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Nearly 30% of New York City bus riders and 8% of subway users aren’t paying their fare — costing the city millions of dollars a year, according to new data released by the state-operated Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
A Fox News Digital videographer captured footage of waves of fare beaters in Midtown Manhattan climbing over turnstiles and streaming through an exit door — many in view of transit cops.
An MTA bus with a sign reading “MASKS REQUIRED.”
(iStock)
At least 50 people in one hour dodged the $2.75 fare Monday morning at the 34th Street-Herald Square station across the street from Macy’s flagship store.
$100 ticket
In one instance, a man wearing a backpack strolled into the station through an exit door as a woman walked out. An officer can be heard confronting the man, “Why did you walk through the gate?”
“It was open, I don’t know?” he replied. The cop wrote him a $100 ticket.
“Is it worth $100?” the videographer asked.
“I got a better job than you, so yeah,” the man shot back.
He was one of only three fare beaters who was stopped by cops at the station. In another video, a woman can be seen stumbling as she hopped over the turnstile.
NYC POLICE REPORT 6 SUBWAY STABBINGS, 2 ATTACKS WITH HATCHET, PIPE AS ZERO TOLERANCE PLAN TAKES EFFECT
“By starving the public transportation system of funds, fare evasion is a crime against ordinary New Yorkers who pay their fare,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. “That’s why the NYPD and NYC Transit deploy enforcement teams to combat bus and subway fare evasion on a daily basis. It’s easier to pay $2.75 than a $100 fine.”
Fare beaters have cost the city an estimated $179 million in the last six months, according to the MTA’s latest report.
“If people don’t pay their fare, and other people see that, they say, ‘Why should I have to pay?’”
The estimated fare evasion rate on subways has…
Source : foxnews
