Toronto teens show the ridiculousness of mass fare evasions on the TTC

Avoiding paying for the TTC is pretty easy, it seems, as the transit service loses tens of millions of dollars to it every year. 

Fare evasion has been a hot topic recently, following an auditor general's report that showed at least $50 to 60 million (perhaps even more) in lost revenue as a result of the issue. 

A new video of some Toronto teens shows exactly how easy that fare evasion is, and how much the problem is exacerbated by the new Presto gates. 

#Toronto teens just showed how easy it is to evade fares on the #TTC https://t.co/9mtbhbGY3h pic.twitter.com/Os2NCV0mFZ

— blogTO (@blogTO) March 1, 2019

In the video, one person pays for a single Presto fare, and is followed by almost a dozen other people. That's a loss of about $30, which isn't a ton of money, but it adds up when these types of situations occur daily at every station. 

Nothing like a bunch of thieving BRATS. Parents should be ashamed of themselves. Do we really need to get to the point of developing Pentagon-level single entry doors to combat this reprehensible behavior?

— James Smithson (@yossie1969) March 1, 2019

The problem is rampant and easy to exploit, when fare inspectors are really only present at a few predictable places along the transit lines. 

Here are all the ways #Toronto has been avoiding paying fare on the #TTC pic.twitter.com/KobcPz4oDp

— blogTO (@blogTO) February 28, 2019

The TTC is attempting to combat the problem, with new technology and hiring more fare inspectors. However, it stands to reason now that many consider paying the fare to be an honour system.