A year ago, Münster City Council decided that fare dodging would no longer be prosecuted as a criminal offence, but only penalised with a penalty fare. The opposition's fears that this would lead to more fare dodging have not materialised: people who bought a ticket before continue to do so. People who could not afford a ticket are no longer criminalised.
Every year, tens of thousands of people in Germany are convicted of fare dodging. According to estimates by criminologist Nicole Bögelein (University of Cologne), 8,000 to 9,000 of them end up in prison – usually because they cannot pay their fines. The resulting costs of imprisonment burden the state with around €1.6 million a year.
Current practice mainly affects people on low incomes or with no income at all, who are thus completely cut off from mobility. Anyone who cannot afford a ticket is criminalised and caught in a downward spiral of sanctions and exclusion.
Mobility is a fundamental right. We need socially fair solutions – for example, an affordable or free concessionary ticket for everyone who depends on public transport. Münster has taken the first step; now the federal government must follow suit.
