This sounds like another “waste.”
The MTA’s new smart subway gates are already giving subway riders a headache as its obnoxious, blaring alarms aimed to stop fare jumpers keep getting set off by accident.
The alarm was going off almost constantly at the Broadway Lafayette station as annoyed riders struggled to pass through the uber-sensitive clear-paneled doors with overhead rider-counting scanners for the first time.
“I walked towards it, and it opened. I stepped in, and then it slammed shut and shoved me back,” said Cooper, a property manager from Brooklyn, who couldn’t figure out how he handled his tap-to-pay wrong.
Describing the experience as “uncomfortable” rather than painful, the Brooklynite expressed concern that the new turnstiles weren’t well thought out.
“If it doesn’t get smoothed out, it’s probably not a great way of being able to [travel] if we’re hearing the alarm going off every two seconds. It doesn’t have a very good user profile,” Cooper said.
The NoHo station was the second to get the brand-new technology on Friday, with an installation already up and running at the Bronx’s Third Avenue and 138th Street station.
The paneled doors are part of the MTA’s mission to stop fare evaders in their tracks — and come on the heels of a $7.3 million deal to install anti-hopping “fins” to existing turnstiles.
The smart doors are composed of two clear doors that open once the rider pays and are equipped with overhead scanners that make sure only one person passes through per swipe.
If the system senses something is off — like one person going in as another attempts to walk out, or riders going in close together — the doors slam shut and set off a blaring alarm.
The MTA is aiming to install the gates in 20 stations in the coming days, eventually putting them in 150 total.
While simple in theory, the new doors are not without their kinks.
“I was just really confused. I didn’t know what was going on. I think it’s because I was crossing with someone else — It would have been easier if you weren’t rushing,” said Toronto tourist Anmolar Rahman, 26, who set off the alarm as she tried to walk out of the subway.
“It’s very loud. And it’s not easy to understand what’s going on. I was just caught off guard.”
Ethan Trinidad, 20, from Long Island, said the doors will do little to stop fare beaters, pointing to viral videos of straphangers storming through the open doors in a tight single-file line as the alarm blares.
“It’s a waste of money,” he said. “It’s not really solving a problem that I feel exists.”
Elizabeth Vanderhorst of Manhattan agreed, saying “there are ways to hack the system.”
“This ain’t gonna stop train hoppers. Train hoppers have their ways,” Vanderhorst said.
Not all riders were pessimistic, however.
Ian Andrews, 29, originally of the UK but living in Brooklyn, called the switch an “improvement,” noting it was strikingly similar to the system in the London tube.
Owen Barbagallo, 20, a student living in Manhattan, admitted that fare beaters could theoretically crawl beneath the doors to skip the fare, but questioned how many were willing to do so to pocket $2.90.
“Do you really want to climb under on the New York City subway? … The very dedicated ones, it probably won’t stop, but the ones who are like, ‘I’ll do it because it’s easy to jump,’ that will definitely stop them,” Owen said.
“I think these are a good thing. I hope they get them into a bunch more places. It’s cool to see them. I do like the look. They’re kind of sleek and clean, and they’re very new and I like seeing new things.”
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