»In which we vault the turnstile

Some reflections on reading a NYT article on plans to enforce fares in the Los Angeles Metro transit system.

I have long thought that San Francisco should adopt this model: make fares voluntary. None of this nonsense about the honor system (which works in a place like Genève, with a homogeneous population and, importantly, uniform cultural ideas); make fares voluntary. I suppose that [insert economic theory here ] people who can pay, will pay; people who would ordinarily expend energy hopping turnstiles will be able to put their efforts towards something more productive, like cheating people out of pension funds or clear-cutting old growth forests.

The numbers make sense:

As a result, the report said, the authority lost about $5.5 million in revenue annually.

Fare-collecting gates, which could cost $30 million to install and $1 million a year to maintain, would yield an extra $6.77 million in recovered fares and other savings, according to the report.

In San Francisco, the cost of fare collection makes up somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of MUNI's operating budget. That is significant, but does not in itself justify eliminating fare-collection systems. When one adds in the difference that not requiring fares might make to a bus's headway, however, the time savings become a strong argument for eliminating fares. -- especially as MUNI still cannot meet the 85% voter-mandated on-time record.

One of the endearing images of fare evasion: the opening passages of Naked Lunch: "I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons, crooning over my spoon and dropper I throw away at Washington Square Station, vault a turnstile and two flights down the iron stairs, catch an uptown A train ...". Big up to Wm. S.