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Post by ilbonito on May 5, 2010 22:28:45 GMT
This article, originally from The Times, was reprinted in my local free paper - which is handed out at train stations and mostly read on public transport. It has a disclaimer tacked on the end; "This publication does not encourage fare evasiion"!
Fare dodgers take Paris Métro for a ride with insurance pots against fines
The Paris Métro system is one of the most high-tech in the world but it is proving no match for fare dodgers who are beating it with a scam from the 17th century.
Enterprising free-riders are paying into low-cost insurance funds that reimburse their fines if they are caught without tickets.
The dodgers draw on the method invented by Lorenzo de Tonti, a Neapolitan banker who advised King Louis XIV about raising money for his wars. Everyone contributes to a pot and members take turns to draw on the proceeds.
The self-styled mutuelles des fraudeurs, usually bands of friends, colleagues or students, remain small-scale but the RATP, the Paris transit authority, is losing an estimated €80 million (£70 million) a year to those who leap the turnstiles.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 23:10:59 GMT
I've find that if one really wants to find a way to get something done, they will. Some are just more determined then others. That can't be good news for the others who use the Metro though.
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Post by ilbonito on May 6, 2010 2:58:26 GMT
I find the idea of blackmarket insurance fascinating, for some reason. It just seems like two such disparate worlds... I wonder if bank robbers or hitmen similarly "insure" themselves? And who then who polices the insurers?
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2010 4:39:43 GMT
Interesting that I have never read about this in France. But isn't the Paris Transit Authority the big winner if the fines are being paid? Fines are considerably more expensive than tickets.
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Post by onlymark on May 6, 2010 5:20:24 GMT
But how many people will dodge paying until a fine has to be paid?
If the ticket is 5 Euro and the fine is 50 Euro, but if only one in 20 get caught, then the Transit Authority are out of pocket.
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Post by patricklondon on May 6, 2010 9:35:15 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2010 10:01:32 GMT
But how many people will dodge paying until a fine has to be paid? If the ticket is 5 Euro and the fine is 50 Euro, but if only one in 20 get caught, then the Transit Authority are out of pocket. Only about 70% of the users pay anyway. That will never change. |
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Post by tillystar on May 6, 2010 14:09:54 GMT
I guess its kind of similiar we used to park every day for free in a supermarket car park near the station we use for work. If we had used the station car park it would have cost us was £10 a day, the fine if we caught parking in the supermarket the fine was £50 - we got fined twice in the year we did it so saved loads. We'd have saved loads even if we had been caught once a month.
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Post by fumobici on May 6, 2010 14:36:55 GMT
I assume that RATP have done the sums and calibrated the fines to their maximum possible advantage.
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Post by tillystar on May 6, 2010 15:20:41 GMT
Here in London there are fines and controls in place but they still reckon they lose about £70m a year.
They probably have got their sums sorted and know what they'd need to charge to cover it, but just doesn't touch it. Fine levels are regulated and they only catch a fraction of evaders and then they have to pay people to catch them and then more people to issue and process fines too. I guess there isn't a huge amount left over.
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Post by bjd on May 6, 2010 15:28:22 GMT
Over the years in the Paris metro, you can see that they have changed the turnstiles, making them higher and higher so that they can't be jumped over as they used to. Last year when I was in Paris with my sister, we were going through the turnstiles somewhere and a guy tried to push in behind my sister to get in on her ticket. She doesn't speak much French, but managed to tell him to get lost and to pay his own way.
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Post by lola on May 6, 2010 18:37:53 GMT
Our Metro system runs on the "honor" system, I guess you could say. No turnstiles. Occasionally someone asks to see your ticket, but never very late or very early, when I mostly take it to and from work rather than ride my bicycle. Years ago in Hamburg Germany I assumed their similar system was based on German culture of following rules, and that it could never work in the US. Don't know what percent rides for free here.
Recently my husband bought the wrong type of card in an honest mistake, had to go to the courthouse and talk to a judge, who dismissed the ticket on a "first offense is free" basis.
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Post by lola on May 6, 2010 18:43:08 GMT
For karma-improving reasons, I buy tickets unless the machine isn't working.
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