, as opposed to the old system where the change was simply dropped into the fare box.
However, while we're on the subject, there have been occasions when my fully paid up monthly pass did not work at the entrance to a Blue Line T stop due to a T malfunction, and there have been no employees in sight to do anything about it. Especially on Sundays. Consequently I have had to buy a ticket at the machine or be stranded, even though I had a pass with money on it.
Overall, it's faster now
It's only slow for the change-carriers, which is a tiny minority of riders. Most of the people use the Charlie Cards and it's boop-boop-boop, everybody in the bus. No question that people who use cash make everything grind to a halt, but at least you can be happy that they're paying off the T deficit with much higher fares than everyone else. The tickets are annoying - the T could have figured out a faster way to swipe those. And they should ban people who try to load their card on the bus when they're at the subway station.
I'd say overall it goes much faster with the new system.
Crazytown
I rode buses daily before and after the change. Hands down the Charliecard system is faster. I think you're forgetting the days people slowly pulling out the change purse, digging around for quarters, not putting enough in, trying to feed dollars, etc.
Of course the cash customers now slow your down, but they're infrequent. Maybe it's only true of the routes I take. For example, when I take the 47 I'm guessing maybe 5 people out of a busload of people will actually use money versus a card.
If the smartcard system is so great, then
why do I still need to buy a CharlieTicket every month to ride the commuter rail?
When the Charile system was first introduced, the MBTA sold this expensive and wasteful high-tech gimmick to an unsuspecting public by stating:
We'll reduce fare evasion: FAIL - Fare evasion, which was a minimal problem with the old turnstiles, has skyrockted since the introduction of the Charile system.
We'll reduce the number of employees needed by eliminating token clerks: FAIL - Nearly all the token clerks were re-assigned as CSAs, and additional CSAs were also hired. And don't forget the additional personnel needed to maintain the faregates and ticket machines.
We'll make it faster for people to get into the stations: FAIL - The built in delays in the faregates, which are horribly inconsistent from faregate to faregate, require people to break stride to enter the station. This was NOT the case with the old passes and turnstiles. Add in the fact that, on a given day, 20 to 30 percent of the faregates are out of service, and these seemingly minimal delays quickly add up.
This system will save us money: FAIL - If and when the Charile System is ever fully deployed, the total bill will be somehwere in the $200 million range. By the T's own admissions, they are recouping about $13 million a year in prior lossage since Charlie was introduced. Even if you had no CSAs and maintenance personnel, that means you have to run the system for about 16 years just to break even. Factor in those salaries, and the break even point is probably closer to 22 to 25 years.
The MBTA fares should be
The MBTA fares should be based on ability to pay. With Charlie Cards this should be easy to accomplish. As a matter of fact, that is already the case in that seniors pay less that anyone else. Setup a system so that people below a certain income pay only a little and people above a certain income pay more. And everyone in the middle pays the standard fare.
That happens to me all the
That happens to me all the time. There is never an agent around. So, when I finally saw one I asked what the solution was if that happened and there was no agent around. They said to ride on someone's coat tails and show your card to the cameras. -Mea http://hertrainstories.blogspot.com/2012/03/cardle...
How the he'll can....
You demand someone else pay for something you use. Your bitching? Try taking the commuter rail toots! Also "make the 1% pay" is not an acceptable solution to all of your issues.
That's how taxes work.
That's how taxes work. Everyone pays for projects for the greater good. I don't have kids, and won't have kids, while I live in Massachusetts - and you don't see me throwing a fit because part of my tax money goes to fund schools. It's in the public interest to properly fund the T, whether you use it or not.
Keyword
Everyone! Not the "1%"
Eat the Rich
Look it's fairly simple. Yes Mitt does not ride the T so he is paying for a service he does not directly use. But the people on the T are people whose cars are not impeding his limo. So he is getting a benefit from the T. Thus he must pay for it.
Occupy has won round one against the T
After being crushed by knockout by the Boston Police the occupiers have decided to do battle with the T police. Rosa Parks they are not but they did win round one.
Aaaaaahahaha
What by jumping the gates? Maybe if the T-Police were there, but they weren't! That about as bold as going swimming with no lifeguard on duty.
I Got Bingo!
Who wants to check my Left-Wing Protest Bingo Card? Second row from the left, top to bottom:
1) Drum or drum substitute
2) Overuse of the prefix "neo"
3) Someone wearing more expensive shoes than any of mine
4) Guy wearing a mask
5) Getting in the way of one of the commoners they purport to speak for
/embarrassed liberal
If this was Europe, you'd
If this was Europe, you'd need giant puppet on that list. Every protest needs giant puppets.
Giant Puppets
Those are soooo '90s!
Oh. Wait. Maybe they are retro now.
Everything should be free
Make the 1% pay for everything, Mr. Obama.
Everything should be free!!!!!
Oh I see what you did there.
You may be sarcastic in your statement, but I for one like free stuff. Considering the 1% get to be free of most taxes - if not through the efforts of Republicans than by the option of sending it to the Caymans, I think a little reciprocation is not uncalled for.
Hey, if they can afford to
Hey, if they can afford to hire miscreants like you to troll regional news blogs in order to prop up the conservative agenda, I'm sure they can pay for our transit too. Not that I really think you're from Phoenix or that your name is Sally, of course.
Cry me a river
The $70 monthly pass is still cheaper than what I was paying in 2004 for the same service.
It's also cheaper than LA ($75), SF ($74), DC ($139 for subway), Philly ($83), Atlanta ($95), Toronto (US$156), Vancouver (US$79), or anywhere else you might look in North America with a comparable subway system.
It's also about the same price you might pay for car insurance if you're a perfect driver living in Boston, before you even start to pay for gas, parking, tolls, or the car itself.
So really, Occupy something that's truly ripping you off.
I still feel ripped off even
I still feel ripped off even at these fares.
Why are all those expensive roads and bridges all over the state and those expensive Big Dig tunnels free for drivers who use them while I have to pay for every trip on the subway?
Public transit should be free for the use of the public.
Transit, Banks & Dirty Hippies
Not sure how effective "Fare Strikes" will be, but I do think it's nice that the issue of interest rate swaps and the killing that the bailed out banks are making ripping off municipal govt and agencies like the MBTA are getting attention. And we have the Occupy people to thank for that, because god knows no one else is going to bring up the topic.
Even if you believe that fares should go up just because they haven't for a few years (so I assume you also think the gas tax should sky rocket as well, since it hasn't been touched in over two decades and being unadjusted for inflation means it is at the lowest that it's ever been in the history of the State gas tax), there's no getting around the fact that 100% of the fare revenue is going to paying interest on debt. Debt owed to banks that we had to bail out. Banks that have screwed over so many people by recklessly trashing the economy and then giving themselves huge bonuses, while the rest of us have to take on "austerity measures" like upping fares on the T. (Keeping in mind that for some commuters it may not be a big deal, but for people on a fixed income this can be quite devastating.)
Even if you think they're just a bunch of stinky, trust-fund hippies, at least they're bringing up issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug. It opens up a space to bring up other issues as real solutions as well, as long as they're folks pushing the envelope of the discussion on the "left." It's similar to what the Tea Party has done, only ... sane, not quite so obese, more intelligent and maybe slightly smellier.
¡Huzzah Occupy Peeples! Break out the giant puppets!!