In college, I rode the campus bus daily. This is a morally neutral fact. Another unremarkable mode of transportation is riding the bus between an airport terminal and your airplane at the airport. Why do some consider riding an MTA bus saintly? I suspect the difference comes from the company you are presumed willing to keep.
Riding the bus in New York requires pretty much the same practical skills as riding the train. On the bus, you might have to press a button to request your stop, if someone hasn’t already; this habit takes little time to acquire.
Payment problems, however, are more public on the bus, where you pay as you board. There is the possibility of holding up more people than yourself, whereas a problem at the subway turnstile is usually just your problem. MTA policy also instructs drivers not to intervene when passengers refuse to pay—for the driver’s own safety.
In 2025, the MTA estimated fare evasion at 44% on buses versus 10% on the subway. Turnstile jumpers are not exactly like other riders except for the fact of their nonpayment. In 2023, BART police union vice president Brad Wilson reported that roughly 80% of people arrested on its trains or at its stations lacked proof of payment.
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BART completed the installation of harder-to-evade fare gates across all 50 stations in 2025. By September 2026, it reported that crimes against riders per million trips had fallen 67% since the end of 2024, while police- and safety-related delays had fallen 47%. A fare gate may collect more than revenue: it may change who gets aboard.
The MTA is installing similar “modern fare gates”—I was happy to see one at my local transfer station where I experienced the train stopping for 20 minutes because a conductor was punched by a laughing student. Until the upgrades are complete, the subway, too, offers opportunities for the urbane to demonstrate their tolerance.