  here's my thinking on the transit payment situation, there is not proper regulation so f**k it. that philosophy came to bite me in the bum bum the other day.
i was heading down the escalators at burrard station and got busted without a transfer. when asked what my excuse was i replied, "oh...well...i don't really have a good one ready for you. " followed by an embarrassed half smile. i just hate the thought of paying for a ticket when 99% of the time you will not need one.
they (they being the transit governing body...translink? ) need to implement a better system to regulate payment because i am sure that i am not alone out there when it comes to skipping payment. in sydney you have to enter your card into a gate machine thing before you can ride the train, like how we do on the buses here. now that is good because you can't really get away with not paying, therefore you don't think twice about purchasing a ticket. 
