People can take a look at it and make judgement about whether they think it’s safe to ride the subways or buses,” he said. “What this indicates is that the MTA has decided mask-wearing isn’t important,” said Joe Rappaport of the Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled. In April 2021, some nine in 10 subway riders were found to be wearing masks correctly, but that number had dropped to 64% by the same month this year.Īn official said the authority has reassigned its mask survey-takers “to help collect ridership data on buses and trains.” The MTA updated its site to say officials “are no longer maintaining recurring statistics on compliance.” Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images Mask-wearing - which has been mandatory on MTA trains and buses since April 2020 - had plummeted by the time the agency stopped its surveys.

While the federal government in April stopped enforcing the face-covering requirement for airports, planes and other modes of transportation, Hochul has opted to keep it for public transit in the Empire State. Kathy Hochul has maintained the April 2020 executive order mandating transit riders wear face-coverings. “The subways are a public space used by millions of people each day, any of whom can assess level of compliance with the ongoing mask requirement,” MTA rep Tim Minton said in an email.

The agency hasn’t taken a straphanger mask survey since April, and after being asked about it by The Post on Tuesday, updated its site to say officials “are no longer maintaining recurring statistics on compliance.” Kathy Hochul doubled down on her mask mandate for public transit just a few weeks ago. The MTA quietly stopped keeping track of whether riders are wearing masks on the subways, even as Gov.

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