MBTA Seeks Greater Authority to Harass Riders
In The Globe.
The T claims that "under the new system, fare evasion has dropped dramatically." And yet they need broad new powers to arrest those they suspect of fare evasion.
Not only are no service enhancements or improvements planned for the T when the new fares kick in, but the T is doing everything it can to make sure your ride is as miserable as possible for the extra money.
But honestly it's hard to say who's more loathsome in the end, the MBTA or those who use it. T-riders are more content to wallow in self-pity than to insist on better service. After all, if things worked, what would Bostonians bitch and moan about?
The T understands its customers. The MBTA knew, for example, that a little fare hike—say, to $1.35 or $1.50 for a one-way trip on the subway—would not satisfy its patrons' thirst for abuse. Only a 40% increase plus additional surcharges, random bag searches, new opportunities for harassment and the threat of arrest if you can't produce ID, would give T-riders the service they've come to expect from the T.
So now T-riders can breathe easy. They won't have to go through the identity crisis Sox Nation went through a couple years ago. Rest assured, service will continue to be shitty. It will most likely get even shittier! And thank heavens there'll be more fare hikes in the near future, too. It's win-win for all the whiners!
Whaddya know? Even losers get lucky sometimes.
Why are you complaining about the T seeking to have the power to ticket fare evaders? You complain when you see them and now you're complaining when they try to enacty legislation to fight it?
As the law currently stands fare evasion isn't a crime in the commonwealth. The only thing they can charge you for is trespassing. I think this is a step in the right direction and will possibly delay the next inevitable fare increase.
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I'm not really complaining about the ticketing, per se. I'm actually saying it's a good thing for Boston's T-commuters, because it gives them that much more to complain about.
But I'll admit I'm a little uneasy about the potential for mischief, if not outright abuse, here. Whenever you give the T an inch, they seem to take a mile. But funny how nothing much improves because of it, innit? The power to cuff suspected fare-evaders and haul them off to jail if they can't provide ID, and all the talk of high-tech cameras and tailing people, and keeping track of their comings and goings (Ric Kahn reported in the Globe not long ago on some of the more extreme measures the T is contemplating to plug the holes in their new AFC system)--wasn't the idea that the technology would be an adequate deterrent? I recall you saying you thought so, Dani.
I guarantee the amount the T will end up spending on additional manpower and technology to catch fare-evaders, not to mention the occasional lawsuit that will result from their keystone cop-like efforts, will outstrip the losses from fare evasion itself. That's how the MBTA does business, after all.
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