Subway station emergency-exit gates have been dubbed “the superhighway of fare evasion” by MTA CEO Janno Lieber, who hopes that scofflaws will get bored and walk away if they have to wait 15 seconds for the door to open.
In hundreds of other cases, he thinks posting security guards to stand watch inside the gates will discourage fare beaters.
Fare evaders, after COVID wound down, created a fare crisis that cost the MTA an estimated $285 million in lost subway fares, according to a blue ribbon panel the agency commissioned in 2022 to study the matter. Now, nearly three years later, delayed-egress gates have been installed at 80 stations throughout New York’s subways, including 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.
Governor Hochul announced on April 28 that the MTA will expand the delayed-egress gate to 150 stations by the end of this year, including Manhattan’s 34th Street-Penn Station and Canal Street stations.
Apparently fare evaders have a short attention span and walk away when the gate does not open right away. The MTA credited station gates with delayed egress for a 10 percent drop in total fare evasion at the stations in the pilot program.
“We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal—including increased enforcement efforts and new infrastructure—to prevent fare evasion, hold perpetrators accountable, and keep these numbers trending in the right direction,” Hochul said,
The process of delayed egress on our NYC subway system is simple: a 15-second delay occurs after the bar is pushed to open the emergency gate.
The technology, almost 45 years old, is used by retail establishments, hospital and healthcare facilities, assisted-living locations, warehouses, and transportation facilities, notably airports, to deter anyone trying to make a hasty retreat. Should power to the system be lost for any reason, the lock will release immediately, allowing for egress without delay in an emergency.
Additionally, 200 of the 400 subway stations without the delayed-egress gates will be assigned security guards. At stations with security guards there has been a 36 percent reduction in fare evasion. The MTA expects to spend more than $35 million through the end of the year on increasing the number of unarmed security guards to 1,000.
This reporter has observed people jumping over turnstiles while the guards are against the gates—they are not empowered to do anything other than protect ingress and egress at the emergency gates. Another shortfall occurs when guards are not present; on a recent subway trip, Straus News Manhattan observed eight people of all socioeconomic backgrounds strolling through an unattended open gate at the West 72nd Street station for the 1, 2, and 3 lines.
All delayed-egress devices must comply with fire-safety codes to ensure safety during emergencies, the MTA said. That includes an immediate manual override to allow instant egress in case of an emergency, such as a fire or a shooting.
Not everyone is a fan. Disabled New Yorkers feel that the 15-second delay, where one needs to push the exit bar and wait 15 seconds as an alarm sounds, is too long. In a recent NY Post article, disability advocate Dustin Jones, a wheelchair user, was not happy about the new technology. “In an emergency, every second counts,” Jones told The Post.
“When you’re in a state of panic and need to get out of a place fast, that 15-second [delay] is a long time,” said Sharon McLennon-Wier, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York.