Inspiration Point: Kat Tsai

[history79]

Source: http://chuwenjie.tumblr.com/

"It’s been an emotional week. I wanted to share this encounter I had with a very hateful man on the Pittsburgh bus because it reminds me that there are brave people in this world. Let’s all do everything we can to stand up for each other." - Kat Tsai

Comments

[ozaline]

Cool... but...

They collect fair in Pittsburgh when you get off the bus? What do they do with deadbeats like this guy? I mean it seems much simpler to do it like they do up here (and in Sandiego), and charge them before they get on the bus, so you can just not let them on.

[janegray]

I wondered the same thing when I was in Japan. You are charged at the end of the ride because the price of the ticket depends on how many stops you pass, the longer the ride the more expensive the ticket. What if you don't have enough money for the ticket when you want to get off? Apparently you are supposed to call security and they'll charge you in some other way.

[cypherfdp]

Really? Every bus I've taken in Japan is about 220 no matter where you get off.

[janegray]

Yep. I was in Japan this summer, and both subway and buses had that system.

Then again, there are different bus lines. Maybe some of them have different payment methods.

[donnblake]

Collecting at the end has been my general experience with both Metros and Subways in the US (New York City, DC, and Chicago, and see also Kingston Trio's Man Who Never Returned for a silly song about this in Boston, where they suggest that if you can't pay, you just have to stay there forever), but then usually in that case you're being let off inside a gate or turnstile of some sort, so you actually can't get out without paying (or jumping the turnstile, I guess). Not sure how it would work for buses.

[lb_lee]

Enh, they changed the fare to the start in Boston in part because of that song and the reasoning behind it. :p These days, the only time you pay getting off is in very specific circumstances on very specific buses. (Like, the only time I ever pay getting off is when I got on a specific bus in a specific subway station.)

[viridian5]

I'm a New Yorker, and we have to pay first to get to the subway trains or on the bus.

[donnblake]

Really? My experience, visiting admittedly, not living there, has been that I buy a subway pass when I'm going to get on the train, load money onto it, and then have to swipe it when I get off, having an amount removed depending on my starting and ending point. I've always worked out the total I'm going to need and put that much on at the beginning, but, theoretically, there's been nothing stopping me from traveling further than I'd paid for, and having to pay at one of the machines at the other end to get out.

(Or refusing to do so, and, I assume, being fined by the authorities, but I've never tried that).

[viridian5]

Maybe that was Metro-North, which I'm not personally familiar with. For MTA buses and subways in New York City, you swipe your Metrocard getting on the bus or to get to the trains and are allowed a free transfer bus to train or vice versa within three hours. Certain express buses are more money but I think you pay first there too.