User:Reify-tech/Draft

All-door boarding
An all-door boarding policy (also called all-doors boarding) is a method of operating a bus or streetcar to maximize efficiency and rider convenience, by allowing the use of multiple doors to board or alight from the vehicle.

Problem
At stations where a fare paid waiting area is possible, riders may freely board the vehicle via any door, as soon as a vehicle arrives. However, in street-running operation, it is often necessary to collect a fare (or otherwise verify that a rider is authorized) at the time of boarding, since there is no street space for a prepaid waiting area. Traditional fare collection requires all riders to queue up at a single front entry to the vehicle, where the driver must individually verify each person entering. On busy systems at peak travel times, this on-board fare collection causes considerable delay at each stop, causing bus bunching and delayed or missed trips. By tying up transit vehicles and staff in unproductive waiting, this effectively reduces the carrying capacity of the transit route by a large factor, especially during rush hours, when extra capacity is most needed.

The long delays at each stop can be further aggravated if the transit operator also implements an "exit-only-at-front" policy, requiring exiting riders to work their way back to the front door to alight in the face of other riders who are trying to enter. This awkward policy is sometimes implemented in an attempt to reduce fare evasion by people trying to sneak in a rear door when it is opened to allow passengers to exit.

Because all entry and exiting of the vehicle is through a single door, passengers tend to "bunch up" at the front, causing severe crowding that slows movement within the vehicle. Crowded passengers at the front may be unaware of standing room at the rear, or even empty seats further back. Especially in long articulated buses or streetcars, this can drastically reduce their effective carrying capacity, while subjecting hapless riders to unnecessary crowding and delays.

Resolution
By contrast, the all-door boarding method relies on a pure or modified proof-of-payment (POP) system of fare collection, supplemented by random checks performed by fare inspectors. Fellow passengers can help discourage fare evaders if there is an electronic fare validation scanner at each entry door. Each person entering scans or taps a valid fare card or pass on the validator, and enters upon hearing a confirming "beep". If the fare card is rejected for any reason, a loud "buzz" or electronic voice recording is heard, advising the rider to go to the front door to work out the problem. As long as there is no ambiguity about whether a person is entitled to enter via the rear door, the "many eyes" of other riders unwilling to tolerate a fare cheater will help enforcement, without requiring extra workers to be hired by the transit operator.

Fare inspectors may still work for the transit operator, but they primarily serve to audit the ridership to confirm that there are no systematic errors or higher-level fraud in the operations. They can be very effective if they ride in plain clothes within sight of the rear entry, and move randomly throughout the system.

Implementation
On July 1, 2012, the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) extended an existing all-door boarding policy from all its light rail streetcar lines to also cover some bus lines when a fare inspector was on duty. This change was implemented partially at the urging of the San Francisco Transit Riders Union, which had been advocating implementing and then extending such a policy. First tried as an experiment, this new policy gained widespread support from riders, as well as the Muni agency. Transit vehicle average speed was improved, allowing Muni to transport more riders with less delays, with the same number of vehicles and staff. The new policy was deemed so successful that Muni became the first US transit operator to allow all-door boarding of all railcars and buses in its entire system, effective in 2014.

Although system-wide adoption of all-door boarding in an American major metropolis is new, it has been implemented in various forms in many locations worldwide; some examples are listed at Proof-of-payment.