Fine example
Sometimes I rant on the fact that everything is illegal in one way or the other. Somedays the story tells that without any real commentary from me.
Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine. Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said Friday that the officer “acted within the law” after he spotted Donald Pirone, 42, selling the token Nov. 30 inside the West End subway station
Instead of giving Pirone a warning, the officer decided to handcuff him and give him the misdemeanor citation under a 1992 state law that bars passengers from selling Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority tokens, she said.
“What you’ve got to keep in mind is that fare abuse is a chronic problem,” Baker said. “It costs MARTA millions of dollars every year.”
Baker acknowledged that Pirone sold the token at face value and did not make a profit. But the law is the law, she said.
……………….
As for the handcuffs, Baker said the officer felt they were necessary.“Our officers do that for their own safety,” Baker said.
(((Gunner walks away shaking head sadly)))
December 10th, 2005 at 11:35 am
Assuming that “fare abuse” is only people reselling tokens and doesn’t include things like jumping the turnstiles, MARTA must be saying that is suffers “losses” from predicted sales that never materialize (versus an actual decrease is revenue or units sold). Thus, MARTA’s approval for the preposterous criminalization of reselling (even at face value!) of tokens is merely an underhanded scheme to bolster what, if Atlanta public transit follows the example of every other system in the country, lack of sufficient revenue generated from ridership.
That is, MARTA must be counting on the fact that by selling tokens of fixed value (I assume – I’ve never ridden the subway in Atlanta, but “token” brings to mind a coin-like object rather than the magnetic striped tickets of something like the San Francisco BART), there will be an inherent inefficiency in the market allowing them to garner a bit of extra revenue for service not provided. Now, at a private establishment that sells tokens, tickets, special debit cards, etc. (e.g. a traveling carnival or Jillian’s) you’re consenting to wasting a bit of the value of the proprietary currency. The same thing could be said about MARTA, but the crucial difference is that it is a government entity going out of its way to deny you the opportunity to redeem the value of your token, either through clever pricing schemes (i.e. tokens cost $1.75 and the shortest ride is $2.00) or forbidding transfer of the token. That then, constitutes not only willfully foisting an economic inefficiency upon the public (hmm, this seems to be a theme with governments…), but a tax.
December 10th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
I’m at a lost to see what token “abuse” (resale) can possibly “cost” MARTA, except in terms of lost windfall profits on the sales of the original tokens, some of which would otherwise have gone to waste.
December 11th, 2005 at 12:28 am
This is absolutely ridiculous
December 11th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
It’s been years since I rode MARTA, but if I had to guess, I’d say it has to do with subsidies. MARTA (like D.C.) may sell discounted tokens to city employees and “the poor”, and is worried about them being resold at a profit.
December 12th, 2005 at 9:37 am
[…] As though this wasn’t bad enough, this is an all time low: Charles Atherton, a former secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts that advises the government on architecture and design in official Washington, was hit Thursday while crossing busy Connecticut Avenue. He died Saturday night at George Washington University Hospital. […]
December 13th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
[…] Sometimes we deviate from dumb criminals to share an occasional story about ridiculous enforcement. Criminals certainly don’t have a monopoloy on poor judgment. An Atlanta man was arrested for helping out a fellow MARTA passenger when the token vending machine failed to operate. Thanks to gunner over at SayUncle for bringing to light this absurd turn of events. The original story can be found here. Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine. Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said Friday that the officer “acted within the law” after he spotted Donald Pirone, 42, selling the token Nov. 30 inside the West End subway station […]