There are many ways to avoid paying on Muni, it seems. From practically humping the tailcoats of the person in front of you, in desperate hope of going through their paid gate to holding onto an ancient transfer from four years ago that no driver seems to check, reaping the benefits of a free Muni ride is about as easy as having a keen attention to detail.
As reported by KRON4’s Stanley Roberts, thanks to the newly-installed Clipper gates, you can say goodbye to ever paying for a Muni train again with a simple wave of your hand in front of a sensor located on the gate. Seriously.
Roberts shows you exactly how to get the gates to open for you without any payment whatsoever, saying that to get through the (quite expensive new) fare gates you can “you can either wave your Clipper card, or wave your hand.”
During the morning broadcast (but not included in the embedded statement) SF MTA spokesperson Paul Rose says (I am paraphrasing, Paul, if you read this, please do feel free to clarify!) that while this fare gate exploit was news to him, that Muni takes fare evasion very seriously and that riders caught without proof of payment on any of their vehicles will be cited.
