During a rush-hour sting at Folsom Street and The Embarcadero on Tuesday morning, a fare inspection crew cited 106 riders in just two hours for not having proof of payment. –The San Francisco Examiner
If there is anything San Franciscans like to do it is not paying to ride public transportation. San Franciscans seem to think that Muni is another word for “my legs” and thus, as an extension of their own bodies should not be something that they have to pay to use.
Another reason they don’t feel inclined to pay is that even though they ride it everyday, and practically break down in tears when stops are threatened with discontinuation, San Franciscans basically hate the Muni. Why should they have to pay to ride something that they ride, when they hate to ride it? It’s a certain kind of San Franciscan reasoning that kind of makes you want to pump your fist in the air and say, “YEAH!” and then kind of makes you feel stupid that you did that.
There is probably even a healthy subset of San Franciscan who feel that they should actually be paid to ride the Muni, like they are doing the city some kind of favor, which they kind of would be if they paid, but they don’t.
It’s possible that by not paying to ride the train, San Franciscans think they are like the tramps of yesteryear flitting about the country with nothing but a bandanna tied to a stick and a dream, but San Franciscans should remember that a western style Ed Hardy t-shirt does not a freighthopper make.
It becomes clear that we are not dealing with even a Christopher McCandless lite when a San Franciscan gets asked by a fare inspector to show their transfer. This is probably the only time that a San Franciscan will actually show signs of being a Republican, and start screaming about socialism, and how the government should stay out of their lives.
If a fare inspector tells the San Franciscan that unless they cooperate they will go to jail, it is not out of the ordinary for a San Franciscan to tell them that they might as well go to jail, because this hassling over their expired transfer has already caused them to miss their doctor’s appointment.
In extreme cases, such as if it was a particularly hard to reschedule appointment, the fare dodger may simply hurl themselves under the next N-Judah, because death has got to be preferable to paying $2 to ride a bus or having to wait another four months to get that mole checked out.
