From today's Times, published after bus driver Edwin Thomas was stabbed to death by a passenger who refused to pay the fare:
There is one bus route on which drivers do not have to worry aboutfare beaters: the Bx12 Select Bus Route, which runs along PelhamParkway and Fordham Road in the Bronx and West 207th Street in UpperManhattan.
On that route, riders now pay at curbside machinesbefore boarding. The machines give riders receipts that they must show,if asked, to inspectors making random checks on the buses.
Thesystem, which is meant to speed travel by cutting the time it takes forriders to board, frees drivers from having to worry about who has paidand who has not. Drivers on the route say the system greatly lessensthe stress of the job.
