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Fare beaters are laughing at the MTA — again.
They’re thumbing their noses and planting a “kick me” sign as they easily bypass turnstiles affixed with thingamajigs intended to prevent such antisocial behavior.
Meanwhile, the agency continues to throw millions of taxpayer dollars on useless contraptions that don’t work.
This week, the MTA signed off on a deal with Boyce Technologies to add more fare evasion “sleeves” and those high vertical “fins” at the subway entrances. By January, 456 of the city’s 472 subway stations will be outfitted with these useless hunks of plastic and metal.
Right now, they’re in 327 stations, and it will cost an additional $7.3 million to finish the job. And when I say job, I mean charade.
The illusion that the MTA is doing anything meaningful to stop brazen fare beaters.
Because, as The Post observed this week, these apparatuses simply don’t work. At all.
Too bad the MTA scrapped a planned $1 million study to understand the psychology behind fare evasion. Now we’ll never know.
But musician Kevin Lightfoot told The Post this week after paying his fare, “Homies are coming through the whole night.”
Not that I need Mr. Lightfoot or my intrepid colleagues to understand this. I see it daily: People contorting their bodies to go under the bars or climb over. It’s only become more rampant and commonplace since the MTA started installing their preventive devices in January.
“Oh they’re going over, and we’ve got the spikes here. Nothing will stop them,” an MTA worker admitted.
Here’s something that will stop fare beaters: Arrest them. Penalize them. Let it be known that hopping the turnstile could result in cuffs and a fine.
Make the punishment such an inconvenience that New Yorkers will pay the fare.
Opponents of a crackdown say that it unfairly targets poor folks, who simply can’t afford to pay their fare.
That’s absolute malarky.
Day after day, I see well-dressed commuters carrying luxury accessories and pricy electronics step over, shimmy under or contort their bodies to avoid deducting $2.90 from their bank accounts. Just wait until it goes up a dime to $3 on January 4.
The other day, I saw a tall, handsome man in a beautiful wool overcoat gracefully step over a Herald Square turnstile. He then guided his equally well-dressed gal pal over it like they were doing a synchronized couples’ routine.
I would have given them a perfect 10 for technique but deducted all of those points on account of them being thieving dirtbags.
But what do they care? No one is there to stop them and they have an extra $2.90 each to spend on their sushi dinner.
The lack of enforcement doesn’t just lead to a massive loss of funds — it allows crime in the underground to thrive. It also feeds the resentment of law-abiding, fare-paying New Yorkers like myself.
I used to think of myself as someone who follows the rules. But maybe I’m just a sucker spending about $1,500 a year on subway fare when, golly gee, it’s free for everyone else.
It’s impossible to enforce laws and norms when there is exactly zero fear of repercussions.
Take, for example, a recent X video in which a woman shamelessly guides followers through her fare-evasion method.
“Some people, when taking the train, pay their $2.90 or they hop the turnstile. Me, on the other hand, a 6-foot-2 stallion, simply just steps over the turnstile … ,” she brags before doing just that. “F–k the $2.90 that is soon to be $3. That’s absolutely insane.”
This woman sees no correlation between rising fares and people like her stealing them.
Then she explains that no one should fear MTA guards in stations because they have no real power. In fact, they are to be mocked: “I look them directly in the eye and I will hop right over, no issues.”
She does make one important distinction, adding, “Obviously, if there are cops that’s another story.”
See, even the proud fare beaters know the police could stop this. The city could actually do something.
But it’s easier to throw taxpayer funds at the problem and pretend that’s working.