Mayor Tory's comments spark debate about TTC fare evasion
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Presto is a prepaid and re-loadable card that you load money to it online, at a kiosk or a ticket booth. There's an "autoload" feature that tops off the card with money when you go below a certain balance. It's just a convenient feature, but not mandatory. You tap the Presto card onto the readers that are on vehicles and in the stations and it deducts the correct fare from the card. The readers on the vehicles just say "Accepted" or "Declined" and the ones in the GO stations give you the remaining balance on the card.
Technically speaking, there is way for the system to "know" if you borrowed your 12 year old's Presto card to get a free trip short of doing retina or DNA scans. I think what will happen is that kids under 12 and even seniors and students will need to present an ID when they use a Presto card. This is how the system works without a Presto card.
Presto is a lot less advanced than similar smart cards in London and Hong Kong. The Octupus card is likely the most advanced and has been around since the 90's. You can pay for transit, cabs even use it in some stores. London's Oyster card is similar, but I don't think you can use it at stores. I'm not sure how other cities like London or Hong Kong handle students or seniors, but they probably have a similar system. Or perhaps people that qualify for discounted fares have a physically different card from every other rider?
12 year old kids are really smart. They are our future political and corporate leaders. For example, they use their parent's library card number so they can use the adult computers.
Fog horns will sound and floodlights will shine on the 40 year old using a kid's card. LOL!
They should put the rate of a one way fare up to $5. this should provide enough income to fix what is wrong with the system.
$5 is not a steep price to pay to get around when you consider the alternatives - Taxi, Uber, driving...
I meant to say that Presto does not have a way to tell the age of the person using the card as far as I know. So an adult could theoretically borrow a 12 year old kids Presto card. The way around that would be to make everyone go through a turnstile that shows a ticket collector the fare that was paid, but that would require a lot of staff and would slow things down. So it's more efficient to have fare inspectors do random checks.
I don't know where you got the idea that kids are using their parent's library cards to use adult computers. As far as I know, you don't need a library card to access library computers.
Zone or distance-based fares makes the most sense and is already being used on GO Transit. The TTC actually had it once upon a time. The problem of course is that it's going to hit the working poor in places like Rexdale and Scarborough that have lousy access to transit i.e. have to transfer multiple times to get to work.
Its not a commercial enterprise, its a subsidized way to keep cars off the street and allow everyone to move around.
Raise it to $5 and more people will stay off (ridership is down now with just a slight increase in cost and the recent maintenance issues).
If its the same rate as cabs/uber, people will stay off.
That might have been my kid you saw. 6' tall, size 13 shoes, red backpack? He IS 12. He has a friend who looks 8.
It's impossible to judge kid's ages at that stage of development. The exemption for 12 and under isn't a huge
burden to the system as a child ticket was only 75 cents previously
-- or a valid transfer they received from a connecting route, but I don't doubt many have just been habitually climbing on streetcars without paying. Has anyone ever seen any actual fare inspectors/enforcement officers on the TTC? UPX and GO Trains seem to have them almost every time I use them.
Twice in July I got on a streetcar and asked for a transfer, only to have the driver refuse to give me one, saying something like 'This is a proof-of payment line. We don't issue transfers', obviously not understanding their own system or having been incorrectly instructed by supervisors.
http://ttc.ca/Fares_and_passes/Fare_information/Transfers/index.jsp
Maybe once every other week I run into inspectors. Actually had two today checking everyone. And yes they do ticket.. one girl literally ran off the back doors after they got on(funny to watch). And a second lady was busted and ticketed.
I'm a metropass guy so I never worry.
They have the transfer thing sorted out now. And actively encourage people to get and keep one.
I highly doubt that.
Travel from one end of the city to the other on $5? Pretty good deal.
I am in favor of making the people who use transit to pay for it, similar to how the people who drive, pay for the roads.
If the average schmoe pays $200-$400 for transit a month, that is still cheaper than owning a vehicle.
If the price was the same I would take a cab, but how far does a $5 cab ride get you? A TTC stop, maybe two?
For the average person who takes transit to work a one way $5 fare is $10 per day and average it out to say 22 days per month and you are talking $220 per month.
A car on the other hand would cost $300 per month for insurance, plus gas, plus parking downtown at $10 - $30 per day, pus maintenance, plus license costs, plus vehicle costs...You are talking a hell of a lot more than $220 per month.
A TTC fare at $5 is still way, way less of an expense than a car.
People will not abandon transit at $5 for a one way fare.
