Spot-Checking at Locked Metro TAP Turnstiles Yields 53 Citations & 5 Arrests

Photo by CindiK via the LAist Featured Photos pool

Who's got a ticket to ride? Metro's fare gate lockdown is producing interesting results as the agency determines approximately what percentage of passengers are using paper tickets as opposed to TAP cards. This four-week effort aids in Metro's mission to get the TAP system and turnstile entry secured and running. Metro officials are spot-checking passengers' tickets as they get off the Red and Purple Lines.

As of Thursday, 53 citations have been issued during the test program, and five arrests have been made, including a suspected graffiti vandal and a suspect with an outstanding warrant for a narcotics violation.

More citations are likely to be given out on Wednesday, October 19, when all four test stations operate with locked gates from 1pm to 4pm. Test stations include the Hollywood/Western and Vermont/Beverly stations on the Red Line and the Wilshire/Normandie and Wilshire/Western stations on the Purple Line. The four stations were selected because they do not see a lot of passengers entering using paper transfers, so fewer overall passengers will be affected.

Officials have enjoyed some entertaining stories, told by ticket-less passengers. "The stories—some of them are good," said Daniel Pickering, who along with Ifeanyi Ndidi was checking to make sure people had paid their fares, reports Zev's Blog. Pickering added that body language is often an obvious tip-off, with some patrons putting on an elaborate show of patting down their pockets, avoiding eye contact or flashing the backs of tickets at officials.

Some passengers grow disgruntled when stopped, like one woman who said, "Where is that ******* ticket I got for $5?” before producing her ticket and hurrying along with her commute. After another woman refused to sign her citation for fare evasion and engaged in a "loud and lengthy exchange" with an official, she was escorted from the station in handcuffs.

Fare inspectors may issue a warning or a citation at their discretion, and we recommend playing nice to receive a warning.

Sgt. Jeff Jablonsky, the sheriff’s department’s liaison to the TAP card/gating program, said that the majority of transit riders support the program. “The comment that we’ve heard most of the time is, ‘It’s about time,’ ” Jablonsky said. “And we have other ones who say ‘I’m from New York and our gates are locked all the time. I don’t understand why your gates aren’t locked.’ The public is ready for it.”

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By Lauren Lloyd in News on October 15, 2011 2:00 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Paul

I miss Japan - the transit system is incredibly efficient, even if it does use paper tickets. Only problem being you need to hold onto the ticket to finally exit the station.

Though unlike here, Japanese don't really seem to have a problem with losing their tickets.

Alan Fishel

The locked gates still require attendants. How are wheelchair
or a wheeled suitcase going to pass a locked gate? What if a gate fails, who
will open it for train riders? All locked gates anywhere in the world have attendants.
How will our locked gates work without attendants? For a whole lot less than it cost to build, maintain
and staff the gates a random fair checker on trains and at stations would do
more to reduce fare evasion and promote security than locked gates. The gates were a multi million gift to Quibc the gate manufacture that will be very hard to
be able to use and provide little for what they were intended. Open the gates
and have real fair inspectors, not like the MTA ones that hang around in large
groups at stations and avoid checking tickets.

TAPman

And how come these turnstiles can't read anything except the TAP card? Why can't they read the barcode on the Metrolink ticket?

jenon

Why in the world did they put in unlocked gates in the first place? I have never understood that original decision.

TAPman

Yvonne Burke was convinced they would keep her constituents from "accidentally" entering a station without a ticket as apparently so many had claimed to do.

P.S. New York City, with the super turnstiles they have (you know what I mean if you've ever seen them) and staffing at every station reports a rate of fare-evasion (turnstile jumping) of 1.5%!

Spokker

Staffed turnstiles are producing these results. When the turnstile program is fully functional, these gates will be unstaffed.

The same exact results are produced by a proof-of-payment program. For example, they caught a guy out on a murder warrant or something on Metrolink once. They catch plenty of fare thieves with a proof-of-payment system.

Unstaffed gates are a wasteful addition. There is no money to staff them.

MostlyDifferent

L.A. has an unnecessarily complex and obfuscated fare system for all its public transit. I can never get a straight answer for how transfers work, nor is it written up anywhere. I've figured it out after riding a while, but it's an incredible barrier to entry. The abundance of municipal entities compounds the problem greatly. Why you can't buy a one-day EZPass is beyond me (well, technically you can with a Metrolink ticket, but many municipal agencies are complicating that significantly also... Santa Clarita, for example, only lets you use it once, then confiscates your ticket).

The whole system seems set up to trap you for not paying the proper fare. It's ridiculous.

Spokker

"(well, technically you can with a Metrolink ticket, but many municipal agencies are complicating that significantly also... Santa Clarita, for example, only lets you use it once, then confiscates your ticket)."

Report them. They are not following directions for the EZPass. Would they confiscate your ticket if you had a round-trip Metrolink ticket?

However, it's very easy to ride without being written up for fare evasion. If you get caught you have no one to blame but yourself.

MostlyDifferent

They post that as a policy inside all their buses. Don't know about round-trip, I've only ridden one-way.

Otherwise, my complaint is that I can be written up for fare evasion when I think I'm following the rules.

Also, if I'm transferring from the blue line to the red line, there is no way to buy all the tickets at once. I have to walk a good 50 yards from the blue line to the ticket machine, then back 50 yards and down a flight of stairs, to go to the red line. Enough time to miss a connection (which I did), which sucks when the trains run every 10-15 minutes.

Spokker

Other systems have "free" included transfers but they also charge more per ride. So it's a give and take.

TAPman

Funny, last I checked, turnstiles cannot check tickets, or run warrents. That takes STAFFING which will cost $20 million per year! Whose bus route are we gonna cut to pay for that?

RedMercury

<quote>And we have other ones who say ‘I’m from New York and our gates are locked all the time. I don’t understand why your gates aren’t locked.’ The public is ready for it.</quote>One difference is that, in New York, once you pay your fare, you can transfer from/to any train you need to. When I rode the trains in LA, I was surprised that I needed to pay again when I transferred between the Blue & Green lines. I went for a few months before someone told me I had to do that.

I agree, though, that it's worthwhile to lock the turnstiles and make sure everybody buys a ticket to get into the network. But once you're there, it'd be better if you didn't have to pay to transfer.