The box is clear, the driver can see what people drop in. There’s nothing stopping you from putting half the fare amount in nickels in, but really, there’s not

The box is clear, the driver can see what people drop in. There’s nothing stopping you from putting half the fare amount in nickels in, but really, there’s nothing stopping you from putting nothing in and just taking a seat - bus drivers aren’t equipped to police fare evasion in either case. In practice, 80-90% of riders have monthly passes that are just pieces of paper that you wave in front of the driver as you get on. I’m not oblivious to the downsides of such a system, but there are real upsides around low cost, and no technology to ever go out of date.