MTA receives approval to time delay emergency exits to fight fare evasion
NEW YORK CITY - New York City Transit President Richard Davey announced at the MTA's Committee meeting Monday, that the agency will start a pilot program at three stations.
It’s what the MTA calls the "super-highway of fare evasion" and we have all seen it.
Once somebody opens the emergency gate, a flood of fare evaders rushes through like a tsunami.
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As the MTA plays triage to its loss of hundreds of millions of dollars each year to fare evasion, it has come up with an idea to cut the flow by putting a delay timer on emergency exits.
What exactly is the program about?
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Once a rider pushes the handle for the emergency exit, it will take 15 seconds before it opens. The pilot program is being installed at the 138th St. station of the 6 train, at the Flushing Avenue station along the J/M/Z lines, and at the 59th St. and Lexington Avenue subway stations.
Last year, Davey himself was there to observe, as NYCT conducted a short experiment to see if putting a time delay on the emergency door could help, and it did.
"They kind of said whatever they said, and they walked around and went out the turnstile. So that’s the goal, to frustrate folks who you know might want to be using that as a matter of convenience, where you have a perfectly good turnstile next to it," Davey said.
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While the MTA has had the idea for some time, agency officials say it wanted approval from safety agencies before moving forward.
The MTA said they had received those waivers on Monday.