San Francisco Solved Metro Vandalism with One Neat Trick

mmcclure 24 points 5 comments April 21, 2026
www.theatlantic.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (4 comments)

mitchbob

https://archive.ph/wXRzR

rmason

This is worth the read whether you have a subscription or not: https://archive.is/wXRzR Turns out the people who jump the turnstiles of subways are way more likely to commit violence or vandalism than paying riders. For years the Left said fare enforcement efforts were a waste of money, turns out they were wrong.

Andaith

This article made me think of public bathrooms in the UK, which, despite having to pay to enter, are some of the most disgusting public bathrooms I've seen. I like the idea of the throne public bathrooms. Not requiring payment, but identification instead. I wonder if you just enter your phone number, or if they text you a code you have to enter to verify that it's your phone number? This also feels like the sort of problem the Chinese social credit system is meant to solve. With cameras everywhere & facial/gait recognition, they can identify people anywhere in public, and punish bad behaviour below the level of crime. I also remember the UK years had a psychologist change the wording/structure of some tax forms to increase % of on time payments, and it worked so well they set up a department to do it in other areas of govt. I wonder what happened with that... Anyway, it's an interesting problem space.

camkego

I don't claim to understand the factors which cause this, but a lack of security and exposed valuables at unlocked-doors, pre-opening mall in Shenzhen China without issues at 8am in the morning is very curious. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TZMXdR5fDrw It seems pretty foreign to me, a PNW US citizen.

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