Neither lowering fares or simply increasing enforcement can solve fare evasion alone. Investing in better services and winning public trust are just as important.

Neither lowering fares or simply increasing enforcement can solve fare evasion alone. Investing in better services and winning public trust are just as important.

  • Nath@aussie.zoneEnglish
    17·
    6 days ago

    I’m no expert on this topic, but I’ve previously read that when a thing is made free people stop valuing it. I don’t know how much weight to put on this, I certainly valued my hospital visits for my children and I and those were free.

    I think the simple fact is people evade fares because they believe they will face no consequences for it. If transit authorities put Coles style cameras on the entrances and flagged evaders who were then picked up every single time, evasion would drastically drop. And we’d hate having Big Brother watching us.

    I think a token amount is reasonable. It costs me more than 50c to ride my bicycle or walk/run 50km. When a train fare is cheaper than wear on your shoes for walking that distance, I can’t see how you can complain about it.

    • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
      11·
      6 days ago

      I’m no expert on this topic, but I’ve previously read that when a thing is made free people stop valuing it.

      I read that as well and had trouble finding it but this sounds about right:

      Why not make the fares free in Queensland? One reason can be found in the experience of the Miami Beach Transportation Association in the United States. The Association launched free shuttle buses along the coastline. However, the lack of fares led to a diminished sense of responsibility for the upkeep and care of the transit system, ultimately negatively affecting both driver satisfaction and passenger experience. Whilst passenger numbers initially surged, studies show problem riders resulted in raised personal security concerns as transit crime increased. Examples include increased assault, damage, and theft for users, becoming a deterrent for both new and existing riders. An attempt to resolve these issues was introducing a $0.25 flat fare, leading problem riders to avoid the service. Consequently, these negative factors began to rapidly decline, such as vandalism decreasing by 90% whilst passenger numbers remained steady.

      https://ninesquared.com.au/insights/nearly-free-fares/

      • plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        7·
        6 days ago

        That makes sense, thanks for sharing. We tried fully free buses here for a while but scrapped it because it was super expensive (the way it worked was that the government paid the bus company for all the tickets - and they chose to write a new app you could use to claim these free bus tickets)

        I didn’t hear anything about crime or vandalism rising in this case. I wonder if the registration process was a deterrant; passengers still had to scan their tickets as they boarded, and getting one required identifying yourself.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      I’m no expert on this topic, but I’ve previously read that when a thing is made free people stop valuing it.

      This sounds like a misunderstanding of economics. If someone gives away something for free, they’re only saying the thing has no value to them, etc, or — in the context of gov services — the act of giving it away has more value. It’s never that the thing itself has no intrinsic value, “period”.

      You could definitely argue that the 50c fee prevents homeless people from squatting, or completely unnecessary travel, but I would argue that everyone should be provided with shelter, and 50c probably isn’t going to prevent unnecessary travel anyway.

      • Nath@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        This sounds like a misunderstanding of economics.

        I’d give this more weight if other commenters hadn’t already helpfully cited studies in this very thread on the topic at hand. The story from Miami in particular was very telling. I also liked the European method where they made fares themselves free, but still enforced people using their smart tickets to record journeys.

        Making people pay a token amount isn’t about preventing unnecessary travel. It’s about keeping everyone with a little ‘skin in the game’, where they feel they are paying for a service. Even if the amount itself is negligible. It also provides data where journey projections and trends are revealed.