As unstaffed station entrances proliferate across the subway system, the 21st century version of the MTA’s iron maiden turnstiles have become the norm around the city. These high entrance/exit turnstiles significantly slow down loading and unloading times at fare control areas, but they effectively combat turnstile jumpers in areas where station agents once roamed. They can, however, prove tricky.
It’s probably happens more often than anyone — not the MTA, not the so-called victims — want to admit, but the HEETs are designed such that it’s very very easy to get it wrong. Swipe a MetroCard, enter into the part at right that’s already begun is whirl around the turnstile. Those who swipe and push the gate that’s sticking out will find themselves stuck on the wrong side of the fare gate with less money — or an 18-minute freeze-out period — on their MetroCards. Consider it a New York subway initiation.
In his column in the Daily News on Monday, Pete Donohue tackles the prickly subject of the HEETs. This subway faux pas, he says, happens very frequently, and among transit workers, the HEETs have earned themselves the reputation of a fare thief. “These are the biggest robbers down here,” one worker said.
Donohue tracked down workers willing to talk, off the record, of the woes they see when it comes to the HEETs. “It happens all the time,” a turnstile repairman said to the News. “Most of the time it’s tourists, but sometimes it even happens to people who live here. Nobody knows. There’s no signs or information.”
Tourists from London where turnstiles rely on the tried-and-true tap-and-go system fall for it; natives from Westchester fall for it; even everyday businessmen in a hurry sometimes take a wrong first step. “If you don’t know what you’re doing,” one suburban visitor said, “you’re going to get screwed.”
For now, the HEETs will continue to pop up across the system. The MTA plans to pay $2.3 million to install 41 more of these turnstiles around the city, and as they can be reprogrammed to take a contactless card, they should survive the death of the MetroCard too.
But the HEETs are a problem. They’re clunky and slow. It takes a decent amount of force to push the door open and an equally strong effort to exit through it. Lines form at stations — the 7th Ave. exit at the 7th Ave. stop on the IND Culver line, for instance — as exiting passengers wait for the door to swing by. It might stop a few fare beaters, but it also stops harried and hurried New Yorkers.
The HEETs, though, aren’t going anywhere as long as station agents continue to disappear, and yet, the fix for them is so simple. If the MTA were to place floor decals with arrows leading into the HEET or a small sign at eye level on the MetroCard reader display, straphangers would find the iron maiden less daunting, and fares would cease to disappear. A small act of customer service can go a long way toward making the system more user-friendly for everyone.
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