On March 1, a 10-cent TTC fare increase took effect. Transit advocate Steve Munro says this comes during a time where fare evasion is becoming more prominent and Presto is a factor.<\/p>\n
Munro is a long-time transit advocate, and he says more adults are cheating the system by purchasing children\u2019s Presto cards. They are still paying fare but using a pass that is not meant for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren\u2019s Presto cards were being advertised online as \u2018free TTC\u2019, the distribution and validation mechanism was not at all workable,\u201d Munro said.<\/p>\n
Munro suggests that adult and children\u2019s Presto cards should be different colours, that way it is obvious when an adult is using a card that they should not be. Munro says fare evasion is much worse downtown due to congested routes, predominantly on streetcars.<\/p>\n
\u201cMachines go out of order quite often on mostly streetcars mainly because of the amount of people riding them. It happens on buses as well but not as often,\u201d said Munro.<\/p>\n
Munro says that ever since the fleet of new streetcars were introduced, people do not pay at all simply because of the design.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople do not feel obliged to pay on streetcars because they do not have to enter through the front doors unlike the old ones. They can get on at the back of the vehicle and not be hassled,\u201d Munro said.<\/p>\n
Presto is run through MetroLinx, and Munro says they have acknowledged that the model is not working and a change needs to be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a question of what technology is used, a change to a new fare collection system is not something that happens overnight,\u201d said Munro.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n
Nathaniel Baum-Snow, professor at the University of Toronto and faculty member of the U of T transportation research institute says that the communication between TTC and MetroLinx in regards to Presto has to be stronger.<\/p>\n
Baum-Snow says enforcement officers should either be completely involved with laying down the law or leave it as is, they should not be in between.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetter fare enforcement means the scofflaws would be less likely to ride the system,\u201d said Baum-Snow.<\/p>\n
Kevin Gingerich is a civil engineering professor at York University with a focus on transportation studies, he says the main issue is not with the TTC specifically but with municipalities overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe larger issue is on the lack of fare integration between cities in the GTA with large transit systems,\u201d Gingerich said.<\/p>\n
Gingerich moved to Toronto from Windsor 10 years ago and finds the TTC helpful but says there needs to be more clarity with fares and evasion should be taken more seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is certainly a combination of factors involved, such as fare evasion occurring due to technology issues, due to the inability to pay fares, due to easy access without paying and due to high traffic impeding access to the fare readers,\u201d Gingerich said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On March 1, a 10-cent TTC fare increase took effect. Transit advocate Steve Munro says this comes during a time where fare evasion is becoming more prominent and Presto is a factor. Munro is a long-time transit advocate, and he says more adults are cheating the system by purchasing children\u2019s Presto cards. They are still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":11153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}