In Copenhagen, Denmark the penalty is between 500 and 750 DKK ($82 - $123) -- while you can use the same ticket on all types of public transportation, the light rail and real rail are run by different companies and charge slightly different penalties.
A basic ticket is 13.50 (if you buy 10 in advance which can then be activated at any time, as is most common) to 23.00 DKK (if you buy a single one in a machine or via a text message); it lets you travel for an hour and change as much as you wish. If you travel every day between home and work you'll usually buy a flat-rate subscription.
(The prices get higher if you travel through multiple fare zones -- there are almost 100 different zones that cover Zealand and its 2 million inhabitants; it can be a somewhat confusing system sometimes resulting in travel from A to B not costing the same as travel from B to A; if you didn't buy enough fare zones you're also liable for that 750 DKK penalty above)
Bus travel require you to show a ticket at the entrance, so there's rarely secondary control, but the light rail system you have to buy or stamp a ticket yourself I guess has perhaps a 15% chance of being checked. I'd estimate at least 98% people have valid tickets on the lines I use.
Do people bother buying tickets? It seems like with those sort of fines it would be cheaper to simply pay the fine the few times you get caught. Unless of course Seattle have some very active ticket checks.
My ticket gets checked less then monthly and I commute to work daily. The monthly ticket costs at least 50€, the penalty is 40€. From a mathematical point of view, it makes no sense to buy a ticket.
There are a couple of caveats. When I don't have a ticket, e.g. because I forgot my wallet, I'm on a constant lookout and the train ride becomes really stressful. If you get caught several times they might press charges against you, so it is not feasible to go without ticket on a regular basis anyway. And last but not least, I'm using a service, so I pay for it.
> There are a couple of caveats. When I don't have a ticket, e.g. because I forgot my wallet, I'm on a constant lookout and the train ride becomes really stressful. If you get caught several times they might press charges against you, so it is not feasible to go without ticket on a regular basis anyway. And last but not least, I'm using a service, so I pay for it.
I used to ride without a ticket a lot when I was in school. You are right about the stress. (On the other hand, riding with a ticket afterwards is much more boring.)
Similar with my uni car parking, the fine would only be like 5 times maybe, the problem is that they end up targeting you if you always park without a permit so while it would be cheaper if you got caught a normal amount of times you end up getting caught a heap of times in a row.
