Fare evasion: the act of riding on public transport and avoiding payment for the required ticket of travel.
In July 2017, the Fare Evasion Decriminalization Act of 2017 was presented to the D.C. Council. If passed, this act would make fare-dodging a civil act instead of a criminal act. The punishable fine would be no more than $100. The bill removes criminal penalties for fare evasion that currently subject violators to fines of up to $300, arrest, and imprisonment for up to 10 days.
Fare-dodging makes up 50% of all arrests in the metro system over a fare that could be as low as $2. Nearly 40 percent of the city’s commuters take some form of public transit. Many D.C. residents lack basic economic security and have been pushed away from jobs and schools; the increase in fares makes it harder for them to get to work.
The Save our System Coalition, a transit Union-funded activist group, is supporting Fare Evasion Decriminalization. Save Our System disputed WMATA’s characterization of fare evasion arrests, arguing that these policies disproportionately target low-income people of color. Progressive activists and all but 4 D.C. council members state that the policy has a disproportionate racial impact. Studies show people of color are stopped more often than their white counterparts. Metro Police targeted metro stops heavily used by youth of color. Fifteen percent of all stops in or around Gallery Place and 14% in or around the Anacostia station. Decriminalization will end this type of discriminatory action.
D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) even pointed out this racial discrimination as he himself stated being a white man in a business suit and avoiding to pay his fare has caused no penalties or discrimination. “I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve tapped my card and it gave me the beep that said my balance had dropped below what the fare was,” said Allen, a daily bus rider. “And the driver just said, ‘Just fill it up when you get to the station.’ ” “I’ve never once thought, ‘I’m going to actually get a citation or have a criminal record for riding the bus,’ ” he said.
Another issue is homeless youth and their commute to school. Approximately one in every 24 students attending DC public schools and public charter schools is identified as homeless. The main barrier for homeless youth obtaining an education is transportation, which is important because if there isn’t a way to get to school then it becomes difficult to have an education. Students between the ages 5-21 are offered free public transportation with a D.C. one card. If these students lose their cards then they do not have a reliable way to get to school unless they evade the fare. This moment can potentially result in a criminal record. The proceeds of such arrests go to the city where the incident took place and not to Metro. Since Metro is not being funded by such incidents, the argument about the amount of force necessary to make sure a payment is made is not persuasive.
Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld states people across demographic boundaries feel a sense of injustice that some people flout the rules and ride free, while others pay. “It’s a fairness issue, across the entire community,” Wiedefeld said. “You have people in those same communities that they’re concerned about being targeted, who are paying their fares. And I think it’s right that everybody pay their fare.” Wiedefeld made a good point but ignored the bigger picture. Citations and arrests for fare jumping can severely impact low-income individuals and neighborhoods of color. No one knows another person’s financial situation but they may be dependent on the “free” bus trip for sanctuary. If all fare’s were free then the argument regarding how many individuals pay their fare would not matter.
WMATA’s recently completed Capital Needs Inventory (CNI) provides extensive detail of their infrastructure needs and the associated costs, which total approximately $25 billion, $15.5 billion of which are related to the safety and reliability of the system. Metro wants additional funding of $500 million each year that can be leveraged or used to issue bonds of high credit.
The D.C. Council has already raised the tax on ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. As reported by Faiz Siddiqui, of Washington Post, the goal being to raise 178.5 million in new funding for metro.
Public transportation is free in Belgium, Thailand, Estonia, Brazil, Poland, Miami, Baltimore, Boston, etc. As a public necessity, some believe it should be free in the District of Columbia as well.
The District of Columbia is an expensive city to live in. The cost of living is ranked 21 out of 538 cities in the world. The average salary is $71,081 but the cost of living is 39.3% higher than the national average. Therefore, a D.C. resident needs to earn $80,273 to live comfortably. Financial struggles over transportation add another burden on commutes to work or school.
If public transportation were free then the economy will save money on gas, reduce asthma and other illnesses linked to automobile generated pollution. If there were more travel options to urban areas it would generate more efficient labor markets and a rise in business opportunities by making it easier for poor people to get to jobs.
In order for public transportation to be free we would need a systematic plan. Erik Olin Wright, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin has one. According to Wright, the key is to scale an already-subsidized industry with select free-fare groups into a system-wide program free to all. “Of course public transportation has to be paid for,” writes Wright, “but it should not be paid for through the purchase of tickets by individual riders—it should be paid for by society as a whole through the one mechanism we have available for this, taxation.” Public transportation shouldn’t be looked at just from an angle of reducing traffic and emissions. The right to public transit should not be seen as a behavioral mechanism, but instead a right available for all citizens.
