Good morning. It's Tuesday. Today we'll look at the rise in fare evasion on city buses, and what officials are planning to do about it.
Today, almost one million bus riders are likely to slip through the back door of a city bus or rush past the operator without making eye contact, evading the fare. During the first three months of 2024, 48 percent of bus riders did not pay, signaling a crisis for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which needs the fare revenue to help fund the beleaguered transit system. Turnstile jumpers in the subways and riders who sneak onto buses have created a large financial problem for the M.T.A., the state agency that runs the city transit system. Two years ago, the M.T.A. lost $315 million because of bus fare evasion and $285 million as a result of subway fare beaters, according to a 2023 report commissioned by the authority. Roughly twice the number of people ride the city's subways as do its buses, and 14 percent of subway riders evade the fare. I spoke with Ana Ley, who covers transportation, about this growing problem and what it means for the M.T.A. How big of a headache is this?This has been something that the M.T.A. has been raising concern about recently. At the last board meeting, officials were talking about the general financial picture, and they're looking at deficits of up to $1 billion in the coming years. And a big reason that they're saying that's going to happen is because the fare revenue that they were expecting to get is turning out to be lower than anticipated. During that meeting, it came to light that it was actually on the buses where they're losing a lot of that money. Last year, the M.T.A. released a report that also raised this alarm and that said that they are losing more money on buses than on the subways, but they're barely putting any enforcement in there. They weren't really tackling that problem. What is the M.T.A. planning to do about it?The M.T.A. is in a really difficult position, because they really need the fare money, but they're trying not to discriminate against poorer riders or target them unfairly. A lot of bus riders have lower incomes and also tend to be older than subway riders. Meanwhile, the authority is also trying to make sure that they keep bus drivers safe. The Police Department hasn't historically focused on the buses. But in recent months it has done more. So the M.T.A. has been working with the N.Y.P.D. recently to have some officers follow fare checkers on buses. Before the last six months or so, the N.Y.P.D. was really just focused on the subway, and that's where you see a lot of not just cops but also private security guards that the M.T.A. hired to watch the fare gates. So the M.T.A. is pivoting more toward buses, but it's a more recent thing and they haven't thrown as many resources at it. Are bus drivers expected to police fare evasion?I wasn't able to get a straight answer from the M.T.A. on what the handbook tells bus operators to do, but most of them don't enforce it because the union tells them not to. The union tells the operators that it's not worth it to put themselves in danger. The bus operators are the ones who interact with the public. In 2008, a bus operator was stabbed to death for confronting a rider who boarded the bus without paying the fare. So the union tells operators that their job is to drive the bus and make sure that people get from Point A to Point B safely. Why have officials focused more on fare evasion in the subway?The Police Department has focused a lot of enforcement efforts in the subway, not just on fare evasion, but also crime in general. Broken windows policing, which became popular in the 1990s, encouraged the police to target low-level offenses under the theory that those offenders might go on to commit bigger crimes. For the police, targeting fare evasion was seen as a way to keep the city safe. And the subway gets more attention than buses because crimes in the subway particularly alarm the public. What happens next?There have been suggestions from the M.T.A. that more initiatives are coming. Whether they will be enough I think remains to be seen. But it does definitely seem like the M.T.A. is taking this problem seriously. And to their credit, they are in a very difficult position, and they are navigating some really politically tricky waters. They are very much in need of money, especially after Gov. Kathy Hochul stopped congestion pricing, so higher fare revenue would go a long way to putting them in a better financial position. WEATHER Fog in the morning will give way to a sunny day with temperatures peaking in the mid-80s. It will be mostly clear overnight, with temperatures dropping to the low 70s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Monday (Labor Day). The latest New York news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. METROPOLITAN DIARY Tony Roberts says
Dear Diary: It was 1978, and I was at my first job in New York City: holiday helper in the cookware department at Bloomingdale's. There was a video playing on a loop that featured the writer and television producer Burt Wolf giving some sort of demonstration. One day, the actor Tony Roberts came in. He noticed the video. "Burt Wolf!" he said. "I haven't seen him since high school. Does he come in often?" I said I had never seen him. "Well, if he comes in, tell him Tony Roberts says, 'Hi.'" A few days later Burt Wolf did come in. I told him Tony Roberts had been in and had said to say, "Hi." "Tony Roberts!" he said. "I haven't seen him since high school. Does he come in a lot?" I said I had seen him only the one time. "Well, if he comes in again, tell him I said, 'Hi.'" A couple of evenings later I was walking down Lexington Avenue to the subway when I saw Tony Roberts walking toward me. "Burt says, 'Hi,'" I said without breaking stride. — John Lombardi Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. C.F. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Luke Caramanico and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: The challenge facing M.T.A. buses
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