thread: a month ago, i made a public records request to BART for data on fare evasion citations, including race, age, gender and station. today i got back one year's worth of data, ~12,000 citations from july '18 to '19.
1st, let's take a look at how citations break down by race
1st, let's take a look at how citations break down by race
this confirms the unjust distribution of fare evasion citations to black riders of bart. this trend, which was originally reported to the BART board last year, has continued. when you look at BART's rider demographics from around the same time, you can see it clearly.
next, let's combine race and gender. we'll see that black men are targeted for fare evasion more than any other group, making up over a third of citations.
here's the breakdown of who received a fare evasion citation, by age. the trends skew quite young, with BART issuing 1,507 citations to teenagers.
77.8% of those teenagers were black or hispanic/latinx.
77.8% of those teenagers were black or hispanic/latinx.
here's which stations get targeted most for fare inspection. lake merritt station was targeted on 47% of days in this period.
on the right, compare that to the stations' ridership. the targeting of stations is not even, nor is it correlated the amount of activity at each station
on the right, compare that to the stations' ridership. the targeting of stations is not even, nor is it correlated the amount of activity at each station
you can get the full, raw data and my breakdowns here: drive.google.com/file/d/1tt-aPv…
i'll close this out by saying that BART should be investing in improving its service, not in biased programs that target riders of color for a victimless crime.
i'll close this out by saying that BART should be investing in improving its service, not in biased programs that target riders of color for a victimless crime.
