lmao.....
Robertson rides one zone too far
Ticketed candidate says $173 fine is unfair to low-income earners
Christina Montgomery, The Province
Published: Sunday, November 02, 2008
Vancouver mayoral hopeful Gregor Robertson says he has yet to pay a $173 fine for accidentally riding two SkyTrain zones on a one-zone fare because he wants to draw attention to what he calls unreasonably high fines.
The Vision Vancouver candidate was a Vancouver NDP MLA in June of 2007 when he was returning from a meeting in Burnaby a SkyTrain stop or two from Vancouver, he says.
Robertson, known as an avid cyclist, says that when he rides SkyTrain, it's normally in Vancouver's one-fare zone. After the meeting, hopping on SkyTrain for the first time in about six months, he automatically bought a single-zone ticket, he says.
Adult weekday fares at the time were $2.25 per single zone and $3.25 for two zones.
Robertson says that transit police checked tickets as the train pulled out of Burnaby into Vancouver and told him his ticket was inadequate.
Being in a fare-paid zone without a valid fare is a provincial offence.
Robertson says he told the officers it was "a dumb mistake" and paid an extra dollar immediately at a ticketing machine to upgrade his fare for two zones, but was surprised to see the ticket issued for the violation carried a $173 fine.
He told The Province yesterday that he has intended to use his hearing, scheduled for Dec. 4 in Vancouver, to draw attention to what he considers transit fines that are disproportionate to offences.
Noting that the fine is "173 times the mistake I made," he said his concern was for low-income riders for whom the fine would be costly -- particularly for those who had simply made a mistake while buying a ticket.
"I wanted to raise the issue of how big a fine it is for a one-dollar mistake," he said. "I bought a ticket and made a fare mistake . . . but the fine should be fair."
NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner told The Province yesterday that he has no outstanding fines of any kind.
Of TransLink's 173 million trips in 2007, 71 million were on SkyTrain. TransLink's overall fare revenue was $317 million.
TransLink estimates that fare evasion on SkyTrain is about 5.4 per cent. The 4.2 million unpaid rides across the whole system -- including SkyTrain and SeaBus -- cost the agency between $5.3 million and $9.5 million, TransLink says.
The likelihood of being ticketed is one per cent. In 2006, 30,000 tickets -- 82 per day -- were issued. Eight per cent of that ticket total, or 2,400, were paid.
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So does this mean if he is elected mayor I don't have to pay Property Taxes because they are unfair for low income earners? Honestly I was going to vote Vision, but I am not anymore. Not saying I will vote NPA, but I will not vote for him. Attitude reflects leadership. If your leaders are not willing to follow the rule of law, your citizens will not either.
What's next if he gets a speeding ticket he won't pay because he was only going a little over the limit? As a politician if he doesn't like the rules he should work at changing them not breaking them. The fact that he made a mistake wouldn't have changed my vote, but the fact he isn't owning up to his error has made me change my vote to Ladner now.
In other news, a senior had his wheelchair a bit too close to the tracks at Metrotown Station yesterday. He fell onto the tracks, was hit by a train, and amazingly survived with only abrasions, cuts, and a broken leg. If you ask me, the wheelchair that also fell on the track saved him.
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