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Emergency exit gates in subway stations are meant to let riders escape from dangerous situations underground. They are also a helpful, if alarming, way into the subway for those who are toting bags or babies. Yet too many straphangers use emergency slam gates merely as the easy way out.

"Why isn't there enough egress in the subway system that people are using the emergency gates? Why does the alarm have to go on for minutes at a time?" says NYC Transit Riders Council Chairman Andrew Albert. "Who is the alarm notifying if there's no longer a booth agent in the station? And why are we making it so easy for fare beaters and others that want to do the system harm?"

The Riders Council, which advises the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on straphanger concerns, monitored emergency gates for 35 hours at 19 stations this summer, finding that of the more than 2,300 riders who used gates, only 193 riders used them to enter, and 109 appeared to be evading the fare.

The vast majority who may have beaten the fare entered the 125th Street station in Harlem, including 74 riders who were counted going in through an unlocked gate that sounded no alarm.

On Tuesday morning, a NY1 camera caught that same unlocked gate in the 125th Street station sounding no alarm. Not long afterwards, the booth attendant was apparently alerted, the gate was locked and the alarm blared each time it opened.

A couple of police officers told NY1 that they listen to the alarms to alert them to possible fare beaters. Yet the alarms ring out so often that they are neither an effective deterrent nor an effective tool for police.

The Riders Council says the number of fare evaders they saw is not enough to call the problem rampant. Although with so many booths closed, it is easier to slip in for free. A booth agent on duty makes harder to do that, while making it easier for paying customers to get through a gate -- at least in theory.

"They would never do anything unless I asked. I'm pretty much on my own," says transit rider Meredith McCook.

The MTA gave NY1 a statement that read in part, "Customers are reminded... that using the gates for anything other than their intended purpose can result in arrest and criminal prosecution or the imposition of civil penalties."

Yet with fewer station agents around, using slam gates to get into the system is too tough, using them to get out is too easy, and both methods are creating problems.