The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a $15 billion hole in its budget due to New York Governor Kathy Hochul abruptly pulling out of the Congestion Pricing scheme during this year’s budget negotiations.
The MTA has a solution: they hope a psychologist can help.
Hochul suddenly reversed her stance on the tax as a result of pressure from angry commuters and Democratic Congressional leadership. The toll is broadly disliked across the political spectrum, and Democrats are keen to avoid upsetting voters in an election year, as they aim to gain congressional seats.
Congestion Pricing would charge drivers $15 to enter downtown Manhattan during peak hours providing about $1 billion a year in revenue to fund upgrades across the system.
It is no surprise to anyone who uses the New York subway even infrequently, that fare evasion is a huge problem. Turnstiles hoppers stole $690 million from the system just last year.
As with other soft-on-crime approaches in New York, the MTA is evaluating whether criminal enforcement in fare jumping should happen at all.
The MTA put together a Blue Ribbon Panel to look at fare and toll evasion. Not surprisingly, as with other policies across the state, ‘Equity’ plays a key role in the MTA approach. The MTA plans to embed equity principles in enforcement policies. Installing turnstiles that are harder to jump over is also in the plan.
The MTA also issued a "Request For Proposals" (RFP) for up to $1 million for a six-month contract so a psychologist can study the motivations of fare thieves.
"Up to a million bucks for a six-month study to tell us that people beat the fare because they can? The MTA has morphed into a 'Saturday Night Live' skit, and unfortunately, is about as funny," Retired New York Police Department inspector Paul Mauro told Fox News Digital.
Addressing the unusual approach, MTA Chief Executive Officer Janno Lieber said at a board meeting, "We have to win or else the system is gone."
Roughly 900,000 riders out of approximately 5 million each day are fare thieves. MTA says almost 14% jump the fare in the subway each day and nearly 50% of bus riders steal the fare.
“I’m sure the cash-strapped commuters don’t appreciate the MTA’s wasteful spending—l certainly don’t,” said Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano (R C-3). “The authority needs a top-to-bottom review of its budget, contracts, and spending. Instead of continually tapping the residents of this state, they should focus on saving money and give everyone a break.”
Why does New York need to spend nearly a million dollars on a study to understand why people evade fares when a comprehensive report on the psychology of fare evaders has already been conducted in Australia? The study found that fare evaders are fundamentally just thieves, without any other significant underlying reasons.
They categorized fare evaders into four types: the "Accidental Evader" who may have misread signs or made another mistake; the "It's Not My Fault" evader who doesn't pay because they're economically disadvantaged; the "Calculated Risk Taker" who will evade fares whenever they see the opportunity; and the "Career Evader" who takes pride in never paying the toll.
Around 68% of Melbourne's fare evasion losses were linked to the last two categories – basic thieves.
New York State Senator Dean Murray (R, C—East Patchogue) said, “From what I have heard MTA says police enforcement doesn’t work. But, that’s not true. The police weren’t allowed to engage. So, when fare jumpers do it right in front of the police and nothing happens, then more fare jumping is encouraged.”
“If New York let the police officers do their jobs, then you would see a change. If MTA put head-to-toe turnstiles in place rather than just the waist-high turnstile, we would see a change. Spending a million dollars for a study that will tell you what common sense should tell you is ridiculous.”
There's no reason to believe New York fare thieves are different from Melbourne’s, so why spend $1 million? Ultimately, without a significant penalty for fare evasion, it's unlikely that the MTA will see a reduction in the $690 million annual loss.