This is an admittedly clever, although decidedly medieval, way of dealing with surging theft in New York:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has rolled out its latest effort to combat fare evasion — this time installing spikes on turnstiles.
The Post spotted workers installing the aggressive-looking apparatus Wednesday along the turnstile handrails at the 59th St./Lexington Ave. stop, which services the N, R, W, 4, 5 and 6 lines.
The pointy panels would make it hurt for people attempting to skip the toll by using the handrails to lift themselves over the turnstiles. But they don't address a hack used on old gates of pulling on the turnstiles enough to slip through, or of climbing over or underneath them.
Yeaahh if I had to guess if this is going to solve the fare-jumping problem on the New York metro I'd say:
You gotta give them credit for trying, though. The spikes are pretty gnarly looking.
And they definitely need to figure out this crisis one way or another:
Fare evasion costs the MTA roughly $500 million annually. The transit giant has been trying for years to recover the lost revenue.
Conveniently for fare-jumpers, you can still run your hand over the exit censor, which opens the gate right up for you with little effort.
Here's some local news coverage of the new spikes:
You do get the sense that if this doesn't work the city is going to resort to more drastic measures...
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