Supervisor Janice Hahn, the newly installed chair of the LA Metro board, wants more train station exits locked so that riders must prove they paid to ride by tapping their fare card to exit — or face non-payment citations or removal from the station.
A “Tap-To-Exit” pilot program began on May 28 in the North Hollywood B (Red) Line station in an effort to boost safety on that line, which has been near the top for violent crimes on the train lines, unlawful drug use and homeless people loitering or illegally riding the train for shelter.
The pilot program is aimed at providing more assurance that people who are riding the trains paid the fare to board the line.
Metro passengers are required to use a TAP card to pay before boarding a bus or train, but the honor system has been in place for years with little enforcement. Under the first-ever Metro Tap-To-Exit pilot program, passengers exiting the train are required to again tap the fare card to leave the station.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said in recent comments that the vast majority of people arrested or detained in connection with wrongdoing on the transit system had not paid the proper fare. The idea is to remove riders, often who are homeless, mentally ill or taking illicit drugs, from the system.
“The majority of violent crimes are from those with untreated mental health conditions and drug addictions,” Wiggins said in May.
Safety on the transit system has been a major topic in recent months, with a series of attacks on bus drivers and passengers in April, May and June.
On May 27, a bus driver tried close the doors to stop a homeless person who had been violent, but she lunged at the driver, grabbed his eyeglasses, broke them and scratched the driver’s face. The attack occurred on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles.
Two murders of passengers appeared to be committed by mentally ill assailants, killings that were unprovoked, authorities reported. On May 17, Juan Luis Gomez-Ramirez, a teacher…
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