New Yorkers Just Stopped Paying For The Bus...
Summary
TLDRThe video highlights the growing issue of fare evasion on New York City's public buses, where 48% of riders skip paying. This is causing significant financial strain on the MTA, potentially leading to service cuts. Enforcement efforts have been slow, with many criticizing the unreliable bus service as a reason for non-payment. The city's previous reliance on congestion pricing to fund public transit was blocked, leaving the MTA struggling to recoup losses. The video explores the impact of fare evasion and questions whether stricter enforcement or making buses free is the solution.
Takeaways
- 🚍 Nearly half of New York City bus riders (48%) are evading fares, which is contributing to the financial struggles of the MTA.
- 💸 Fare evasion on buses costs the MTA about $315 million annually, and on subways, another $285 million is lost due to fare-jumping.
- 🛑 Fare enforcement has historically been minimal on buses, with most riders evading fares without consequence, leading to a growing problem.
- 👮 The MTA and NYPD are now cracking down on fare evasion by issuing summonses to offenders, but critics question whether this will effectively deter non-payers.
- 💰 If everyone paid their bus fares, the MTA could collect an additional half a billion dollars yearly, potentially saving the bus system from service cuts.
- 🚶 Some bus riders evade fares because they feel the bus service is unreliable and not worth paying for, with delays, skipped stops, and slow travel times cited as reasons.
- 🏙️ The city had planned to rely on congestion pricing to fund public transit, but this plan was blocked, leaving the MTA without a major revenue source.
- 🔍 Critics argue that fare enforcement unfairly targets low-income individuals, while others say it's necessary to save the bus system from collapse.
- 📉 Fare evasion has worsened since 2020, when rear-door boarding was encouraged for health reasons, creating a habit of non-payment.
- 🚔 Despite the recent crackdown, there are only 200 enforcement teams for over 300 bus routes, making it difficult to catch enough offenders to change behavior.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the video transcript?
-The main issue discussed is the significant problem of fare evasion on buses in New York City, where almost 50% of bus riders do not pay the fare, leading to massive financial losses for the city's public transit system.
How much revenue is the MTA losing due to fare evasion?
-The MTA is losing around $600 million a year due to fare evasion, with $315 million lost from bus fare evasion and $285 million from subway fare evasion.
Why do some people choose not to pay the bus fare?
-Some people choose not to pay the bus fare because they feel the service is unreliable, slow, and not worth the cost. Others may not be able to afford it.
What has been the city's response to the growing fare evasion problem?
-The city has deployed enforcement teams called 'Eagle teams' and partnered with the NYPD to issue fines and summonses to fare evaders in an effort to address the problem.
Why did fare evasion increase during the events of 2020?
-Fare evasion increased in 2020 because the city encouraged rear-door boarding for health and safety reasons, which allowed riders to bypass the front of the bus where the fare is collected.
What are the arguments in favor of and against fare evasion crackdowns?
-Proponents argue that fare evasion crackdowns are necessary to save the transit system from financial collapse. Critics, however, believe crackdowns unfairly target low-income individuals who cannot afford to pay.
What is one proposed solution to improve fare enforcement on buses?
-One proposed solution is to have officers randomly check passengers’ payment records during their ride and offer them the option to pay a reduced fine on the spot if they hadn’t paid the fare.
Why is it difficult for the city to crack down on fare evasion?
-It is difficult for the city to crack down on fare evasion because there are too few enforcement teams (only 200) compared to the vast number of bus stops (over 300), making it easy for fare evaders to avoid getting caught.
What suggestion has been made by some officials regarding fare collection?
-Some officials have suggested making buses free for everyone, which would cost the city around $800 million annually, but they argue this could be a more practical solution than trying to enforce fares.
How might bus service improve to encourage more people to pay?
-Bus service could improve by reducing delays caused by cars blocking bus lanes. The city plans to equip buses with cameras to issue fines to vehicles that obstruct bus lanes, which could lead to faster and more reliable service.
Outlines
🚍 Public Transit Crisis: Fare Evasion on the Rise
The video opens by addressing the growing issue of fare evasion in New York City's public transit system. Approximately 48% of bus riders evade fares, which is financially crippling the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The combination of a poorly managed transit system and fare evasion is causing a crisis, with officials issuing fines to violators. Despite the crackdown, bus fare evasion is particularly rampant compared to the subway, where only 18% evade. The MTA could recoup half a billion dollars if everyone paid, but the rampant non-payment threatens the survival of public transit in the city.
💰 Service Cuts Loom Amid Mounting Losses
As fare evasion continues to rise, the MTA is grappling with potential service cuts. Riders complain about the poor quality of service, citing slow and unreliable buses, which they argue justifies not paying fares. Some riders admit to not paying due to financial hardship, while others express frustration with fare enforcers. The root of the problem lies in the city's decision during the pandemic to allow rear-door boarding for health reasons, which led to a culture of non-payment. The MTA lost hundreds of millions in 2022 alone due to fare evasion across buses and subways.
🚨 Lawlessness and Lack of Enforcement
The fare evasion crisis has worsened due to years of non-enforcement. During 2020, when rear-door boarding was encouraged, fare collection plummeted. Even before then, 20% of riders weren't paying, but today that number has doubled to almost 50%. The city's lack of enforcement over the years has created a culture where people no longer feel obligated to pay for public transit. The MTA now faces a system that is hemorrhaging money, with critics pointing out the growing lawlessness and lack of respect for public transit rules.
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A brief interruption for a sponsored message from Factor, a meal delivery service offering healthy, chef-prepared meals. The speaker highlights the convenience and health benefits of Factor meals, mentioning that they are never frozen and ready to eat in just two minutes. The meals are ideal for busy individuals who don’t have time to cook and want to avoid unhealthy takeout. A discount code for the service is provided.
👮 Limited Resources and Ineffective Fines
The city's efforts to enforce fare payments face significant challenges. The general public is largely against the enforcement, citing poor service quality, while the city lacks sufficient resources to send out enforcement officers. The fines issued are too low to act as a deterrent, and enforcement teams are too few to make a meaningful impact. Some propose higher fines or banning non-payers from riding the bus altogether, but the current system only punishes law-abiding citizens by increasing fares for those who do pay.
🚌 An Uphill Battle: Eagle Teams and Weak Enforcement
Eagle Teams, undercover enforcement agents tasked with catching fare evaders, are deployed, but with only 200 teams covering over 300 bus stops, enforcement is limited. The video emphasizes that more people would need to be caught and fined regularly to change behavior. However, the city's enforcement capacity is far below what is necessary to make a difference, with only around 600 tickets issued daily compared to the millions of bus riders. Without stronger action, the fare evasion crisis will likely continue to worsen.
💸 A Radical Solution: Free Buses for All?
Some city officials are beginning to propose a radical solution: making buses free for everyone. With fare evasion so widespread, they argue it might be more cost-effective to stop collecting fares altogether. The cost of making buses free is estimated at $800 million annually, a figure that could be covered by reducing the bloated MTA budget by just 4%. Although this idea seems unlikely to be implemented, it reflects the desperation to find a solution to the mounting crisis.
🚦 Potential Improvements: Bus Lanes and Technology
The video concludes by discussing potential improvements to the bus system, including stricter enforcement of bus-only lanes using onboard cameras to ticket drivers who illegally use these lanes. The speaker suggests that making buses faster and more reliable could encourage more people to pay. However, without significant changes in service quality or stronger penalties for non-payment, the fare evasion issue will likely persist, further threatening the viability of the city’s public transit system.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fare evasion
💡Public transit
💡MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority)
💡Congestion pricing
💡Bus service
💡Fair enforcement
💡Eagle teams
💡Financial loss
💡Service cuts
💡Reliability of service
Highlights
Nearly 1 million bus riders daily in NYC, and 48% of them evade paying fares, causing financial strain on public transit.
NYC's public transit, including subways and buses, has been run so poorly that it's now out of money, with fare evasion worsening the issue.
Fare evasion on buses has reached nearly 50%, compared to 18% on subways, with little enforcement historically on buses.
The MTA estimates it could gain an additional $500 million annually if all riders paid their fares.
Fare evasion became more prominent during 2020 when the city allowed rear-door boarding for health reasons, making fare collection harder.
The city has created a culture where public transit is not respected, as evasion has steadily grown and enforcement has been lacking.
In 2022, the MTA lost $315 million due to bus fare evasion and another $285 million due to subway turnstile jumpers.
A controversial congestion pricing tax was proposed to generate billions, but it was blocked, leaving fare enforcement as the city’s current focus.
Critics argue that fare evasion crackdowns unfairly target the needy, while proponents claim they are necessary to prevent service cuts.
The fines for fare evasion ($100) are not enough to deter many people, as they would need to receive fines multiple times for real impact.
A significant portion of bus riders do not believe the service is worth the fare due to its unreliability and inefficiency.
Suggestions have been made to increase enforcement through a more aggressive strategy, such as checking every third or fourth rider for valid payment.
Some city officials have suggested making buses free, which would cost around $800 million annually but could solve the fare evasion problem.
The bus lane enforcement initiative, where buses equipped with cameras capture license plates of cars illegally stopping in bus lanes, aims to improve service speed and reliability.
If enforcement isn’t strengthened, some fear fare evasion rates could approach 100%, further pushing the public transit system toward collapse.
Transcripts
every single day close to 1 million bus
riders 48% bored without paying the fair
I yell at some people you want to see
service Cuts keep doing that people
don't pay their fair so half of New York
City no longer believes in paying for
public transit and they've just stopped
which is stealing but this Fair EV asan
surge is happening at the worst possible
time for the city because our public
transit networks our Subways our buses
this whole system has been run so poorly
for so long that it's now out of money
and if people aren't paying to use it
it's going to shut down the NYPD and MTA
are joining forces to crack down on bus
Fair evasion anyone caught skipping out
on the fair will be fined watch as this
man is issued a summons for hopping a
bus then he's promptly pulled off a
second bus for trying to board again
without pain the problem has been
growing especially on buses where very
little enforcement has happened
traditionally Subway Riders they skip
out on the fair at a rate of 18% but
roughly half of all bus riders do not
swipe a metro card to board it's really
annoying to get on the bus and have
people either come in through the back
doors or in the front and just walk
right by and not pay it's annoying pay a
fair sometimes I have a feeling I'm the
only one who's paying the F so here's
the deal how much could the MTA get if
everybody paid their share an extra half
a billion dollars into the kitty that's
how much we're skipping out on the
message to the non-paying riter pay your
fair and enter the subway system and the
buses
[Music]
lawfully so now that no one's paying to
ride the bus the city is sending out its
enforcers to catch fair evaders but what
everyone's missing about this recent
searge in Fair evasion is that it's been
going on for a long long time steadily
getting worse every single year and
nothing's been done to stop it ever and
doing nothing was the plan all along
because the city was banking on the
start of its controversial tax on
traffic which would have generated
billions of dollars per year in extra
money and according to critics would
have also caused the cost of living in
New York to surge as companies pass
those taxes onto their customers but
that plan was blocked and if the city
still wants to offer Subway and bus
service it better figure out how to get
people to start paying for it because
running these things cost hundreds of
millions of dollars every single year
yet year after year the city has just
let Scofflaw after scoff law board the
bus and ride for free which reveals that
most people don't think the bus is worth
paying for at all in the first place
which brings us to the real reason why
we've now got a massive Fair evasion
problem on our buses they're slow
they're unreliable and Defenders of fair
evasion say they just simply aren't
worth the fair the city's asking for and
up until recently nobody was busted for
fair Eva but as bad as the services
nobody here realizes that the $2.90 bus
fair is actually only $145 per Rider
because half of us don't pay leading our
entire public transit Network further
down the path of bankruptcy but while
critic say these crackdowns are wrong
because they unfairly Target the needy
proponents say they're necessary because
the entire system is ready to collapse
and the only way to save it is to lay
down the
law so bus service in this city it's
definitely not perfect and I can
understand why many people are so
frustrated with it they don't want to
pay for it first of all it's incredibly
unreliable when there's traffic jams the
bus is late sometimes it never shows up
and sometimes it doesn't stop long
enough for people to actually get on
it's incredibly frustrating but none of
those are legitimate reasons to steal
from the bus company and ride for free
after all if nobody pays there aren't
going to be any more buses and buses are
able to serve parts of the city that
don't have working or reliable Subway
access for some people it's their only
way to get anywhere and they're also not
free to operate which is why we're now
at a breaking point where not enough
people are paying for them and it looks
like there might be service Cuts if
something's not done but now that the
city is trying to do something they're
encountering a big problem because this
problem of be evasion it's so massive
with so many people not doing it
whatever the city tries to do may not
work it's really annoying to get on the
bus and have people either come in
through the back doors or in the front
and just walk right by and not pay the
MTA says during the first three months
of this year 48% of bus riders did not
pay to get on board you know what
happened is so according to the city 48%
of the people on that bus that just left
didn't pay to use it and that's been
happening for the first 3 months of this
year which is ridiculous because if any
business tried to run itself at a 50%
discount all the time it would cease to
operate and the city better do something
quick or else our bus system might be in
that type of predicament some people are
saying that if this keeps up the city is
going to have to reduce the amount of
bus service it offers because that's the
simplest way to recoup costs but to many
people that's a bad idea because a lot
of the folks that don't pay say they
don't pay because the service is
terrible and if it only gets worse won't
even less people start paying or stop
paying yet the city's trying to force
people to do it by sending out the fair
evasion enforcers to write fines and
give tickets and when interviewed people
riding the bus say that they understand
it can't be free and that everyone
should pay even the people who ride it
from time to time without paying for it
I just put my head down and wonder why
they don't pay some we spoke with
admitted to not paying because they
couldn't afford it I used to do it back
in the day so I know what makes people
do that but I don't enourage it anymore
but that doesn't mean I don't understand
people's like what their thought process
could be says you know these are some
pretty honest responses and it seems
like everybody riding the bus including
the people who don't pay to use it
understand that that's wrong and people
should pay or the service is going to
get so bad nobody wants to take it
because it just isn't worth it but part
of the reason why there are so many
people boarding these buses without
paying is because during the events of
2020 the city decided that it wasn't
going to police Fair evasion in fact the
city actively encouraged rear door
boarding for health and safety reasons
because the driver sits in the front but
the problem with that is the front is
where you have to pay to ride the bus
and apparently people got in the habit
of riding the bus for free that's what
the head of the MTA says and he says now
to all of a sudden start making people
pay to ride the bus again it's going to
be an uphill battle and now it's an even
bigger uphill battle because the city
has waited until half the people on the
bus don't pay this would have been
easier had they started back in 2019
when only around 20% of people who were
riding the bus weren't paying the MTA
says in 2022 it lost 315 million because
of bus Fair evasion and 285 million as a
result of Subway Turn Style jumpers Mark
calls it a sad sign
$315 million that's 2022 is figures for
people not paying to ride the bus yet in
2022 nobody said this was a big problem
but it obviously was especially when you
add to it another 300 million laws from
folks skipping out on their Subway fairs
the entire transit system loses about
$600 million a year no wonder it's
falling apart and bankrupt but the real
reason the city never thought Fair
evasion was a big deal was because it's
never been planning to enforce this
stuff no instead they were just going to
tax every single car on the road with
their congestion pricing scheme that's
what those toll readers are for that you
see all over the city but this scheme
it's been paused by the governor because
it's incredibly controversial and some
people believe that not only will it
distribute pollution from Manhattan
where rich people live to other parts of
town where those rich people don't live
like the Bronx Brooklyn Staten Island
they say it's also going to cause
companies to pass the cost of those
tolls on to their customers and when
things like your food that's in a
grocery store are getting hit with a
congestion tax it will make everyone's
food and everyone's life more expensive
but now because the city can't tax cars
to pay for buses that nobody wants to
pay for now the people on the bus have
to pay for it and to many people that's
how it should work right if a service is
useful it should cost something and
people should pay to use it but the
problem is there were Fair evasion
crackdowns about a year ago and those
didn't nothing to turn around this
sinking ship of people not paying to use
the bus which makes people ask how is
this new round of crackdowns going to do
anything has this problem gotten worse
as a matter of fact believe it or not
it's doubled in 2020 only 21% of the
people weren't paying their fairs it's
now almost 50% now Mt you know listening
to everyone talk about this you'd almost
think that 4 years ago 20% of people not
paying to ride the bus was acceptable to
the bus company but this reveals
something else if 20% of people haven't
been paying for about 4 years this means
that conceivably some of the people now
being asked to start paying haven't done
so for much longer than that but the
real issue here is that the city has
created a culture of lawlessness
throughout its public transportation
Network people don't feel like they
should pay for something because when
they get on nobody else pays it's
demoralizing and it costs a lot of money
$2.90 it's not nothing and even though
the people who ride the bus for free are
technically stealing the city has a hand
in this because they've allowed things
to get to a point where a critical mass
of individuals go about doing just that
and they've taught people that our
public transit networks both the subway
and the bus are not worth respecting
because nobody punishes you for
disrespecting it which is in fact a
battle they may be unable to win because
right now things are already at 50%
non-payment we're trending in a
direction that is going to steadily
approach 100% non-payment and it doesn't
really look like the has enough
resources to deal with this problem in
any meaningful way which means it's only
going to get worse and just before we
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the
[Music]
video so there are three problems with
trying to enforce fairs on our buses the
first problem is that the general public
to an extent is against it because they
don't think the bus service is worth it
the second problem is the city doesn't
have a whole lot of resources to send
out police to enforce these things to
begin with and the third problem is that
the fines in question aren't actually
enough in the minds of some to change
the behavior of fair evaders they think
the fines should be higher which means
current efforts at enforcing Fair
evasion don't look like they're going to
work watches this man is issued a
summons for hopping a bus he complains
to us that everyone does does it anybody
go inside the nobody pay for only me not
take outside then he's promptly pulled
off a second bus for trying to board
again without paying the MTA is looking
to recoup money so never mind the idea
that fair enforcement to begin with is
unjust because it targets the needy and
harasses those who can't afford to take
the bus in the first place the idea
behind it is that fair evasion is going
to scare people and get everyone to
start paying but there's a problem
because the math the math doesn't add up
because according to to the New York
Post the $100 fine isn't enough to
change anyone's Behavior unless they get
that fine more than once every 35 days
and if you steal from a regular business
you'll be barred from entering that
business they'll cut you off but the bus
you can just keep riding it even if you
do take it without paying that's another
problem and there are some who think
that if people were to lose their
ability to ride the bus or be banned
from getting on at all everyone would
pay because people use it to work for a
living they rely on it it's an essal
part of their lives and losing that
essential part of their lives would cost
them much much more than the fair
evasion ticket yet that's not how we do
things in the city the only people who
suffer any consequences from non-paying
Riders are the riders that do pay
because their Fair keeps going up
revealing that once again New York City
has created a system that only punishes
the law abiding starting this week
undercover enforcement agents called
Eagle teams started riding buses
observing faders then escorting them off
to issue a summons the nyp is on hand to
ensure things don't escalate the message
so in order for fair evasion to make
sense or Consequences thereof to make
sense people have to get caught doing it
enough to change their behavior and they
have to see enough people getting caught
around them to realize that hey this
isn't worth it these guys are on the bus
watching me but that's not what we see
we still see very little enforcement yes
there's a few people on the news we're
getting tickets but you know it's like a
small handful of people and there are
many opportunities for people to get on
the bus without paying and get away with
it that's a big problem because other
patrons are going to see that and
they're going to think that the city's
really not serious about cracking down
in fact there are just 200 such Eagle
teams those are the enforcement teams
that go after Fair Vaders riding the bus
but we've got over 300 bus stops so
people have a pretty good chance of
getting away with it if they want to
like they have for almost half a decade
now it's really sad because it looks
like this problem's gotten so big
there's no way out for the city the New
York Post says the city would have to be
giving out
28,000 tickets a day in order to change
the behavior of most of the people who
ride the bus but we're only giving out
around 600 violations a day and millions
of people ride the bus revealing that
not enough people are likely to be made
examples of in order to scare others
into compliance and that's got some
elected officials now suggesting that
you know what this whole battle against
fair evasion it's a lost cause let's
just make the buses free for everyone
and stop trying to enforce fairs let's
just stop collecting them all together
how much would that cost that's about
$800 million a year which may sound like
a lot of money and it is substantial but
in the context of a city budget that is
north of hundred billion and a state
budget that is north of $220 billion you
got to love politics money is never any
issue because there's always something
else out there that's more expensive
than the thing that you want to spend
money on but although an $800 million
free bus program sounds a little bit
ridiculous part of me actually agrees
that this idea of $800 million worth of
free bus rides for the entire city isn't
such a big deal when the company or the
agency rather that runs those buses
costs $20 billion a year to operate and
if this bloated agency were to cut just
4% of their budget they would have
enough money for everybody to ride the
bus for free so when you look at it that
way it doesn't seem like it's that big
of an idea right but we all know that's
never going to happen that budget didn't
get so big and so bloated without
hundreds of people earning six figure in
comes doing things that don't
necessarily lead to more efficiency and
since no one's talking about reducing
the mta's budget anytime soon it looks
like the likely way out of this will be
fair evasion crackdowns but as we
already know there might not be enough
of those so what could the city do to
improve its Fair collection efforts well
one suggestion is that the city could
pursue a more aggressive fee fine rather
collection strategy what they could do
is they could have officers get on a bus
after it's been boarded and they could
have every third or fourth Rider tap
their credit card against a card reader
to see if it had been used if it hadn't
been used they could offer that person a
chance to pay a reduced fine on the spot
of say $50 instead of 100 plus the fair
which would mean instant collection of
that fine and the fair and it would show
everybody on the bus that the chances of
getting caught are actually way higher
than what we're dealing with today the
only good news that's on the table as
far as Fair collection has to do with
the buses and the lanes they operate in
because you see this red strip of Road
here that this Uber is stopping in that
is the bus lane that car is not supposed
to be there and what they're going to
start doing is they're going to have
buses with cameras on them get the
license plates of cars that do this and
issue summonses this should help improve
service if cars and trucks stop stopping
here impeding the flow of the very buses
that the city wants people to start
paying for if that starts happening will
buses be faster and better run will that
help people decide that they are worth
paying for is offering good reliable
service what the city needs to do in
order to revitalize its bus system or
should we punish people worse than we
already are for not paying to use it is
that the right answer what about that
would that help the city get some extra
money in its pockets is that ridiculous
let me know thank you so much I'll see
you in the next video
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