Commentary: By Quietly Ignoring Fare Evasion, LA Metro Inadvertently Became the Nation’s Largest Free Transit Experiment

An analysis by Alex Davis, Nimesh Rajakumar, and Erica Solis reveals that Los Angeles Metro typically issues less than 10 citations for fare evasion per day systemwide, effectively rendering the system free to use for those who choose not to pay fares. 

According to a piece by the authors in the Los Angeles Daily News, roughly 46 percent of Metro riders do not pay their fares. “That’s 12 million unpaid boardings each month. And because (according to Metro) over 90% of those who commit crimes on the system enter without paying, it’s no surprise that onboard issues related to crime and antisocial behavior have persisted ever since the pandemic.”

The authors note that fare enforcement levels “collapsed” after 2017, when the agency shifted those duties from LA Sheriffs to in-house security. Since then, concerns about safety and cleanliness have also risen, a change the authors seem to link to growing levels of fare evasion. 

It’s time to get real about fare enforcement. Our proposal is to retask the TSOs to conduct onboard proof-of-payment validations of TAP cards across the system. At a modest rate of 20 cards an hour per TSO, we believe Metro could check over 20,000 riders a day with existing staff.

The authors believe their proposed strategy would raise fare compliance levels without impacting low-income riders who have access to Metro’s LIFE free fare program. “For the last five years, LA Metro has inadvertently become America’s largest free transit experiment. According to the majority of riders, it hasn’t gone well.”