3 ms·

I'm really not sure how turnstiles aren't cheaper than uniformed employees checking for proof of payment. There's an awful lot written in the article arguing f

I'm really not sure how turnstiles aren't cheaper than uniformed employees checking for proof of payment. There's an awful lot written in the article arguing for proof of payment but the DC system does sound an alarm when somebody jumps a turnstile and there is a metro employee roughly 8 feet from any turnstile so the issue is not that they can't catch fare evaders. ---- If you really want a free metro through you need to let the metro actually recoup the benefits it provides. Apartments adjacent a mass transit system routinely go for 500-1000 more per month than ones ~5 mins away. If the metro owned the land around it and was allow to rent it out for retail/housing it'd be rolling in dough.

supertrope 4y ago
Proof of payment saves passengers time. It increases capacity. Not waiting in line for a turnstile can be the difference between missing a train or not. In bus networks it has the most dramatic difference as one person digging for cash can hold up dozens of other riders.
- lesuorac 4y ago
  For the DC metro I don't think pop will save any time. The only times I've seen a line at a turnstile there has also been a line on the stairs / escalator. Any time saved from not waiting at the turnstile will just translate to an increased wait time at the stairs before you get to the platform. w.r.t. bus networks, the article is about the metro. But yeah, I'd agree pop is faster for buses. I think it was Italy where I took a bus once and there were several payment machines on the bus (not next to the front door) so you could board and then afterwards pay without causing a line out the door.