The month of free public transport has introduced an interesting problem. A completely open barrier does not provide a way to force people in a particular direction. So PTV staff have to make do with alternatives for controlling flow, like directing people manually, or paper signs like these.
@lmika here in NYC the add all kinds of barriers so people stop avoiding payments. It still doesn’t work.
@lukebouch Oh, it’s just for this month of April. The state government made public transport completely free to encourage people to use it and save petrol.
@jtr Yeah, I wouldn’t say these barriers are the most effective deterrent to fare evaders. I’ve seen plenty of people jump them at my station, even in the presence of PTV staff.
@lukebouch Hmm, there may have been a small boost, but nothing really noticable. It’s hard to say based on my travel patterns. Being quite close to public transport, I, and probably most people around me, would probably be using it already to get into the city. It’s nice not to pay, but we would’ve been paying for it already so the incentive to switch isn’t there. It’ll be those that don’t have great access to public transport where the benefits of this would go the furthest; but they’re not close to public transport, so taking advantage of it would be difficult.
