BART’s fare-evasion collection tally: One $95 payment on 6,000-plus tickets

A man jumps the turnstile at the BART station at Civic Center despite gates that were installed (seen at left and right) to deter fare evasion in San Francisco, California, on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. A man jumps the turnstile at the BART station at Civic Center despite gates that were installed (seen at left and right) to deter fare evasion in San Francisco, California, on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2018 Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2018 Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close BART’s fare-evasion collection tally: One $95 payment on 6,000-plus tickets 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

If BART had a motto for its fare-evasion ticket collection program, it might be, “No pay — no problem.”

Out of the more than 6,000 unpaid and delinquent proof-of-payment tickets issued in 2018, BART has managed to collect on only one so far.

“For $95,” said spokesman Daniel Tahara of the state Franchise Tax Board, the agency that is supposed to do the collecting.

Here’s the story:

As part of a crackdown on fare-gate jumping, BART handed out 6,799 citations last year to riders who failed to show a ticket when confronted by BART police and civilian fare inspectors.

The citations carried fines of $75 for adults and $55 for juveniles.

But when it came time to pay up, fewer than 1 in 10 violators did so — leaving BART with 6,218 unpaid fines to collect.

The goal of BART’s fare-evasion program is to change people’s behavior instead of criminalizing it, so the tickets are civil fines rather than criminal citations.

The courts handle criminal citations, but BART turns over its delinquent civil citations to the Franchise Tax Board.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the tax board: A whopping 5,677 of the tickets issued to BART riders last year were tossed because the offenders either were from out of state or gave a bogus address or other information to inspectors. There’s no recourse for the inspectors if suspected gate-jumpers say they can’t produce an ID.

“The most common circumstance (for tossing a ticket) was that the person cited didn’t provide a valid name or date of birth, which leads to there being no corresponding valid Social Security number,” said BART spokesman Chris Filippi.

But that still left 541 people whose cases BART sent to the Franchise Tax Board. However, there are issues there, too.

For starters, the tax board is authorized to garnish money from just three sources: income tax refunds, lottery winnings and unclaimed property.

If the gate jumper doesn’t have money coming in from one of those sources, “we can’t collect,” said Tahara.

Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle 2018 Fare Inspectors patrol a Daly City bound Bart train during the...

And even if a gate jumper does have money from one of those sources, BART may not be first in line.

For example, if the person skipping out on a BART ticket owes money for child or spousal support, “the money goes there first,” Tahara said.

The upshot: The tax board has collected on one lone delinquent citation.

“I wish I could say that I’m shocked, but I’m not,” said BART Director Debora Allen.

“I never believed that the fare inspection program was a wise investment of money,” Allen said.

Instead, she said, BART police should be issuing tickets for “fare evasion,” a low-level criminal offense that would have the hammer of court enforcement behind it.

“This is not a population of people who are going to be persuaded not to jump the fare by the mere presence of authority, ” Allen said.

Photo: Amy Osborne / Special To The Chronicle Police officer M. Campbell stands guard at Powell Station BART...

Filippi said BART has the option now of issuing a criminal citation, but only when a police officer catches someone in the act.

Fare evasion not only costs BART revenue, but may be one reason BART is losing riders, the Alameda County civil grand jury said Monday. It said fare evaders are one of four main “quality-of-life issues” that appear to be discouraging ridership — the others being homelessness, filthy trains and stations, and a perception of safety problems.

BART estimates that it loses $25 million each year from fare evasion, representing 5% of passenger fare revenue. The grand jury, however, was told by an unnamed BART senior manager that as many as 15% of riders do not pay their fares, almost twice the evasion rate on transit systems elsewhere. BART insisted Tuesday that the actual figure is 5%.

“While it is encouraging that BART is serious about responding to fare evasion, one step of enforcement — collecting fines from violators — is seriously lagging,” the report said.

BART board President Bevan Dufty agreed.

“Hard to vouch that we’re connecting the dots on this program,” Dufty said.

He said a better solution may be to “harden” fare gates and station entrances to make it tougher for fare jumpers to get on trains.

Until then, we’re pretty much on the honor system.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier