news MTA unplugged: Authority disables alarms for 450 subway station emergency exits

[Harry]

The has quietly unplugged 450 of the unpopular, high-pitched alarms that sound when riders improperly use subway station emergency exits, an official said. Rider complaints prompted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to disable alarms for emergency exits located near staffed token booths throughout the entire system, spokesman Kevin Ortiz said. Alarms for emergency gates that are not near staffed token booths will remain in place, he added. Riders and transit advocates have complained for years about the near-constant sounding of the alarms, which were intended to alert transit staff in case of riders fleeing a station in case of emergency.

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[NYtransit]

Its about time. People are never gonna learn so might as well just cut it all of togather

[realizm]

Great so now they are uninstalling these ear piercing exit alarms station wide not just at a few stations. What took them so long to figure that out, that its unnecessary for an alarm going off at a door exit, like someone just robbed a bank? When most customers simply use emergency exits for convenience when leaving a station and nothing more? 

[Orion VII 4 Life]

Meh... I'm used to it lol

[bobtehpanda]

I never understood the purpose of the alarm. Any attentive station booth agent would be able to notice a large amount of panicked people exiting through an emergency door; what's the point of an alarm?

[Harry]

The alarms were in place to draw attention to anyone opening it most likely to deter fare evasions. It was a good idea until it started to annoy the hell out of everyone.

[Missabassie]

Don't think they should've announced this... noe that they've pointed it out, that will simply encourage people even more....

Doing sh** for "convenience doesn't make it right either, but whatever

[realizm]

The alarms were in place to draw attention to anyone opening it most likely to deter fare evasions. It was a good idea until it started to annoy the hell out of everyone.

 

At 59th Street on the BMT 4th Ave line I observe this alot: A departing commuter gets off the N or R exiting the station. They decide to use the emergency exit instead of the turnstile as it is more convenient. As the emergency exit is used, some farebeater comes out of nowhere and flies through the open door before it closes. The alarms doesn't help because theres hardly any cops from the 77th precinct there anyway to even see the event unfold in the first place. So there we have the alarms ringing like we are about to experience a 1960's cold war era bombing attack with nuclear fallout or something with no effect on detering farebeating.

 

That exit is not a fare control area with a station agent present in a booth so therefore that alarm is useless.

 

Bay Ridge Ave on the R? Same ol story. Thats a hot spot for farebeaters with the emergency exit there with noone watching to enforce the rules in regards to fare evasion.

 

When there is an actual police presence (Usually only during what I can call the 'High School student weekday early rush') the cop is right there at the non fare control exit area so people will not even try beating the fare then.

 

 

Don't think they should've announced this... noe that they've pointed it out, that will simply encourage people even more....

Doing sh** for "convenience doesn't make it right either, but whatever

 

They did silently pull the plug open the emergency exits at some stations for quite a while, before this announcement. I previously thought it was due to malfunctions but now we know why for sure.

[bobtehpanda]

When they redesigned the Chambers St station, they put the northern emergency exit door immediately in front of a set of stairs and had the actual fare control in a rather inconvenient place. It got to the point where the booth agent would keep the door open whenever a train arrived simply because no one wanted to walk around an exit door and a station booth. At least at this station, the alarms were never really on for the four years that I used it.

 

MTA should probably think about relocating exits and fare control areas whenever they redesign stations, but that would require a logical MTA bureaucracy at MTACC.

[Bill from Maspeth]

Allowing people to break the rules.

[FriedChikkin]

The alarms were in place to draw attention to anyone opening it most likely to deter fare evasions. It was a good idea until it started to annoy the hell out of everyone.

Fare beaters would annoy me and, when I was a Conductor, I'd make announcements pertaining to turnstile jumpers after seeing them board my train... then I thought; "If the MTA really wanted those fares they would have kept the Station Agents..." so I did a 180 with those announcements.

 

Don't get the wrong idea... I smile like Venom^™ when I see them getting arrested, there's a lot of hard working people paying their fares and can't claim it on their taxes.

[Quill Depot]

Good, makes a commuting a little less hectic. They should move the emergency exits to less convienent spots in my opinion to deter farebeaters.

[mediccjh]

Everytime I see one go through the gate, I say out loud, "Gee, I wonder what the emergency is?"