Turnstile Jumpers Face New Hurdles With MTA Plan For Taller Turnstiles

NEW YORK CITY ? A losing battle against fare evasion in New York City could turned around by new weapon: taller turnstiles.

Or, at least that?s what MTA bigwig Janno Lieber floated in a spate of interviews this week.

Lieber said a redesign of turnstiles and exit gates at subway stations could help stop fare evasion ? a problem that now costs the MTA $500 million a year, he claimed.

?We are hard at work figuring out how do we redesign the fare array, because ? it?s too porous and it?s letting a lot of people in,? he said Tuesday on 1010 WINS. ?We have to have a different physical barrier to stop people from doing it.?

MTA officials have long groused about fare evasion, even while New Yorkers expressed other concerns, such for greater transit safety, reliability and, notably, platform barriers to stop straphangers from falling or being shoved to their deaths.

Indeed, Lieber has expressed skepticism about the feasibility of widely installing platform barriers across the entire subway system, though he later did clear the way for a pilot program for such safety features.

He showed much more enthusiasm this week for still-percolating plans to change turnstiles and exit gates.

An MTA panel ? which was formed just two weeks after a mass shooting in a Brooklyn subway station ? soon will release recommendations on fare evasion. Lieber said he expects redesigned turnstiles and exit gates to be part of a solution.

Lieber said subway exit gates have become a ?superhighway of fare evasion,? rather than their intended use for fire safety.

?Sometimes, they jump the turnstile and they pop the gate open for, you know, five, 10, 15 people,? he said. ?We?ve all seen it and it is demoralizing, it is destructive to the sense of fairness and fair play that animates New York.?

The colorful wordplay didn?t stop there ? Lieber said turnstiles seem to cultivate a generation of ?world-class gymnasts? who can vault over them.

?You?ve got to deal with that by whether it?s raising the height or changing the design so it?s not so easy for people to literally just vault and kick their legs over,? he said.