Beginning on Sept. 3, the pilot program consists of riders tapping their Metro cards upon exiting the Downtown Santa Monica station turnstiles, the end of the line for the Expo train. Tapping out confirms of paid fare, rather than staff manually checking cards or phone applications individually.
Once implementing the pilot program in North Hollywood, Metro saw a massive 40% decrease in incidents on its Transit Watch app (including fights and drug use) during the initial period on the B Line. With a few weeks of results, decreases have been even greater on the Expo.
On Sept. 20, Metro reported to the Daily Press that in its first week of TAP-to-Exit enforcement, reported incidents involving harassment, physical fights, drug use and vandalism dropped around 45% on the entire Expo line. The program, the organization states, has benefits from Downtown Santa Monica all the way to Atlantic Station in East Los Angeles…