The mayor has taken a strong interest in enforcing fare collection at the city’s transit stations.
Writing in Curbed, Clio Chang describes the new gates installed by the MTA at one Queens subway station as a pilot project to test their efficacy at preventing fare evasion. The design was recommended in an MTA Blue-Ribbon Panel report released in May.
According to Chang, the new gates, which are “a trial balloon in a wider campaign against fare evasion, a pet obsession of the mayor’s,” are also “significantly wider and easier for bikes, strollers, and wheelchairs to move through.” But “As is the case with all new tech, there are design glitches,” and one gate got stuck open during Chang’s visit to the station.
As Chang points out, fare enforcement comes with a cost. “Instead of all of this complicated and expensive work, perhaps public transportation could just be free?”
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