With Mayor Bill de Blasio now at odds with some progressives over the issue of subway fare evasion, we're revisiting an age old question in New York City: Should you offer a swipe to a stranger, especially if you have an unlimited MetroCard?
Regarding turnstile-jumping, the mayor reiterated on The Brian Lehrer Show last Friday that fare evasion is not fair to the people who pay to ride the subway. He said that some people who don't pay do have cash, and thus, enforcing turnstile-jumping doesn't amount to criminalizing poverty.
Mayor de Blasio on @BrianLehrer talking about split with @ManhattanDA over subway fare beating. “We cannot send the signal that anyone can evade fare on a regular basis,” de Blasio says. “There is no evidence to my mind” that this is a crime of poverty"
— Grace Rauh (@gracerauh) February 9, 2018
Shannon Jones from the Bronx is part of the Swipe It Forward campaign, and she disagrees. She says punishing fare-evaders IS a criminalization of poverty, and it adversely affects black and brown people in the city.
"For us, this is common sense," Jones told WNYC. "Black people have to protect one another against the racist NYPD, so when you're exiting the subway station, if you see someone that looks like they need to board on, you can swipe someone in on your way out."
But if it's illegal to get a free ride by jumping the turnstile, is it legal to get a free ride by having someone swipe you in? Yes. Sort of.
You can't sell a swipe -- if you swipe someone in for a dollar, that's illegal.
If you swipe someone in as a courtesy, that's legal.
But, if the person requesting a swipe is caught asking, they could be stopped by the police and possibly hit with a $25 to $50 fine, or a summons to appear in court.
The MTA generally cares about a loss of revenue, especially these days, but the agency declined to officially tell WNYC whether or not it cares about sharing swipes. Back in 2016, an article in The New York Times said that New York City Transit "has no problem with people using unlimited MetroCards to swipe in strangers."
There are, however, riders who feel on principle that giving away swipes underfunds the subway. Others share swipes freely. We want to know where you stand -- join the conversation in our We The Commuters Facebook group.