CM Maritza Rivera wants Sound Transit to both ramp up fare enforcement, and also make fare enforcement harder by expanding the locations where riders can tap their ORCA cards to include on-board trains.
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Would be cool if they’d focus on supporting more payment methods and joining the payment ecosystem in the 2010s instead of annoying riders with random fare enforcement that won’t do anything if you just tell them to fuck off.
So you have an android and have done the extra setup to use an orca card on it unlike the vast majority of ST riders. Meanwhile I can go to any bus or station in London and tap to pay with the credit card or phone wallet of my choice without hesitation or prior setup.
Tapping onboard the train would add dwell times and cause frequent rage when someone pauses to fumble for ORCA and tap there, while folks bunch and push around them. After a ballgame, after a concert, or any busy time of year.
ORCA readers aren't located on platforms or on trains so that fare ambassadors know that everyone in those areas has already paid their fare. Changing that entire system would likely increase the number of people who don't pay fare.
Fair point. Hard to figure that out with human “fare enforcement,” though… and does revenue minus the expense of fare collection and enforcement pencil out?
Literally entire webinars & conferences on that exact topic. On a proof of payment system like Sound Transit you need to have some fare enforcement otherwise the system is just essentially pay what you can. Which many are not legally allowed to do because of fare box recovery requirements.
Feel free to argue with me about policy choices around fare enforcement, but my sole point was that Rivera was asking for two contradictory things without acknowledging that.
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