Turn Turn Turn

[tablesaw]

The downtown Metro station I walk through every day is one of four stations getting turnstiles.

You may not realize this, but Los Angeles didn't have turnstiles, or any other sort of fare gates before this.

The LA Metro effectively runs on the "honor system." When it was opened, there was no barrier anywere, just ticket machines in front of a sign that reads "Ticket required beyond this point." A little while ago, when MTA started using TAP cards, they added a few strategic pylons where you could swipe your card. (At Hollywood and Vine, the smaller entryway makes them look kinda like fare gates, but in other stations like Pershing Square, there might be four pylons stretching across a wide-open space.) Periodically, fare checkers will appear on trains to check the fares of riders, or will station themselves at exit points to check the fares of people leaving the station.

Right now, the Pershing Square turnstiles look silly, since they're just kind of sitting in the middle of that huge space, but I guess they'll be putting up barriers to stop that too.

The fare gates have been hotly debated for quite a while, especially during the last two years. The LA Weekly reported in 2007 that the MTA was most likely motivated less by security or fare-evasion concerns and more by the possibility of using the TAP card "to generate more and more cash by creating a 'smart card' debit-card revenue stream." And it's true that leading up to this, the MTA has been replacing all of its paper passes with virtual ones to be stored on TAP cards. Personally, I agree with the one dissenting MTA Boardmember Richard Katz, who has consistently argued that the turnstiles are a boondoggle and that, all things considered, anything that gets a few more Angelenos out of cars is a net gain.

Comments

[amythyst]

Well, here's the question I haven't seen answered anywhere - what about the EZ Pass? I have one and it doesn't work like a TAP card - it's paper. Currently, I just walk through the open wheelchair gate, but what happens when they start cracking down on that? The TAP card doesn't work throughout the region, while the EZ pass does - some bus systems aren't set up for TAP and aren't planning to be.

[chris]

This is really interesting. I don't have any conclusions on it, and best practice in this country often varies even between closely-related systems (for instance, compare the London Underground, with fare gates, to Tramlink, without). My gut reaction was strongly in favour but I'm prepared to believe that ot really could work either way.

[tablesaw]

The difference appears to be when the systems were set up. Here's what the chief executive of MetroLink (SoCal's light-rail system) said about it:

The November 15th staff report to several Metro board committees conveying the subject report starts with this phrase: “Los Angeles Metro remains the only non-barrier subway system in North America”. That statement is misleading. No other non-barrier subway system has ever existed in North America. There are reasons for this. The Los Angeles Metro is the only North American subway line designed and built after proof-of-payment fare systems were introduced into North America in the late 1970’s. The Los Angeles Metro is also the only subway line integrated with an extensive light rail and commuter rail system both of which rely on proof-of-payment fare collection. All new light rail systems in the United States and all new commuter rail systems in the United States use proof-of-payment fare collection because:
a) it is a very cost-efficient means of enforcing fares already proven in many rail systems throughout Western Europe,
b) it would be nearly impossible and too costly to enclose most light rail and commuter rail stations enough to have secure fare gates, and
c) no light rail nor commuter rail system anywhere that has implemented proof-of-payment fare enforcement has found it to be unworkable or even undesirable.

It's been demonstrated that fare gates and proof-of-payment systems have about the same effectiveness, so if you've got the gates (because, say, your subway system was built a century before Los Angeles's) you want to leave them in, not pay to reorganize everything. By the same token, if you don't have them in, you don't want to pay to stick them in and redesign the space.

[tablesaw]

No idea. But you should know that, for now at least, all the turnstiles will turn without input, so if you want to avoid being conspicuous, you can just go right through.