NYC MTA seeks a new design for subway turnstiles to end fare evasion

https://gothamist.com/news/mta-seeks-id ... re-evasion

As it looks to end fare evasion, the MTA is seeking ideas for the "next generation" of New York City subway turnstiles.

The agency on Tuesday put out a call for experienced firms to submit designs that could replace the gates and turnstiles across the city's subway 472 stations.

The bid comes as the MTA says subway fare evasion has reached "crisis levels," costing the transit agency $285 million in lost revenue last year alone. It said it’s looking for designs that can deter fare evaders, while being accessible for people with disabilities and people who use strollers.

“While there is no one blanket solution, new designs can trim down on riders skipping out on paying while making it easier and more accessible for customers to enter the system,” said NYC Transit President Richard Davey.

Here in Boston the MBTA's fare gates are almost there, they have to sliding doors, much like an elevator. The problem they are about 3 to 4 feet high, easy to reach over an trip the leaving the station sensor and there is a 1 to 2 inch gap between the door edges easily grabbed and pushed open. The solve in my eyes is a 6 foot high door with an overlap of 2 to 3 inches. As for tailgating there is really no way of stopping that.

I am sure whatever design they come up will be challenged in the courts that fare evasion is a natural act and shouldn't be stopped.

I've been pretty much been a life long transit user, but since COVID I've seen fare evasion grow to the point you might as well make it free.

I found https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should ... ee-update/ to be an interesting listen on the subject of free fares (especially how costs to a transit agency can shift when they are free).