 In December 2018, in the midst of a transit crisis, the MTA announced that as many as four percent of subway riders and 16 percent of bus riders each day might not be paying fares, amounting to 208,000 subway riders and 384,000 bus riders per day.In response, Byford stated that the MTA was studying ways to physically prevent fare evaders from jumping over subways turnstiles, or entering the rear doors of buses where they did not need to pay.The MTA had tried to reduce station agent positions since full MetroCard vending machine (MVM) deployment in 1997.