(06-22-2020, 07:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Which leads to the second part...it is completely insane that we are inspecing 11% of fares. That's absurdly high. That is probably, I dunno, between five and seven orders of magnitude (that's 10,000 and 1,000,000 times) as high a frequency as we inspect drivers.
And 3% no fare rate is also very low. (Ungodly low compared with driver who approach a 100% violation rate for minor offenses like speeding <10km/h over limit, failure to signal, or running amber, and still very very low compared with the number of drivers with major offenses like texting and driving, major speeding, and reckless driving).
But most disturbing of all, that we are laying charges. Tom Galloway claimed this wasn't the case publicly on twitter. It is extremely concerning that we are charging people in the face of a payment system that was, at least last time I tried to use it, nearly completely unusable. I have ridden without paying my fare due to broken equipment, and I am extremely fastidious and technically capable, if I am unable to make it work sometimes, I know with certainty others will be having issues.
That’s an interesting framing I hadn’t heard before. Especially given the reduction in recent years in traffic enforcement, it stands out that fare enforcement is the one thing that is being done thoroughly.
As to the charges, when did Tom Galloway say that? My impression is they started with warnings and eventually moved to charging (which is the right way to go anyway). Depending on how they handle problems with the machines, this could be perfectly reasonable. The fact that some machines are broken isn’t a legitimate reason for all riders to have not paid — only those who were unable to pay. I have no idea what the procedures are however — it’s entirely possible that people who tried to pay have been charged; but it’s also possible that hasn’t happened.
One suggestion I would make if you do make a presentation to Regional Council: try to make it clear that you aren’t saying that fare enforcement shouldn’t happen, just that it needs to be done fairly and that it’s being overdone compared to other important enforcement priorities. The way some people talk, one wonders if they believe in enforcement at all. With no enforcement at all, there is no rule. Which may be fine; I think the notion of making GRT free (or sometimes free) has a lot of merit. But anybody who wants that should advocate for it straightforwardly.
Another thought just occurred to me: I wonder how enforcement varies between time periods. It’s very hard to properly enforce fares on a packed-to-the-rafters vehicle, yet that is when the enforcement is in some senses most important: a non-paying rider actually is occupying a spot that could have been used by a paying rider, rather than a spot that would have gone empty. By contrast if there are 5 people on the train, it’s easy to inspect them all, and even if 20% haven’t paid a ticket can be issued.