McCormack told Scene that he wants to make penalties for fare evasion on Cleveland’s Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) vehicles effectively the same as penalties for parking violations. His preference, he said, would be to reclassify the violation as a civil, rather than criminal offense. But if the state requires that fare evasion remain a criminal misdemeanor — that’s what the lawyers are checking on — he’ll settle for significantly reducing the financial penalties.
McCormack told Scene he’s aiming for the end of this year or the beginning of next to introduce the bill to his council colleagues. While he has not secured co-sponsors, he said he’s not anticipating challenges on that score. Both councilmen Matt Zone and Basheer Jones have seemed receptive, for example.
Zone joined McCormack at an event Thursday evening hosted by Clevelanders for Public Transit, the grassroots advocacy organization, in which the legislation was briefly mentioned. After riding the HealthLine from Public Square to University Circle, attendees gathered at ABC Uptown to discuss the travails of RTA’s flagship bus rapid transit route.
Organizers asked the councilmen if they’d commit to working with CPT to decriminalize fare evasion and to restore signal priority along Euclid Avenue, which would give HealthLine buses priority over cars at traffic lights. Both councilmen agreed, and McCormack said that the legislation for fare evasion was already in draft form.
Zone thanked the group for their persistent advocacy.
“The best policies I’ve worked on in my years on council,” Zone said, “have come from advocates like you.”
Justin Bibb, a fledgling member of the RTA board, was also on hand. CPT asked him directly if he would work to help restore “proof-of-payment” and all-door boarding on the HealthLine, two factors which would drastically speed up the route. Bibb said that he would.
The slowing of the 11-year-old HealthLine and the consequent decline in ridership occasioned Thursday’s gathering, which was appropriately titled, “Healing the HealthLine.”
In late October, 2017, Cleveland Municipal Court judge Emanuella Groves ruled that the proof-of-payment fare collection method was unconstitutional. In that format, passengers purchase fare cards before boarding the bus and prove their payment by showing tickets to transit police. Groves ruled that having armed officers check fares violated passengers’ constitutional rights to unreasonable searches and seizures.
Instead of having unarmed civilian employees checking fares (in the mold of a traditional train conductor), RTA has returned to the fare enforcement method currently used on buses, in which all passengers enter via the front door and show their tickets to the driver, thus slowing vehicles. CPT has found that during rush hour, the advertised 28-minute trip from Public Square to East Cleveland’s Windermere Station can take 40 minutes. These delays have added more than 40 hours of additional service per weekday.
Restoring proof-of-payment and all door boarding are both components of CPT’s Fair Fares platform.
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This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2019.
Yay !!!! I am so very glad we finally got this opportunity. Now I just wish the other City Council and County would get on board with CPT.
RTA is broke, and they want to make it easier to ride for free. These people are delusional. Why don’t you just make RTA free.
Not to worry, Up Next will be another hefty sales tax increase just to fund the corrupt and incompetent RTA!!!
Hey look, the John Wick hater!
go die in a hole.
Under the law today, getting a citation for not having your fare on RTA is a 4th degree misdemeanor. Which you HAVE to show up in court for and can net you up to 60 days in jail. No waiver to pay a fine and be done with it. Current city ordinance tracks with Ohio law, which includes rules prohibiting throwing rocks at buses.
Decriminalizing means making it into a minor misdemeanor or a fine that is similar. You pay the ticket and you wont have to go to a court date and you dont go to jail. This is like a normal speeding ticket or drinking a beer on the street corner.
This isnt a sensational idea.
Kerry can make up the difference with his salary. Quit using my money to pay for someone else.
No fare no ride, period. Another attempt by minorities to claim “oppression”, thus getting something for free. I believe we should move in the direction of establishing RTA as being responsible for a set figure of its operating costs, say 50%, rather than just giving shit away, then saddling taxpayers with the Oh, well, expense.
In San Diego, not paying your fare on the trolleys got you a $250 ticket…and that was back in the early Nineties. Wonder if they still have to do that today? Do people there pay up out of fear of a huge fine…or because it’s the right thing to do?
And their trolleys went to the Mexican border. Never heard anyone bitching that the system discriminated against Hispanics…or that they should be allowed to ride for free.
San Diego is still growing…and Cleveland is still shrinking. Their system has expanded…ours is contracting…and if enough people don’t pay their way, one day there won’t be any RTA and then all the cheaters can walk. And they can also go to hell.