BART said fare evasion is on the decline at its 50 stations, and a new viral video appears to show one reason why. A viral video circulating on social media shows a woman stuck under BART’s new fare gates, presumably caught while trying to slip through without paying. “People do some of th e craziest things at BART. It was really not a smart thing to do they try to crawl under a fare gate,” Former BART Director Debora Allen said. Former BART Director Debora Allen helped spearhead the project. She says the 6-foot gates framed with aluminum were carefully designed to deter fare evaders and she says she’s delighted to see them working. “I think it’s great. I think it’s the best thing we’ve done at BART in many, probably decades. When place 1970 era would I call pong era fair gates, replacing them with new technology,” Allen said. “We’re really happy that we’re seeing the results of this $90 million project that’s going to be paid off potentially in 10 years or less,” current BART Director Liz Ames said. Ames says as fare evasion has plummeted BART revenue has gone up. She says revenue has grown by $10 million annually thanks to the new fare gates. She says BART is also saving money on maintenance and cleaning. Less fare evaders have meant less litter and graffiti, and she says, less crime. “Overall crime is dropping and we think we can that can be attributed to the fair gates in some sense,” Ames said. While the gates have helped, they aren’t full proof. NBC Bay Area saw a woman trying to slip through when another passenger opened the gate. While she didn’t succeed the first time, we witnessed her piggybacking her way in when our cameras weren’t rolling. “I would say it happens less, but it still happens,” Ames said. But the video shows the risk riders take if they try to avoid the fee. “I hope she wasn’t hurt and I hope she received a nice ticket to pay for fare evasion,” Allen said. ...read more read less