Yesterday I saw something rather disturbing. On a leisure stroll down to Whole Foods, I took the BxM3 to the city, made a stop at a café for an espresso, and then made my way over to 15SBS from 23rd street and 2nd. After 14th street, a large crowd got off and a very seedy looking man moved towards the back of the bus where a number of passengers immediately got up from their seats and moved to another area. He looked rather unkept. He took a seat and began to eat something, scratching along the way. I moved from where I was standing too, as I was getting off at Allen Street anyway and generally don't sit on the local buses since I am only on them for very short distances. The sight made me think of something though. SBS allows you to get on through any door and there aren't many checkers. A route like the M15 is somewhat long which means homeless people can get on with ease. They won't be able to stay on forever, but they can simply get off and get on again. In fact I took the M15SBS twice to and from Whole Foods, and then got the M34SBS to 3rd and 34th to get the BxM1 back home.
There were no checkers on any of those trips.