(Washington, DC) — Metro may track some teen riders through special passes to curb youth violence and save money for the transit system. Metro Board member Tommy Wells says the passes would identify students by name and school. He says right now students use magnetic strip cards that give them unlimited service, but with a smart card, kids can be electronically tracked and the system could ban them temporarily for bad behavior. In addition, students could be prevented from using their subsidized bus and rail passes at night and on weekends. The transit authority plans to launch a pilot program with about 15-hundred public school students, but the program could later expand to cover all students with a transit subsidy card. Metro Transit Police say youths accounted for more than a quarter of the system’s two-thousand arrests in 2010.
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