Also necessary in NYC which I don’t really feel is low-trust in general.
Interesting comparison: https://jacknicastro.substack.com/p/vienna-and-new-york-high...
Because the monthly pass rate is so low, most people have purchased the pass on their phone and that must be shown a couple of times a year or else you’ll be charged a fine at the checkpoint. I’m actually surprised that the evasion stats are so low, since the fine isn’t terribly large and you might come out ahead just never paying the fare and only paying fines.
I have to say though, that system of spot checks makes the day to day very low friction.
In Austria, people are required to deposit money to borrow a grocery cart while shopping for food. Not so anywhere I've been in the US -- ergo Austria is low-trust and US is high-trust? I think not.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/2004272-euro-coin...
Here's a rule of thumb I use to judge if a community is high trust or not. If I leave my bicycle unlocked and it gets stolen, will others be surprised or will they call me a moron for trusting other people? Obviously NYC is low trust, I would be mocked mercilessly if my unlocked bike got stolen there.
The US is relatively high trust in this space. And I don't know of many countries that will pass the bike test. Certainly, nowhere in Europe would.
Maybe we could try a different test - how afraid is the society of itself. Count how often you see cops, how well-armed they are, etc...
It's so trivial and yet it shows how much the society cares about its own systems functioning properly or not.
It only takes one asshole out of thousands to steal a bike, and every society has at least one asshole.
Also high trust != absolutely no crime ever
It's the difference between getting your bike stolen because of a random asshole and knowing your bike will be stolen by someone (also arguably an asshole).
Literally any city with good fare compliance. If it's got enough people in it to have a transit network, it's got enough bike thieves in it to steal your bike.
> It's the difference between getting your bike stolen because of a random asshole and knowing your bike will be stolen by someone (also arguably an asshole).
That's just a product of population density. If you live in the middle of nowhere, with 5 people total in a 15-mile radius, it's highly unlikely someone's going to steal your bike.
If you leave your bike on Main Street, where thousands of people walk by every hour, all it takes is one in a thousand.
> It's not an anti-theft measure, just a little thing to encourage honest people to walk slightly further than normal.
... because they can't be trusted to do it without the deposit...
Come on, you can't be serious. Police and code enforcement officers aren't going to stop random dog walkers on the street to demand DNA test results. Real Americans don't tolerate that kind of government overreach, and the authorities already didn't even have time to investigate actual crimes.
I didn't say they are going to, and you didn't say they wouldn't. You said they couldn't (because people "would just ignore it") and I said they absolutely could. Which is true.
Re "Real Americans", get a grip.