In Besançon, Keolis trial a “fraudometre” in buses

Some French towns have made their buses free, but not in Besançon. From West Observer:

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In Besançon, a “fraudometer” in buses to encourage users to validate their ticket
May 14, 20220

Fraud is a real problem for public transport operators, especially on buses where checks are less frequent. A practice which, despite increasingly severe fines, does not weaken. In Besançon in the Doubs, the Kéolis company has decided to bet on a “fraudometer” to change behavior.

How it works ? At each stop, the number of people who have validated their ticket is displayed on a screen using sensors equipped with cameras. Depending on the level of validation, a message is then displayed to “congratulate”, “encourage” or “alert” the travelers on board. A real-time display of those who have forgotten their ticket. An initiative to limit fraud which divides users.

There are those who approve of the method like Karine: “Me, I’m a student, I always validate my card, but it’s true that for the company it’s better, it avoids fraud”. But there are also those who are not in favor of it, like Patrice: “It’s awful, it’s “Big Brother”. Soon it will be like in China, there will be portraits of bad citizens who do not validate.

This tool is based on technology combined with behavioral sciences and “nudge” or “nudge” in French, a name that covers all the techniques aimed at encouraging individuals to change their behavior without forcing them.

In addition to this incentive dimension, the “fraudometer” allows the operator to identify the stops on the network where fraud is the greatest, in real time. Fraud in transport which reached almost 12% in Besançon. A figure that weighs on the budget of cities in an already tense economic context. “On the Ginko network, at each point of fraud, the community loses 100,000 euros in revenue, so it’s not nothing”, says Carol Ambrosini, Keolis Marketing Director. It is therefore more than a million euros of loss of earnings for the city of Besançon each year. A fraud which, in a city like Marseille, can climb up to 20%.

here's some pictures of the displays they use:

You'd imagine that the ones with an array of glyphs somehow represent the seats in the bus, but I don't think they do. At least, not now, as it just counts the number of passengers off and on and compares that with the number of validations.