The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) rolled out a new pilot in North Hollywood, requiring Metro riders tap their transit cards as they exit the subway station.
Currently transit users have to tap their cards only once when they enter stations across LA County.
But the new program launched Tuesday at the North Hollywood B Line station mandates Metro riders to tap their cards before getting on a train as well as tap their cards on their way out of the station.
The LA Metro said the new pilot would test out whether requiring people to tap out would help confirm that “valid fare is paid.”
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“If you tapped your card, and fare was deducted when you started your trip, tapping out will confirm fare was paid and open the fare gates,” the transit agency said in a statement.
Users who do not tap in before their trip are violating the Code of Conduct set by the LA Metro system, the agency said, and violators could be “warned, cited, or removed from a train or station.”
More security officers and ambassadors would be present at the North Hollywood B Line station to enforce the new program as well as to assist riders, the LA Metro said.
At other public transit systems, including Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the feature to require people to tap their cards to exit has been a norm for many years.
Fare enforcement may appear to be less urgent compared to violent and sometimes deadly assaults on Metro buses and trains in the recent month, but a former security director for the LA Metro said enforcing even less serious violations keeps order.
“[Riders] are not playing loud music. They are paying the fare. They are not littering but are conducting themselves pursuant to the code of conduct on the website,” Gina Osborn said.
The LA Metro had also launched another pilot at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station in February, aimed at improving public safety and reducing drug use and crime.
