nytraveler

Walkinaround -

I hope you never park your car in the wrong place in NYC. If it's towed for being in a street cleaning area it will take you the whole day and cost more than $1000 to get it back (yes, a thousand $). No excuses.

indy_dad

I can certainly sympathize with the new country, foreign language and family herding causing you to miss something you might not have otherwise. [been there]. Thanks for sharing your [painful] experience for others.

What's obvious to others isn't always in those circumstances.

clausar

@ Adrienne
I have been to many german cities, and they all had the same system... you buy a ticket, which you have to stamp before you enter the metro ( there are no validation machines inside the metro wagons) or if you take a bus, you have to stamp your ticket when you enter the bus......

P_M

The same happened to me in Athens many years ago. I didn't know to stamp the tickets on the bus so my Mom and I both got citations. Thankfully this lesson only cost us around $8 each, but I'm sure it's a lot more expensive now.

Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to Prague in a couple of months and I do appreciate this reminder.

walkinaround

nyt... you don't need to try to shock me with how expensive or 'crazy' new york city is. i've lived there as well as many major cities of the world. i know how these things work.

padraig...i did not say that people shouldn't obey the rules. i simply noted the fact that it's a common problem for tourists to feel bullied and intimidated by eastern european ticket inspectors who are often not even wearing uniforms. the problems with this are not down to individual 'bad apples' but rather it is systematic. this makes tourists feel unsafe and is generally bad for tourism because, if the experience is bad enough, it spoils the whole perception of the nation as a tourist destination. other nations like france, germany, denmark, etc also have transport staff enforcing ticketing and while you could have a problem with a rude official, it's nowhere near as pervasive and the level of general professionalism is much higher. i've never had a problem like this in prague but i've spent a lot of time there on business and i've seen the tactics of these goons many times.

Padraig

I'll repeat what I said before: I don't see why inspectors should be referred to as goons.

nytraveler

I wonder how the parking ticket staff in NYC would like being called "goons"? And I'm sure a lot of people feel they shouldn't have to pay tickets - because they haven't bothered to read the street signs in both directions.

In St Pet we were stopped every time we took a bus (as obvious foreigners) and while the agents were certainly not pleasant - they were never abusive - just very matter of fact. And they stopped other people on the buses too - every once in a while finding one they hustled off the bus.

This is just the way public transit works. And reviling those charged with enforcement is not only silly - it;s counterproductive.

greg

And here is a 1994 Oscar winning short with a fare inspector (with a pun if you understand German.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFQXcv1k9OM

logos999

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjJPyTk-rSU

Amboss, der Kontrollator.

panecott

I was stopped by a female inspector while exiting the subway in Budapest. It was rush hour and there were hundreds of people but she singled me out - an obvious foreigner, I guess.

I had validated my ticket but on the wrong end of the ticket -an honest mistake. She grabbed my arm and yelled at me and was really nasty. I didn't get a fine, however, but it was a real turnoff.

walkinaround

nyt...for someone who is constantly complaining about how stupid everyone in the world is, you really have a hard time comprehending a very simple argument and responding logically to that argument.

I said that employing intimidation tactics of enforcement is short cited and bad for tourism. why don't you respond to that point instead of talking about whether people should or shouldn't pay tickets. this is illogical. i'm not sure if you agree or disagree with my point because you are just responding to a completely different line of argument. i'm not even sure that you are responding to me.

it's very difficult to have intelligent debates here when people lack the basic skills to comprehend a point and to respond to it properly.

easytraveler

ronnie56: thanks for a timely reminder, now that peak tourist season has arrived.

One way to avoid this is to buy a pass - these are sold for one day, two days, three days, one week, and even a month. You may or may not still have to stick the pass into the yellow/orange stamping machine, usually not, because the date of purchase is on the pass.

It's also a time saver as one doesn't have to constantly fish for small coins to purchase single tickets.

Not only do countries differ on how and when and why you stamp/not your ticket, but it differs for different cities in the same country, so it's always good to remind yourself to check if you've done the right thing before boarding a tram/metro/bus/train.

It's also good to keep the ticket (if the machine hasn't eaten it up on your way in)until you exit. Even in the States, customs are different. In NY, one does not need the ticket to exit, in Washington DC, one does.

kappa1

> You may or may not still have to stick the pass into the yellow/orange stamping machine, usually not, because the date of purchase is on the pass.

You need only do it only the first time, in Prague. I would even say you must NOT from the 2nd ride because if you do, the new date/time will be printed over the old one and ît would become illesible.

It's not the date of the purchase that is on the pass. It's the date of the validation with the machine. But as easytraveler said, a pass can be quite useful and not expensive when you come from e.g. Western Europe. I use both pass (often 72-hours for my typically 4-day stay) and single tickets.

unclegus

the 24hr pass is probably the best way to go in Prague ,they now cost 110kc (were 100) and you stamp them only once,there is an arrowed area on the ticket to show you what bit to stap.
At the entrance to the metro are ,just before the stairs or escalators there are yellow validation machines,use this to stamp your ticket.
on buses and trams the same yellow machines are on them and are fairly obvious.
The 24 hours ticket are valid from the time they are stamped,i usually buy a few of these when i am in the city and stamp them as and when required,like kappa i sometime buy sigle tickets just as top ups to save me validate a 24 hour pass late in the evening or early morning if i am going to be away from the city most of the day (as is often the case for me)
the 24 hour tickets are also valis on late night trams and buses.

kenav

We were in Krakow and you had to get your ticket stamped on the bus itself. We did.

All of a sudden this ordinary looking man who was sitting down opened up his shirt and took out his official badge. He went over to a woman and they had a heated conversation in Polish. He escorted her off the bus. The heated conversation continued off the bus. She didn't have a validated ticket. Or any ticket I think.

So the "stamp guards" on Krakow buses go incognito and just wait for anyone who doesn't validate their ticket.

--

Many years ago I didn't know you had to hang on to your ticket in the Paris metro. My niece and I validated our ticket but then I just threw it away. The Paris metro validation police - or whoever they are - were walking up and down the cars and when they got to us they asked for our tickets. I couldn't find mine, obviously. The fined me $30 US. That was a lot of money for me in 1987. I pleaded with them that I didn't know and I was a tourist and they basically just stuck up their noses, twisted their lips and stared down at me.

I kept thinking that if this was the case in NYC (where I'm from) - the police would have let you go with just a warning.

easytraveler

kenav: that's a bummer.

One more thing to mention about the day pass - not all day passes are made alike. Some end at midnight, some are genuine 24-hours. Say, you buy a day pass at 8pm, it could end at midnight or it could end at 8pm the next day. Before the purchase, one has to make certain of the expiration time.

Padraig

The core message emanating from this discussion is that when you visit any place, you should take pains to find out the rules that govern the use of public transport, and you should comply with them.

You have no right to complain if the rules differ from those in your home place, or from other cities that you have visited. Just as you have no right to complain if people do not speak English.

Cowboy1968

I think that both sides have a good point.
Being a foreigner in another country does not excuse you from following the local regulations.
Being a ticket inspector or traffic cop does not excuse you from showing professional and polite manners.

I'm not sure that many tourists spend thousands of € or $ to go to foreign places with the intend to try to save pennies by dodging the fares by not validating the ticket. Especially not in Eastern Europe where a day pass for public transport often costs less than a cheeseburger.

Given the millions of locals that take public transport in the major cities on a daily basis, the revenue from foreigners should be negligable.

So the city of Prague made appr. $40 pP from OP for not validating the tickets. Which is all legal and correct, and you have no right to complain.
But, on the other hand, you or any person reading OP's story has all the right to change his or her European itinerary if they feel that Czech hospitality is somewhat lacking.
So the city of Prague may lose several hundreds to thousands euros or dollars. From a business perspective that's not a smart move.

clausar

@ Cowboy
That's a nice idea.... it would mean that us Europeans , when we visit New York, won't have to pay for the subway, or when we use the local busses.....
I like it.....

Cowboy1968

I don't advocate to ride public transport for free and then play "stupid tourist".
Many, hopefully most, tourists buy their tickets and validate them when the latter is necessary. That should be the norm.

If not, and if common sense tells you that it is somewhat obvious that a family does not travel 5K miles to Prague to pull this stunt, reasonable action would be
A) to inform the tourist how things are done properly, and
B) let him validate the tickets in the tram or next metro stop.

I ride the suburban train towards Munich airport twice a day to/from the job. Pretty regularly, ticket inspectors find people from overseas who did not know to stamp their tickets. The only response I have witnessed so far to this unbelievable crime had been that the inspectors make a mark with a ball pen on the ticket so it could not be used again.

The only (almost) negative experience I witnessed was on a small local train south of Munich, where you also had to validate the ticket before boarding and could not - other than in long-distance trains - obtain a ticket from the conductor. When the ticket inspector wanted to charge the obviously clueless tourist with the €60 fine, the local countryfolk ganged up and caused a major commotion.
It became quite comical when a really impressive (i.e. very wide upper body if you get the point) Bavarian lady, more the looks of a farmer's wife than a lady, in local costume threatened the inspector to tell his mother (!) how ill-bred his behaviour was. Needless to say that the inspector let go after this.