Starting on Jan. 1, BART will roll out its proof of payment system to deal with its rampant fare evasion problem.
Starting on Jan. 1, 2018, BART will roll out its proof of payment system to deal with its rampant fare evasion problem.
On Thursday night, BART’s Board of Directors approved a proof of payment ordinance that will allow BART police and community service officers to issue civil citations to riders who fail to provide valid fare media upon request from officers within the paid areas of the transit system such as the station platforms and on trains.
Directors also approved an ordinance to allow officers to issue civil citations to youth for fare evasion.
Transit officials said the agency loses an estimate of $25 million in fare revenue because of riders who hop the faregates or climb over the barriers.
Adults who get caught will face a $75 citation and youth riders will receive a $55 citation. The ordinance capped the fines for adults at $120 and $60 for minors. During the first month of implementation, officers will issue warnings to fare cheats.
Minors can be offered to do community service in lieu of paying the fine, and low-income adults may also do community service.
BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said inspections from officers will be unbiased and fair, and that officers will check each rider without skipping anyone. Officers will activate mobile video recorders while inspecting passengers for proof of payment.
The earlier version of the proposed ordinance would have allowed officers to issue a criminal citation to second time offenders, which was not supported by BART Board President Rebecca Saltzman.
Now, officers will instead issue a criminal citation to adult riders who have been caught three or more times within 12 months.
Saltzman said the change will capture more of the riders who frequently fare evade on a daily basis instead of a rider who may have made one or two mistakes.
Director Thomas Bialock said:
“We really want to get control of the habitual violators.”
Director Debora Allen said she had hoped the ordinance would be more effective on issuing criminal citations to repeat fare evaders:
“I had hoped there would have been more teeth to this policy in terms of reaching the criminal status after a number of violations. We know there are people out there who do this all the time.”
Allen added:
“At least this is better than what we have now.”
The BART Police Department will report back to the board in six months following the implementation of the ordinance.
Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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It shouldn’t be easier to not pay your Bart fare than paying it, but that’s exactly how it is right now for anyone riding the Bart elevator/urinals. If Bart were serious about collecting fares, they wouldn’t make it so damn inconvenient for people to pay them!
In many stations, anyone who rides a Bart elevator urinal has to walk several hundred feet out of their way to go through a gate that says “DO NOT ENTER” just so we can process our fare. Hey Bart, if you put farecard gates at or in the elevators rather than just leaving them complete open for anyone to skip their fare, that will probably be much more effective and cheaper than paying a squad of police to intimidate minorities, which is what fare enforcement usually ends up becoming.
“Rampant fare evasion” — The BART budget estimates that they will get $511 million in FY2018. $25 million in fare evasion is less than 5% of their fares. How is this rampant?
http://www.bart.gov/about/financials
From Google’s dictionary:
ramp·ant
/ˈrampənt/
adjective
1.
(especially of something unwelcome or unpleasant) flourishing or spreading unchecked.”political violence was rampant”
synonyms: uncontrolled, unrestrained, unchecked, unbridled, widespread
Well, by definition tickets certainly have been unchecked.