As we noted yesterday, the M15 "Select Bus" service planned for First and Second Avenues will operate on an honor system, with riders expected to buy tickets at curbside kiosks before boarding, and produce the tickets upon request by a uniformed inspector. But will New Yorkers really behave honorably, or simply roll the dice and bet they don't run into any of the 30 inspectors policing the route?
The city is hoping the threat of a $100 summons will scare off most of the scofflaws. The honor system is already in effect on Select Buses on Fordham Road in The Bronx, and the MTA's inspectors have already doled out 7,312 summonses since August 2008 for fare beaters, the Post reports. And transit officials contend that the payment system has actually helped reduce fare-beating by 3% on the Fordham line. That's because there's not much bus drivers can do when people sneak onto the bus without paying. A whopping 6.7 riders million skip paying bus fare every year, and the city loses an estimated $8.1 million from fare beaters every year.
"There always will be a handful of people who cheat," Mayor Bloomberg told reporters yesterday. "When you start fining a few, then they'll say, 'Oops! I better not do that.' Most people are honest, and the fact of the matter is, if you improve the service dramatically, you'll get a lot more people using it, and the revenues will go up even if a handful of people cheat." By eliminating MetroCard swiping and keep traffic out of the red bus lanes, the MTA is hoping to improve overall travel time by 20 percent.
