NYC crime, homelessness scare riders off subways, ridership down 36%

Rising crime and the use of the subways by the homeless are scaring riders away from mass transit, MTA officials said Wednesday. Subway ridership dropped 36% over the last month, MTA data shows — from about 3.4 million riders per weekday in the second week of December to 2.5 million riders on Monday. Before the pandemic, the subways counted 5.5 million readers each weekday.

The latest ridership drop coincides with a rise in COVID-19 cases across the five boroughs. But MTA chairman Janno Lieber believes the plunge also results from riders’ fear of homeless people and crime.

“Our riders are letting us know that they don’t feel safe,” Lieber said at a news conference. “Our workforce is scared in addition to our passengers. Our workforce is scared because they’re feeling vulnerable.”

Lieber spoke less than two weeks after Michelle Alyssa Go was murdered by being pushed in front of a subway train at Times Square by a mentally ill homeless man. Go was killed days after Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams announced they would deploy more police officers and social workers to the subways.

The NYPD in 2021 reported the highest number of assaults and homicides on the subway in a quarter-century.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-transit-ridership-omicron-crime-homelessness-20220126-or6o2moypjbsxiih7jra3rmpwq-story.html