Mutuelles des Fraudeurs: Paris Fare-Dodger Insurance

Parisian commuters who'd rather not pay for Metro tickets have struck upon a brilliant solution for those (rare) times when they get stopped and slapped with a fine. For six euros a month, you can be part of a transit-fine insurance collective. If you get busted, you can make a claim, and the collective will pay you the amount of the fine. So, if you get stopped more often than every seven months, 

The LA Times blog has an article about this, complete with modern-day intellectual revolutionaries who may or may not be motivated solely by not wanting to pay for metro tickets.

"There are things in France which are supposed to be free — schools, health. So why not transportation?" he said. "It's not a question of money.... It's a political question."

Personally, I like their style. I wonder, on average, how long one can get away with daily Metro commutes before one is busted. Those gates stay open for ages, and the attendants just don't seem to care that much when you sneak through. Having said that, it's been years since I've been to Paris, so things may have changed.

Also, how much money is invested simply in the management of fares? In other words, the London Underground would be far, far less expensive if it did away with zones and the needlessly-complicated machinery needed to enforce commuters' use of physically-identical tickets to cross arbitrary and imaginary boundaries. 

Yes, I'm working the Tube into this, because its development has continued down the fork in the road marked "stupid" for a very long time. People are less inclined to cheat if they don't feel like they're getting ripped off when they play by the rules, especially when the on-the-spot fine is so relatively low.