After a nine year run, the alarms on emergency exits in subway stations have seen their last days. A spokesman for the MTA has announced that aside from “a few lingering offenders,” the transit organization has disabled the alarms that mostly served the purpose of deafening straphangers.
The alarms were initially installed to prevent fare evasion, but New Yorkers would often push through the emergency gate to get around a crowd or move a suitcase through or just because that’s what they wanted to do. According to MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz, “Our customers have been quite clear in … letting us know that the alarms really were the number one annoyance for them as they travel through the system.”
The MTA began disarming alarms that were near a station agent back in the spring and then Ortiz says, “we proceeded to disarm the remaining alarms in non-staff controlled areas.” So that’s that. Now, commuters will only have to deal with the sounds of trains arriving, horns blowing, brakes locking, crazy people screaming, jackhammers hammering and all the other loud things in a loud city.
(Photo: Mementosis)
