Fare Evasion - What Is Fare Evasion?

What Is Fare Evasion?

Fare evasion can be a chronic problem in transit systems, especially large systems like New York or Paris. From classic turnstile “vaulting” and “slugs” instead of legitimate tokens to elaborate schemes involving stolen faregate keys, fraudulent electronic fare media, “forgetting” proof-of-payment (POP) receipts, or “two card monte” that takes advantage of fare system features, many ways exist to avoid paying fares. Indeed, industry standard revenue ‘leakage’ is reportedly 3%~6% . If there’s a way to evade, criminals will exploit it. Evasion is so rampant in some cities that conversion from POP to turnstiles is being proposed or seriously considered.

In the transit world, fare abuse studies are sometimes shrouded in utmost secrecy and treated like classified information, but it is widely discussed in popular press, local television news, criminal justice literature, economics research, and internet blogs; in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Edmondton, London, and Paris. Four agencies (TransLink, King County Metro, Edmondton, New York) made evasion audit findings public, San Francisco (Muni) and Atlanta (MARTA) presented papers, while Toronto addressed evasion in a fare collection study, at least one confidential international benchmarking study was published, and Federal Transit Administration has even requested special studies of non-farebox passengers within the context of National Transit Database ridership reporting.

To understand evasion, it is imperative to first understand interactions between fare control hardware, fare tariff, and passengers. Evasion occurs when passengers gain access from unpaid to paid side by interacting with fare controls in manners inconsistent with tariff. Transit’s tariff is complex, sometimes requiring legitimate revenue passengers to defeat fare controls with behaviors that resemble evasion to casual observers. Additionally, entry procedures aren’t always strictly followed, though usually no actual revenue losses takes place. There are, therefore, real debates about what constitutes evasion. Are common behaviors that result in no revenue loss considered “evasion”?

Different observation methodologies were used to estimate evasions: staff interviews (Edmondton), operator counts (King County Metro), surveyor counts (New York and San Francisco), and third party audits (TransLink Vancouver).