After the woke Era made social-justice heroes out of turnstile-hoppers, subway systems from New York and Washington, D.C. to San Francisco shelled out millions to build higher gates that only the most ambitious and athletic thieves could evade with ease.
Surprising nobody, these more formidable faregates resulted in more fare revenue. They also resulted in less crime. “Virtually every criminal is a fare evader,” the head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.
This is almost a happy story demonstrating to local governments that, as the millennial commentators like to say, “You can just do things.” You can reduce crime by enforcing rules and preventing a slide into general disorder (this used to be called the “broken windows” theory of policing).
But it was also a sad story. The new, higher (and uglier) faregates stand today as a memorial to their cities’ decline. For decades, D.C. and New York didn’t need unhoppable gates because only a small sliver (of mostly high schoolers) dodged the fares. In D.C., the gates could just be pushed open with some force, meaning Metro operated on something like an honor system…