Measuring and Managing Fare Evasion (2022)

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1   This report explores in detail the recent past and emerging future of fare enforcement on transit systems. While the focus is on North American transit systems, the research also provides examples from some agencies abroad, primarily in Europe, Australia, and South America. The intent of this research is to discuss the many facets of fare evasion that must be considered to successfully measure and manage it. These include changing attitudes about fare enforcement and penalties for evading fare, the impact of these on the ability to manage fare evasion, and the role of new technologies and emergent enforcement alternatives in changing the purpose of and approach to managing fare evasion. The evolution of fare collection methods and technologies has required transit agencies to develop new ways to verify and enforce fare payment, increase their understanding of why and where fare eva- sion occurs, take proactive approaches to increase fare compliance, and respond to emerg- ing community sensitivities and social issues related to discrimination and systemic bias, use of police, and needs of vulnerable populations. This research effort involved three core activities: a review of the existing literature (which included documents from and studies of U.S. and Canadian transit agencies as well as agen- cies elsewhere in the world), phone surveys conducted with 18 North American transit agencies, and follow-up communication with those transit agencies to develop in-depth case studies on their approaches for measuring and managing fare evasion. The following chapters and appendices provide a summary of the results of the research. • Chapter 1, Background, discusses the recent evolution of fare enforcement programs and emerging issues, including the changing roles of operators and other personnel (e.g., civilian personnel, sworn peace officers), as well as emerging issues that are having an impact on fare enforcement. • Chapter 2, Research Approach, provides an overview of how the research was conducted and a summary of relevant characteristics of the 18 North American transit agencies sur- veyed as part of the research. • Chapter 3, Findings and Applications, compiles information gathered from a litera- ture review, phone surveys, and follow-up communication with transit agencies and presents the results by topic. Chapter 3 discusses factors that influence fare evasion and reviews important considerations when a fare enforcement program is being developed or revised. It includes detailed discussion of evolving fare enforcement policies and strat- egies for staffing, deployment, program management, citation practices, collecting data and measuring performance, customer education, capital investment, and addressing larger societal issues related to income, race/ethnicity, homelessness, and mental health— all of which have repercussions for transit operations in general and fare enforcement specifically. S U M M A R Y Measuring and Managing Fare Evasion

2 Measuring and Managing Fare Evasion • Chapter 4, Conclusions and Suggested Research, summarizes the findings of the research, suggests areas for future research, and identifies opportunities for information sharing and communication. • Two sections, Acronyms and Abbreviations and Glossary, provide definitions of the acronyms and terms, respectively, used in this report. • The References and Bibliography provides a list of more than 200 documents, papers, reports, and presentations reviewed in conducting the research for TCRP Project A-45. This list of sources includes those cited in the report as well as additional resources that may be valuable to readers. • Appendix A, Case Studies, presents detailed write-ups of the fare enforcement programs at the 18 North American transit agencies surveyed, including policies and practices. • Appendix B, Survey Instrument, contains the survey questions distributed to transit agencies. The questions were used as a guide during the phone surveys. • Appendix C, Steps to Develop and Implement a Fare Enforcement Program, identi- fies important considerations when a transit agency’s fare enforcement program is being developed or reviewed. This report and the associated case studies in Appendix A reflect the state of fare enforce- ment at the time they were written, which ranged from summer to fall of 2020. In a few instances, case studies were updated during the finalization of the report to reflect major program changes. However, not all changes may be reflected. Fare enforcement programs are evolving rapidly. Changes in fare enforcement programs and/or new related laws and court rulings may have occurred in the time since the information provided in this report was obtained from the participating agencies.