The newest member of New York's bus fleet, the M15 Select Bus Service, which is a conceptually faster express bus running on Second Ave, has many passengers confused. The system requires passengers to purchase tickets before getting on the bus, but some are still acclimating themselves to the system.
For some, failure to understand the process is being met with harsher punishments than expected.
Yvette Stokes, of East Harlem, told the The New York Post she was trying to give an MTA officer her ticket but accidentally gave an older one, and immediately got a $100 summons. When she brandished the correct ticket, it was too late -- the officer wouldn't listen. The Post reports:
"The officer was very agitated with this and started shouting at me," Stokes, still shaken, recalled. "The very next thing he said was that I couldn't hold up the bus -- and then he ordered me off the bus."
Across town, Daryn Mayer boarded the M15 in the back of the bus, and went to the front to pay with her MetroCard, not knowing the special ticketing procedure of the M15. But the driver said it was ok if Mayer rode this time for free. The doors closed, and she sat down.
However at the next stop an MTA officer asked Mayer for her ticket, and when she tried to explain her circumstance, the officer still gave her a $100 ticket.
"The doors were closed, and I had no other option--how could I get off?" Mayer asked the Post.