In New York City, close to one million bus riders, about one out of every two passengers, board buses without paying. The loss of revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has reached a critical stage, and yet the city has yet to do anything about it, because it doesn’t know what to do. It may be too late.
New York’s fare evasion problem is by far the worst in the U.S. and among the worst of any major city in the world. The Wuhan virus freakout, as it did to so many other aspects of our economy, culture and society, made the situation worse, in part because the city had the brilliant idea that it would help get through the lockdown to make bus rides free. People don’t easily go back to paying for what they have been told they can have for nothing.
This, ladies and germs, is cultural rot and ethics collapse. In 2022, the transit authority lost $315 million because of bus fare evasion and $285 million as a result of subway turnstile jumpers, according to a 2023 report commissioned by the M.T.A. Taxpayers foot the bill for the freeloaders, naturally.
Some riders cheat because they regard themselves as too poor to pay for the service. Some rationalize that buses cost “too much.” Because of the pandemic’s free rides, some riders have convinced themselves that fares are optional. Meanwhile, bus drivers are under orders not to try to enforce the fares after episodes where drivers were attacked and beaten.
The ethics collapse comes from the accompanying collapse of the American ethos of personal responsibility and respect for the rule of law. Advocates for poor residents, the New York Times tells us, “worry that tighter fare enforcement will disproportionately affect the city’s most vulnerable people.” Yes, enforcement of most laws relating to theft of goods and services disproportionately affect the poor “disproportionately” because wealthier people tend to pay. That doesn’t justify stealing rides. But New York’s progressives, as in San Francisco and elsewhere, have sent the clear message that skipping fares isn’t a big deal.
In 2017, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., stopped pursuing criminal cases against most turnstile jumpers. When the the government stops treating wrongful and socially destructive conduct as not wrong enough to warrant punishment, that conduct is eventually perceived as right. This is a lesson history has taught for centuries. How did New York’s Democrats forget it?
Janno Lieber, the M.T.A.’s chief executive told the Times, “If the transit system does not work and nobody plays by the rules, it feels lawless. It is lawless. This is really tearing at the social compact of New York.” Ya think? But it’s not surprising. As a sanctuary city, the Big Apples sends the message that foreign law-breakers should be allowed to breach our requirements for crossing the border; why should citizens be punished for sneaking on board a bus? Half of New York transit riders see the other half ride for free with no consequences.
At some point, doing what is right starts to look and feel like being a patsy.
This will not stay in New York, and the spread will involve much more than bus rides. The Times article talks about the need for “teaching the public” that its important to pay fares. That is pathetic. Americans should be taught that basic principle and related ones in school and by their parents before they enter puberty. Once, they were.
Now what?
Ethics Alarms 
Already happened in Seattle, led to budget and route cuts. The cut routes were in more affluent areas (where most people pay). You can guess the outcome.
Now, as is often the case in these Democrat run cities, the honest people will have to pick up the tab so that the Democrats can stay in power by relying on the votes of those who benefit from these policies. Giuliani saw New York revive in the 1990s, now, almost two generations later, Eric Adams is overseeing the end of its slide back into the bad old days of the 1970s. He’s going to be re-elected no problem at all next year and I’m sure he’s preparing a successor in the same mold.
The current mayor of Chicago is down to 27% approval. Maybe he’ll get pushed out, maybe he won’t, but it won’t matter because the powerful unions will throw their money behind someone who does the same exact thing. Chicago has actually become a city where the voter no longer matters. My advice to you is to move farther away from the cities, where no one can stick a huge amount of low-income housing and turn you into an extension of one.
Democrats hate “responsible” people. They tend to make them ‘responsible’ for things and then punish them accordingly.
It is like when Democrats say they will ‘take care’ of you.
Well, you know the social compact was theorized by a white guy so why teach that to kids today?
A black co-worker of mine once nodded her head and said, “That’s a good idea” upon learning of an initiative on the part of one city to pay people not to commit crimes. I tried to explain the idea of the social compact but I doubt it went anywhere.
Advocates for poor residents, the New York Times tells us, “worry that tighter fare enforcement will disproportionately affect the city’s most vulnerable people.” Yes, enforcement of most laws relating to theft of goods and services disproportionately affect the poor “disproportionately” because wealthier people tend to pay.
We must scrap the entire concept of disproportionate impact because it is only used to protect certain groups of people from negative consequences. Disproportionate impact is not applied to tax policy in which wealthier, probably white taxpayers, pay a disproportionate amount in taxes. This is termed progressive taxation and a good thing.
If we are to achieve an equitable society disproportionate impact must be relegated to the dustbin of history otherwise equitable rewards and consequences cannot be had.
Well, I don’t think it needs to be COMPLETELY scrapped, but people need to stop using it in such a biased way. Enhanced policing and prosecution of property crime disproportionately affects the poor, but SO DOES PROPERTY CRIME. So, both enhanced policing and prosecution and relaxed policing and prosecution disproportionately affect the poor. Now, you just have to decide if you want to favor criminals or crime victims.
If you are a Democrat, the choice is easy and you choose criminals. In that case, poor people who are trying to work and live have everything they work for stolen from them. If they save up and buy a TV, it will be stolen. If they buy some nice clothes, it will be stolen. They might as well not lock the doors or windows because they will get kicked in or broken by thieves checking for valuables. If they have a car, it will be stolen or broken, and they will lose their job because they can’t get to work. The children see that there is no point in working, because everything you work for is just stolen. Working is for chumps. Everyone just sits around, collecting government checks, involved in petty crime. It is a good thing we never decided to do this and cause such things to happen in our cities…..oh….wait a minute…
The New York Times headline says 1 in 5 do not pay, not 1 in 2. Blissfully behind the paywall so not sure what the article says.
I don’t know what you’re seeing, but the headline remains “Fare Evasion Surges on N.Y.C. Buses, Where 48% of Riders Fail to Pay.” Literally just checked it.
I see a headline that says “1 in 5 bus riders avoid the fare” when I click the first link in your post, but I googled it now and I see that the linked article was from 2019, and that the more recent article has the 48% number. You are correct — it shows how much has been lost in the last five years.
No worries; Harris and Walz will fix this on day one!!!
Vote democrat “and all your wildest dreams will come true.”
Have a nice day…🤠
Not to worry, Kamala & co. do have one policy they’re floating (that wasn’t stolen from Trump)… Just tax unrealized capital gains. Only on the very wealthy, of course (for now). They believe promising that there’s still enough of other people’s money to steal could be good enough to buy them votes for the short run.