What Are You Going To Do, Make Me Pay?

If you conveniently forget what your mama taught you about taking something for nothing, it’s easy enough to ride a bus for free:

For commuters outraged over never-ending fare hikes and double digit tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, a little known Metropolitan Transportation Authority rule — and the compassion of many bus drivers — lets you hop on any city bus and ride for free.

All it costs is your dignity.

The process is simple: Hop on a bus and try one of the following:

1. Tell the driver you forgot your wallet.

2. Tell the driver you have no change.

3. Just ignore the driver and sit down.

We tried the first two and saw the third happen often enough. It worked like a charm nearly every time.

If you’re worried that the other passengers will shoot a disapproving glance your way, don’t.

On almost every occasion, fellow commuters were too busy with their papers, iPods or just staring out the window to care.

And then there’s the old school uniform tactic:

A New Dorp teen and her mother have recently sued New York City Transit and bus driver Richard Benjamin for more than $22.1 million. They allege the burly Benjamin hit the girl with a metal garbage can on the street last year after they argued over her failure to produce a MetroCard moments earlier when she boarded an S78 bus.

The lawsuit, filed by Lisa Marie Thompson and her mother, Annette Nash, in state Supreme Court, St. George, seeks $20 million in punitive damages and more than $2.15 million in compensatory damages from Benjamin and Transit.

Miss Thompson alleges “serious, multiple and permanent” injuries to her hand and emotional and psychological harm.

A Transit spokesman declined comment on the suit; however, the agency previously contended the teen was the aggressor.

Miss Thompson, then 14, got on the bus on Hylan Boulevard at Ebbitts Street around 8:10 a.m. on June 5, according to an interview she gave the Advance later that day for an article on the incident. The freshman at St. John Villa Academy in Arrochar was headed to school.

Miss Thompson said she was wearing her school uniform — a white short-sleeve shirt with Villa’s initials and a tan skirt — and advised the driver she’d forgotten her MetroCard. She told the Advance that other operators had previously let her ride the bus “at least five or six” times without a MetroCard, and she walked toward some friends seated in the back.

Miss Thompson said school officials had told students that city bus drivers could not refuse them a ride on school days provided they wear their uniforms.