Transit officials killed a study that would have spent up to $1 million on a behavioral expert to explore why riders evade the fare, following skepticism from some City Council members and commuters on whether the research is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced last spring that it was looking to contract analysts who would develop strategies to change fare evaders’ behavior through psychological research. The MTA released a request for proposals for the research in December, but after reviewing the responses, the authority determined this month that the study wasn’t worth it.
“NYC Transit reviewed proposals submitted for this RFP and the decision was made not to move forward,” said Demetrius Crichlow, NYC Transit president. “We remain committed to reducing fare evasion.”
Fare evasion has become a stubborn issue for the MTA, with the agency estimating it lost nearly $700 million to fare and toll evasion in 2022, the most recent full year of MTA data on fare evasion.
But following news of the study last year, some City Council members, including conservative Queens Council members Joann Ariolaand Robert Holden, and straphangers questioned whether the MTA’s proposed spending on the study could be better put toward other mass transit needs.
Nearly half of all local bus riders skipped out on the $2.90 fare last summer — a staggering 49.4% — but that figure has gradually begun to recede after the NYPD last year issued a blitz of fines to riders evading the fare. Subway fare evasion is less frequent, and MTA data shows roughly 13% of straphangers dodge the fare.
The study would have been paid for with federal grant dollars and cost between $500,000 and $1 million to “apply the theories of civic cultural change and tools of behavioral science” to fare evasion, according to the request for proposal.
