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MTA Nabs Federal Money to Study the New Psychology of Fare Beating

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2025-01-12 19:30:08

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Facing what it calls a “historic high” in fare evasion, the MTA wants to use behavioral research to get inside the minds of the estimated 900,000 bus and subway riders who dodge fares daily.

With new grant funding, the agency is aiming to contract analysts for a study — at a projected cost of $500,000 to $1 million — that is designed to “apply the theories of civic cultural change and tools of behavioral science” to fare evasion, according to a request for proposals on its website.

“If we are going to hire a behavioral consultant, it will be to help change the behavior of a criminal justice system that has determined that fare evasion should have no consequences,” John McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, told THE CITY in a statement. “This needs to change. Pay your fare.”

The MTA reported this spring that those who don’t pay the $2.90 bus and subway fare could, in coming years, cost the agency up to $800 million annually.