BART has only installed the "double-clamp" fare gates in one station — Richmond — but the news stories and public grumbling about them continue. They're dangerous, people say, they're dumb, and they do nothing to stop fare evaders — of which there are clearly plenty at Richmond Station.
It was already pointed out by a disabled rider advocate last month that the fare gates are liable to clamp down on peoples' heads if they are riding in wheelchairs, and it was already well documented by ABC 7 several weeks ago that people are limboing under and snaking through the gates just as much as they did with the single ones.
Now KPIX/CBS 5 is getting in on the game, catching more fare evaders on camera and talking to riders who feel like they're liable to get injured by the extra-aggressive clampers that seem like they're going to slam on people's heads. (No injuries have been reported so far.)
They got a quote from a BART spokesperson the fare evasion problem, who says, "People have still gotten through. They’ve gotten creative, people will crawl under, they will crawl through the middle but what we are really trying do is send a message to the riders that it’s not acceptable to cheat your way into the system."
As we know, BART is dealing with a serious fare evasion issue, but this doesn't appear to be the effective deterrent they want it to be.
In an attempt to combat fare evasion, BART started testing out new double barrier fare gates a few weeks ago at the Richmond station. Commuters don't seem to be thrilled. #socialmedia https://t.co/HP2ZgGhqEQ pic.twitter.com/eoR47B5P8B
— The Huberman Insight (@THInsight1) July 4, 2019
NBC Bay Area has a near identical story from Wednesday night, with a quote from BART rider Tara Ayers, who says, "They're horrible. Look at where they'd hit somebody if a child, someone in a wheelchair, short people -- somebody's going to get really badly hurt by these things." That segment also has footage of a fare evader who gets caught and then confronted by BART Police.
We are now taking bets that this "test" of the double fare gates doesn't make it past this single station.