Fare and toll evasion has skyrocketed in New York City since the COVID pandemic — and a new report from budget experts warns New York taxpayers may face rising costs due to the scofflaws’ free rides.
The Citizens Budget Commission sounded the alarm this week that the MTA likely lost more than $700 million to people who skipped the agency’s transit fares or evaded tolls at bridges and tunnels in 2023, likening the financial hit “to the amount of funding that would be raised through two rounds of fare hikes.”
The report comes as the NYPD and MTA officials have argued cracking down on fare evasion is a matter of public safety. They say that many perpetrators of violence in the system also don’t pay the fare. The Citizens Budget Commission wrote that widespread fare beating also carries a significant economic cost that could trickle down to law abiding users of public transit.
Ana Champeny, vice president of research at the commission, said the annual cost of fare and toll evasion has grown by roughly $400 million since 2020. And as the number of riders who pay to ride trains and buses lags behind the MTA’s projections, she warned transit officials and state lawmakers may look to raise fares, tolls and taxes.
“Ultimately, someone is having to pay the cost. And for those riders and drivers who are continuing to do the right thing and pay their fares and pay their tolls, they may ultimately have to bear a larger cost,” Champeny said.
The report notes that the problem of fare and toll evasion isn’t exclusive to the transit agency. The city Department of Transportation lost upwards of $100 million last year to drivers who obscured their plates to avoid automated camera tickets. The Port Authority estimates it lost $40 million in unpaid tolls. The state Thruway Authority “struggled to collect $276 million in unpaid tolls and fees,” nearly half of them from out of state commuters, the report found.
Champeny warned that the expected launch of congestion pricing could result in even more drivers covering their license plates to avoid new toll readers in Manhattan south of 60th Street.
In its report, the Citizens Budget Commission calls for state lawmakers to swiftly crack down on all forms of toll and fare evasion, and points to proposals included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget as potential solutions.
One proposal would require anyone caught evading a transit fare for the first time to receive a written warning, but would double their fine from $100 to $200 if they’re caught again. Another would forgive fare evasion fines to people eligible for the city’s Fair Fares program, which offers half-priced MetroCards to low-income residents, if they sign up for the deal after they’re busted jumping a turnstile. Other proposals would target toll scofflaws by increasing penalties for defaced or covered license plates.
The slate of proposals is still being discussed among lawmakers in Albany as they negotiate a new state budget, which is already nearly a week late.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Tuesday told reporters a crackdown on toll evasion was still on the table, but didn’t get into specifics.
Last week, Mayor Eric Adams announced he’d dispatch 800 more police officers into public transit to crack down on fare evasion. The MTA is looking to redesign turnstiles across the subway to make it harder to beat the fare, but that effort is still in its early stages. Fare beaters, meanwhile, keep clowning the MTA’s efforts to prevent them from taking yet another free ride.
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The MTA is touting Grand Central Madison’s next-to-nil crime rates as a reason for businesses to rent one of the 32 newly available retail spaces inside the terminal. Read more.
Police said a 1 train fatally hit a man lying on the tracks at the 28th Street station in Manhattan yesterday. This comes a week after four people were hit and killed by subways within a 24-hour span. Read more.
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New York City is now accepting applications from companies to test autonomous vehicles on city streets (with “safety drivers” behind the wheel). Read more.
The Queens-bound side of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be fully closed from Atlantic Avenue to Sands Street from April 13 at 2 a.m. to April 15 at 4 a.m. while crews make substantial repairs to the aging roadway. Read more.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has charged a group of taxi dispatchers at JFK Airport for allegedly taking more than $12,000 in bribes from cab drivers over the last two years in exchange for allowing them to cut to the front of long lines to pick up passengers. Read more.
Curious commuter
“Why do trains go so slowly over the Williamsburg Bridge? It takes 7 minutes to go from Marcy Ave. to Delancey on the M train.”
- KB, Queens
What Clayton says:
The MTA literally slowed trains down on the Williamsburg Bridge nearly 30 years ago following a deadly subway crash. In June 1995, a J train ran full speed into an M train that was stopped on the bridge, killing the motorman in the front car and injuring dozens of riders. Investigators later found the J train driver fell asleep, and that signal equipment on the bridge failed to trip the runaway train’s emergency brakes. The MTA in the following years reformed its safety practices, upgraded its signals and ordered lower speed limits for trains on the crossing (as well as dozens of other areas across the subway system). The MTA has over the last six years increased some of those speed limits. But for now, trains still move at a relatively sluggish pace across the Williamsburg.
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Service Tips
Friday night through early Monday morning:
Uptown 1 trains will skip Franklin St, Canal St, Houston St, Christopher St-Sheridan Sq and 14 St.
Uptown 1, 2 and 3 trains will skip 14 St.
J trains will not run between Crescent St, Brooklyn and Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer, Queens.
L trains won't run between 14 St-Union Sq and 8 Av.
In Brooklyn, Bay Ridge-bound R trains will skip Union St, 4 Av-9 St, Prospect Av and 25 St.
Every borough currently has one free bus route. Find yours.
This week in NYC transit history
Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Subway crime rises despite police overtime surge
Former Mayor Ed Koch made tackling subway crime one of his administration's top priorities, but the effort mostly failed. In 1979 and 1980, Koch ordered more police tours in the subways, resulting in $31 million worth of overtime. But subway crime rose by 33% during that period, the Daily News reported. Then Deputy Transit Police Chief John Rogan said during the first week of April 1981 that jewelry thieves were the primary cause of the increase — and, in a refrain that ought to sound familiar, he blamed the court system for allowing recidivist criminals to return to the streets. "If I had twice as many cops, I'd lock them up twice as many times,” Rogan reportedly said.
