Earlier this week, MTA employees volunteered to hand out masks to commuters in different stations. The agency calls them the “Mask Force.”

The MTA could use the help.

Straphangers we spoke with say the number of riders wearing masks correctly or at all this year — as mask mandates fall in New York, except on subways, buses and railroads — have dropped.

What You Need To Know

  • Only 70% of subway riders surveyed by the MTA wore a mask correctly over their nose and mouth, in its most recent count from March 18

  • On the bus, 77% of riders wore a mask correctly, 17% incorrectly and 7% riding without one, according to a March 4 survey

  • MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said during a recent event on Long Island that he hopes the mask mandate will be gone

"I see a lot of people not complying," said subway rider Quincey Perez. "Since the mask mandate was lifted, it seems that the pandemic is apparently over. It is not."

The MTA sees it too. In its surveys of mask compliance, which are conducted in two week cycles, alternating between the subway and the bus, only 70% of subway riders surveyed wore a mask correctly over their nose and mouth, in its most recent count from March 18. It’s the lowest amount since August 2020.

Another 13% wore their mask with their mouth or nose exposed and another 17% had no mask at all.

The number of riders properly masked has been falling since January, when cases increased during the wave of omicron cases, according to the MTA.

"Unfortunately, at this time, it seems like every car you get in, you’re gonna find someone in a car without a mask," Perez said.

On the bus, 77% of riders wore a mask correctly, 17% incorrectly and 7% riding without one, according to a March 4 survey.

That survey also shows fewer people riding properly masked since January.

"I would say that it’s dropped dramatically in the last month," Rachael Carron said, waiting for a bus on 14th Street. "I’m a little less unnerved by it than I was initially I have to say, being vaccinated, boosted. I’ve had COVID so I am less worried even with the upswing of the variants."

The MTAs mask rules are authorized under a federal Transportation Security Administration directive, which was extended this month through April 18.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said he hopes the mask mandate will be gone. He said during an event this month on Long Island that “mask mandates have come off in the rest of society. I don’t want people getting into arguments, on the railroads and on the subways.”

And it’s clear there are riders not waiting for the TSA to act.

Commuter Charlotte Wright said she only wears one in a packed train, but if it’s kind of empty no so much.

Bia Phuchaphongchan said she wears a mask on the train out of a social obligation, not a health one.

"If you go to the gym, you go to the supermarket, I went to Trader Joe’s, I didn’t wear a mask, or if you can go to a restaurant I didn’t wear a mask," she said. "I think it’s kind of like the same thing as in the subway, which is, what is the difference if you don’t have a mask in the subway?"

The mask rule is enforced with a $50 fine, but tickets are rarely written. The MTAs law enforcement agencies wrote 76 tickets.

The NYPD did not provide NY1 with summonses its officers have written, but a department spokeswoman said it's most effective for officers to ask riders to comply instead.