Next Thing You Know We’ll Have MetroCard Co-Ops And MetroCard Subscriptions

All we need is three examples for a trend piece:

Once, it was clear, black and white: One token got you one ride. Now, while MetroCards have created a more elastic, fluid system for riders, they have also created an ethical gray area:

Do I swipe in a stranger? Is that legal? Can I share my monthly card with my spouse or a friend? What if someone offers to sell me a swipe at a discount? And what if a machine accidentally gives me a free ride — something token booth clerks were not known for. Do I take it?

The ethical quandaries of the free ride were spotlighted this week by the disclosure of a computer glitch that allowed hundreds of people to get free tickets and MetroCards — most of them unwittingly — from vending machines in Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad stations.

Selling a swipe on a MetroCard is illegal and can get you arrested. Bending a MetroCard’s magnetic strip to fool the turnstile into letting you through is also a form of theft.

But letting a friend or a relative use your unlimited-ride MetroCard when you are not using it is perfectly legal, as long as you don’t charge for it, said Paul J. Fleuranges, an authority spokesman. (The card allows only one entry every 18 minutes.)

Mr. Fleuranges said it is also legal to help out a stranger who asks you, as a favor, to swipe him through a turnstile free as you are leaving a subway station — although it certainly deprives New York City Transit of a fare.