For the most part, all buses and metros in Switzerland (or at least the ones that I've been on) are based on the honor system. You buy your ticket from an automated machine before you board (or already have a weekly, monthly, etc. prepaid pass) and then hop on without showing it to anyone. This is very different from the strict pay-in-advance policies of the subway in New York City, BART / the buses in San Francisco, and pretty much every other public transportation system in the U.S. that I've ever used.
During my first couple of rides, I actually felt kind of weird after getting on...almost as though I felt compelled to show someone...anyone...my ticket just to prove that I had, in fact, paid my fair share. For whatever reason, I felt that I had to be one of the few poor saps actually buying a ticket while many of the others boarding alongside me were quite literally getting a free ride. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I learned what drives the high level of voluntary compliance (beyond greater mankind's staunch moral character, of course): Fines and public humiliation
It turns out that if you're ever caught riding sans billet, you get a CHF 80 fine (about $75) and become a public spectacle in which the undercover transportation official submits you to a humiliating public interrogation / scolding. And make no mistake about it...the "dog ate my homework" (err...ticket) excuse earns you no sympathy points. Either you have the ticket on your person or you don't. No excuses.
And thus the mystery of how the Swiss make money on their honor system-based public transportation network was solved. For those who are gamblers out there, the break even for riding for free but getting caught once is about 40 "successes". Feel free to roll the dice during your visit, but beware...
During my first couple of rides, I actually felt kind of weird after getting on...almost as though I felt compelled to show someone...anyone...my ticket just to prove that I had, in fact, paid my fair share. For whatever reason, I felt that I had to be one of the few poor saps actually buying a ticket while many of the others boarding alongside me were quite literally getting a free ride. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I learned what drives the high level of voluntary compliance (beyond greater mankind's staunch moral character, of course): Fines and public humiliation
It turns out that if you're ever caught riding sans billet, you get a CHF 80 fine (about $75) and become a public spectacle in which the undercover transportation official submits you to a humiliating public interrogation / scolding. And make no mistake about it...the "dog ate my homework" (err...ticket) excuse earns you no sympathy points. Either you have the ticket on your person or you don't. No excuses.
And thus the mystery of how the Swiss make money on their honor system-based public transportation network was solved. For those who are gamblers out there, the break even for riding for free but getting caught once is about 40 "successes". Feel free to roll the dice during your visit, but beware...
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