Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Fare Collection Improvement Strategies
Fare Collection Improvement Process
Customer
Convenience Ensure fare payment is clear and convenient
Fare
Enforcement Educate and prevent fare evasion and misuse
Data Collection/
Evaluation Monitor fare evasion, evaluate/adjust customer and enforcement strategies
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Increased Fare Collection Efforts
1. Customer Convenience
• Improved Access to TAP Cards – Increased Muni TAP participation – Recruit more TAP sales outlets – Distribution through senior centers and roving TAP sales units
• Increased marketing and information
• Simplify TVM screen design
• Rail Validator Relocation
SAV Relocation
• Conducted study to evaluate location of validators for ease of use
• Validators at 26 stations relocated to more visible, convenient locations
• TAPs doubled since relocation
Increased Fare Collection Efforts
2. Fare Enforcement
• Gate Latching
• Fare Enforcement Efforts
• Bus Boarding Camera
Gate Latching
• 50% of stations latched including all Red and Green Lines (72% Boardings)
• Ticket vending machine sales increased by $9M between FY13 and FY14
Preliminary gating studies • Blue Line – Nearing completion • Gold Line – Currently underway
Detailed engineering studies underway
• Expo 1 • Orange Line
Detailed engineering studies completed
• Expo 2 • Foothill Extension
New stations now designed for gating • Expo 2 (4 stations) • Crenshaw
Light Rail Gating Feasibility
Non-Payment on Rail/BRT
July 2014 Red Blue Green Gold Expo Orange Total
Boardings 4,120,243 2,389,132 1,082,600 1,172,924 863,910 677,608 10,306,417
Fare Checks 293,869 135,986 113,540 109,476 59,416 68,737 781,024
% Boardings Inspected 7.1% 5.7% 10.5% 9.3% 6.9% 10.1% 7.6%
YTD Red Blue Green Gold Expo Orange Total
Boardings 28,200,687 15,818,173 7,587,410 7,877,566 5,595,009 5,113,063 70,191,908
Fare Checks 1,468,733 955,832 650,946 610,734 350,418 484,414 4,521,077
% Boardings Inspected 5.2% 6.0% 8.6% 7.8% 6.3% 9.5% 6.4%
• Fare enforcement officers check about 8% of daily boardings.
Bus Boarding Monitors
• Video monitors installed in three pilot buses showing customer images
• Helps address fare evasion and improve safety
• Buses assigned to Line 51 (Avalon Blvd), which ranks as one of the highest fare evasion bus lines in the system.
Increased Fare Collection Efforts
3. Data Collection/Evaluation
• Rail/BRT Station 100% Counts
• Bus “No Fare” Button
Non-Payment on Rail/BRT
Line Date Day Stations
Green
Checks
Red
Checks
Fare
Evasion
Fare
Misuse
Orange 12/3/2013 Tuesday N Hollywood, Van Nuys, Sherman Way 7,128 2,178 22% 9%
Orange 12/17/2013 Tuesday N Hollywood, Reseda, Canoga 6,577 1,420 16% 6%
Orange 2/11/2014 Tuesday N Hollywood, Van Nuys, Canoga 9,755 1,154 7% 5%
Blue 3/12/2014 Wednesday 103rd Street/Watts Towers, Compton, Willow St 3,988 1,161 26% 3%
Gold 3/19/2014 Wednesday Atlantic, Highland Park, Lake 5,391 464 4% 4%
Expo 4/2/2014 Wednesday Expo/Western, Expo/Crenshaw, Culver City 4,247 685 11% 4%
• 100% Counts at major rail and BRT stations.
• Significant decrease in fare evasion with continued checks.
Non-Payment on Bus
• “No Fare” button allows operators to log incidents of fare evasion.
• Majority of “No Fare” incidents are at p.m. peak within the South service area.
Next Steps
Customer
Convenience • Focus customer
convenience efforts based on analysis of fare evasion.
• Identify new fare payment incentives.
Fare Enforcement • Focus enforcement
efforts based on analysis of fare evasion.
• Identify new strategies to improve enforcement. $
Data Collection/ Evaluation • Rail Boarding Data – Augment manual rail boarding counts with TAP gate entries
to provide more accurate and timely monthly boarding information for comparison with monthly fare revenues.
• Bus Revenue Data – Augment “No Fare” information with bus line level average fare per boarding data to refine estimates of fare evasion.