TTC focusing on punishing, not enticing, riders

Who’s to blame for the TTC’s funding woes? A new TTC report blames individual transit users who don’t pay their fare. The cashstrapped agency plans to hire nearly 50 additional enforcement officers to stem an estimated loss of more than $70 million. If approved, there will be 20 times more city employees dedicated to enforcing a $3.25 fare than to enforcing road safety.

The TTC’s reliance on fares has placed it in a tough spot, but this is by design. Decades of underfunding have made the TTC the leastsubsidized and most fare-reliant major transit system in the U.S. and Canada.

This is why Toronto has the most expensive monthly pass in North America, with fares rising faster than inflation. Even the TTC’s discount fare for low-income riders is higher than many standard passes in Canadian cities, including Hamilton, Ottawa and Montreal.

In Seattle, a city grappling with similar crises of affordability and homelessness, nearly a quarter of transit fines were given to people experiencing homelessness or housing instability. One can reasonably assume a similarly high level of poverty among Torontonians who do not pay for the TTC. A 2017 survey showed that 40 per cent of post-secondary students have avoided paying their fare at some point.

The transition to Presto has made it more difficult to pay for transit. Faulty technology is part of the problem, as is the decline in the number of fare vendors, as subway stations and Shoppers Drug Marts become the only places to add value to Presto cards or purchase single-use tickets.

A video showing TTC inspectors in an altercation with a passenger over a fare dispute emerged on social media last week. Such a level of violence in response to a failure to pay for parking, where fines are dramatically lower than for fare evasion, is simply inconceivable. It is a sickening and exceedingly disproportionate response to a loss of $3.25.

While the TTC leans toward a crackdown, some U.S. cities have moved away from harsh penalties. Fines in Seattle were lowered to $25, and can be paid for through two hours of community service, putting $25 onto one’s own fare card, or by enrolling in the lowincome fare program. TTC CEO Rick Leary ominously commented: “You’re never going to know who’s on board that could potentially ask you for your fare.” A culture of surveillance must surely rank among the worst ways to entice people to use transit. Specific incidents and statistical data show conclusively that fare enforcement disproportionately targets Black Torontonians.

The TTC’s leadership seems more concerned with punishing fare evasion than attracting new riders, despite five years of frozen ridership and stagnant service levels on much of the surface network.

City council and other levels of government can choose to invest in a welcoming and inclusive transit system that recognizes mobility as a right and entices new users through excellent service. The alternative is to reinforce Toronto’s growing inequities.