Weird new bus system in my city

Hello everyone
This is my first official post, please forgive any mistakes.

For the past couple years my city has been upgrading their bus payment system to an all electronic system, here is a link so you can get a better picture of this new system.

www.fresno.gov...

Now that part of this topic is not what i find weird, what is weird is since February of this year they started to test a new rapid transit system with automatic kiosks for payment at all bus stops on one route through the city, hold on to your seats cause its just getting started.

www.fresno.gov...

I have health issues that prevent me from driving so this past week I have been taking the bus to get downtown and bus 1, whitch is the only Q route in my city, is the closest to me to get me downtown.

www.fresno.gov...

I have rode this bus twice a day for the past week and have never paid a single penny. Every time i get to the stop to use the auto kiosk for some reason its always out of service, or the bus driver finds some kind of excuse to get me on the bus for free. Im not the only person either every stop the bus makes people pile in for free without using the kiosk or paying the driver.

It has been the most strangest experience in my life. This bus runs from 630 AM to 1 AM, completely free to anyone who decides to get on. I have some pretty weird stories about these past few days from riding this bus.

So what do you guys think? Anybody elses city doing anything similar?

Maybe they are testing the new route out free but don’t want to overload the system by telling everyone it’s free. That’s my only guess.

What are the weird stories?

Strange. I want to hear the weird stories too!

I don't think it's weird for them to let people ride for free if the kiosks are always out of service, unless you think they have some ulterior motive for doing this.

a reply to: Vigilantastrum

or the bus driver finds some kind of excuse to get me on the bus for free. Im not the only person either every stop the bus makes people pile in for free without using the kiosk or paying the driver.

Could you explain this a bit more? like what does the driver do to get you in free? no one pays the driver once they are on the bus? No cameras on the bus?

Sorry, trigger happy finger so double posted

Not uncommon at all for start-up rapid transit systems to offer free ridership the first month or so of service to gain ridership. This gets people familiar with the routes and encourages people to try the service without a financial obstacle to a trial. Then, when they like it, they're willing to pay for it.

Maybe I'm not understanding the 'weird' part, but if I read it correctly this would be my response (above).

a reply to: bananashooter


First weird story.

My first day riding this i come up to the bus stop around 7 AM, and there is one hispanic guy sitting and waiting.
I asked him in spanish when he thinks the bus will arrive. He replied about 1 or 2 minutes, minutes later the bus came around and he asked me if i had a ticket.

I said no, so he tried showing me how to use the kiosk really quick to no avail. The machine swallowed my money without giving me a ride ticket in return. I told the driver what happened and he said its fine and let me on the bus, a few moments later the driver gets off the bus and messes with kiosk for a second and got it to return the money and he came back on the bus and handed me back my money.

Day one free ride.

a reply to: WarriorMH


The driver will literally take a smoke break at a stop and have a chat with the waiting passengers and then let them all on, free of charge. I seen people hop into the bus through the back exit door and the driver not mind.

And yes tons of cameras all over the bus, even on the kiosk at the stops

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

This bus route cost the same as the rest in the city, and it has been going for about 7 months now. Everyone I know says it the weirdest thing they have seen.

a reply to: Vigilantastrum

Ya the electronic card payment things go down a lot on the busses. Tou can still pay cash but id the card system's down the drivers will still let you on. They also had to change our system to work with them. They couldn't figure out how to track the three zones of the busses with the card system here so they changed it to a flat fare for busses.

I hate the electonic card system. Any errors in the system are rigged so the transit company gets more money out of you, even if it's their fault. You have to pay a $6 deposit just to get a card, if it fails in some way or you lose it, you can get whatever balance you had, if you happen to register.it and have all your movements across the transit system tracked, otherwise your # outta luck. If the card fails to tap properly, but you don't notice because the gate's still open from the person in front of you when you tap out again the system assumes you've travelled the highest fare level it can charge you and does so without any kind of prompt or warning. I've seen it happen to tons of people, its happened to me a bunch and I only notice because suddenly i'll have no money on my card after topping up earlier in the day or something.

Every time i've had a problem with my card, the transit people have basically shrugged their shoulders and told me to buy a new one. Switching to the electronic system was supposed.to reduce the need for transit cops, instead they have more than ever before at the stations. It was supposed.to save money so they could reduce fares. Instead they've been doing nothing but increasing fares and now they're talking about a system that would charge by distance travelled, basically screwing over commuters that tend to travel across the entirety of their system for work everyday whole catering to people who make occasional short trips to events and such.

At that point it'll probably become.cheaper for.me to drive to work..

a reply to: dug88


That is one thing i noticed also, at every bus stop is a special police unit from the city with BRT on the side, whitch im sure stands for Bus Rapid Transit, the bus also has BRT on the side.

I have rode this bus 2 times a day for the past week and have not paid for a single ride, even when the machine took my money the driver gave it back to me.

a reply to: Vigilantastrum

I just hope they havent identified you by facial recognition and decide after a few weeks to charge you with fraud and put you in jail.

If I were you, I'd consider another way to get about. The whole system could be a huge trap to feed the corporate run prison system.

Sounds like reverse gangstalking. Instead of everyone being against you, everything works for you.

a reply to: TonyS

Thats one thing i was starting to consider that it might be some kind of social experiment on a large scale being conducted by the federal government since this new system is being funded by them.

I only found that out last night after researching it for this thread and that answered my question as to how the city can afford to run this new system.

originally posted by: Vigilantastrum
a reply to: bananashooter

...The machine swallowed my money without giving me a ride ticket in return. I told the driver what happened and he said its fine and let me on the bus, ...

that sounds like your answer right there. that particular vehicle has a broken kiosk and the driver knows it, he allows people to ride for free so neither they nor he is forced to fuss with a malfunctioning kiosk.

also, if a passenger is unable to get a ticket because of a malfunction transit is obligated to still give them a ride for free, as its not the passengers fault.

also, if some passengers are riding for free because of such malfunctioning machine it is only fair the other passengers of the same bus would also ride free.


not so strange at all.

unless you've got any actually weird stories?

a reply to: Vigilantastrum

Be careul out there.

a reply to: NobodiesNormal

I understand a free ride without showing a ride card from the kiosk, my fare was paid in full so why get off the bus and give me my money back?

It's not just one kiosk that's constantly acting weird, even the kiosk at the main bus terminal downtown hands out free rides.

a reply to: Vigilantastrum

I don't know what your transit cops are like but here they're accountable to nobody. Also our transit system used to be public so there's special legislation for it that makes transit offenses actual criminal offenses, despite them being a private company now. They won't renew your driver's license and you can be jailed for not paying tranait fines. You give up basic rights when you take transit, they can search you indiscriminately. As far as I know they're the only company here with government backed legislation enforced by an unaccountable, private police force. Actually, I made a rant a while back on here about being searched by them randomly one day.