Maybe the MAX trains need an AHH-UUU-GAA horn and then this announcement:

OK all you free loaders too busy blabbing on your cell phone to notice, but it's time to get off the damn train!

And we thank you for riding.

Gah, that free rail zone is an absolute joke and should be abolished. It made sense when downtown was free, but with the fare inspection issues on the MAX, it just doesn't make good sense at all.

With that said, the person hit with the fine was indicative of the young persons today who think the rules don't apply to them.

I've made similar mistakes with bills and tickets in the past and I've paid my due for my lack of diligence. Sucks, makes life harder than it needs to be. Unfortunately it's part of modern life and one needs to grow up and deal with the consequences. They aren't picking on you, they are treating everyone equally. Don't like the fine? Great, complain to the powers that be, start a group of people to work to change it, run for office and work to change it from the inside. Until then, you still have to pay the fine or face the consequences.

They need turnstyles and secure boarding. Not only does it ensure fare collection, it will also get a large part of the criminal element off the trains.

They only reason they don't is that, if they do, Tri Met can no longer lie about their ridership numbers.

They only reason they don't is that, if they do, Tri Met can no longer lie about their ridership numbers.

The flip side, of course, is that if they expend more time and resources to making Tri Met as safe as possible (turnstiles, etc.), their ridership numbers might actually increase. I know lots of potential riders who stay away due to their fear of criminal activity.

Robert Collins, Please provide a link to a claim that Trimet is lying about its ridership numbers. Unless you were lying and don't have one.

My local Transit agency over counts. A single trip across several buses counts as several separate rides. If their was a real media they would investigate and report. I can only go on what I have observed. If you would like to pay for my time I would be glad to make and furnish Links!

I very much know firsthand that the local volunteer fire/medical respond to the most minor hangnail to pad the wallet/Stats.

Skepticman -- how about this one from a pro Trimet site: 99 million trips in one year?? So uh, every man, woman and child in the entire state of Oregon went somewhere in Portland about three times a day and they all rode the bus or took the train?
http://opengeo.org/publications/trimet/

I found a number of anecdotal references to ridership inflation but only one scientific paper. It is a comparison of Automated Passenger Counting and manual counting. It looks like APC tends to be a bit high in some cases.
pdx.edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.cus/files/PR124.pdf

my bad -- All the population of Oregon rides a TriMet bus about once every 14 days

Skepiticman: Do you work for TriMet? Maybe you can explain why TriMet has never used an independent agency to do ridership counts. Their numbers are grossly inflated and have been for years...

Dave A. - I see you have no statistics, only baseless smears to sling around like poo. No, I don't work for tri-met. I don't even ride the bus very much.

Concordbridge at least tries to find some evidence, for which I am thankful.

If there are about 1.5 million people in Tri-met's service area, and 99 million trips a year, that's 66 trips per person per year. In looking at Trimet's statistics, it's unclear if they are counting transfers as two separate rides. That would be a significant inflator of trips.