#MTA board votes to ban carts, loitering to deter homeless

MTA board members voted unanimously Wednesday to make official emergency rules enacted in April that make it easier for cops to remove homeless from the subways.

The new rules include a ban on “any wheeled cart greater than 30 inches in either length or width,” and a requirement that riders spend no more than one hour inside a particular station.

Transit officials instituted the changes in April, just as worker and straphanger complaints about subway homelessness soared amid concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the restrictions on the shopping carts and loitering, the new rules also explicitly ban pooping or vaping on trains or platforms.

Speaking to board members on Wednesday, MTA general counsel Thomas Quigley said the rules “are designed to improve the safety and cleanliness throughout the system.”

“This is especially important as we strive to keep the trains, buses, stations and terminal clean and sanitary throughout the pandemic,” Quigley said.

The rule-change was posted in the state register in May and received no public comments, Quigley said.

Transit leaders insisted the goal was not to “criminalize” homeless individuals, but to protect the public from coronavirus, which has killed 131 transit workers.

“Having people stay in one place, stay in one facility, without leaving for hours on end, increases the chances that you are moving [the] virus around,” Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg told reporters at a post-meeting press conference.

“We believed we needed to take steps to make sure people were entering the system, using the system and exiting the system”