By Mansfield Frazier
As problems go, it’s not
among the biggest facing society, but it is one of those issues that
seems to get people all riled up: Public transportation fare scofflaws,
those folks who brazenly expect to ride for free while everyone else
pays to be transported. They get under everyone’s skin and contribute
to a breakdown of law and the public order.
The Regional Transit Authority
(RTA) recently suggested instituting a $50 fine (payable within two
days) for adults caught fare-jumping on the Euclid Corridor line. However,
the NAACP protested, saying that it makes no sense to impose such a
fine on someone who could not pay the bus fare in the first place. And,
if indeed, that’s the case — that they indeed could not pay the
fare — then the argument makes sense.
But the counter argument is
that some of these fare-jumpers are not destitute, they simply feel
they don’t have to pay like everyone else … and for those thugs
I, like most other people, have little sympathy. Nonetheless, there
indeed may be some fare-jumpers that truly can’t pay: perhaps they
are on their way to school, or to a job interview. There should be some
middle ground, someway to allow the truly needy to ride but punish the
scofflaws.
