maryrosecook

I’ve had my ticket checked by an inspector on the Berlin U-Bahn 4 times in 36 days. I’ve done maybe 90 (36 x 2.5) journeys in that time. The penalty for travelling without a ticket is €40 and a shouting-at. Using the estimate for the number of journeys I’ve made, I’ve spent €190 on travel. Therefore, provided I could stand up to the shouting, it would have been better to eat the fines.

There are certainly patterns to the ticket inspectors’ movements. They are probably most frequently seen during rush hours, and second-most frequently during office hours. They are either assigned “beats”, or they choose their own. Either allows prediction of their movements.

My first thought was to make a site that let people log ticket inspector sightings: line, time, station. That way, you could figure out the low risk routes and the low risk times. However, if such a data source was public, the BVG [the organisation that runs the public transport in Berlin] could easily change their habits to catch people out.

My second thought was to make a website that let people share their inspector sightings with a trusted group of friends. That way, if one group were compromised by the BVG, they would not compromise the data of the other groups.

The difficulty with this approach is that it’s not viable for people who can’t afford the fine. In this wonderful article about insurrection, I read about a fare dodgers’ union in Stockholm. The dues are 100 kronor a month, as opposed to 500 kronor for a monthly ticket, and, if you get caught, the union pays the fine.