MTA Chair Pat Foye on Friday criticized the new CDC guidelines that businesses encourage employees to avoid mass transit.
“The CDC’s latest guidelines mark other confusing recommendations from national health authorities,” Foye said in a statement.
“Encouraging people, especially those who don’t have cars and in crowded areas like New York, not to use public transportation is misdirected.”
That new guidelines to reopen the office building shows that the company “offers incentives to employees to use forms of transportation that minimize close contact with others, such as offering reimbursement of parking fees for commuting to work alone or in a single-person vehicle.”
But a transit official said the CDC’s recommendation was anathema to crowded cities like New York.
“The CDC clearly intends to encourage traffic congestion in urban areas,” the official said.
“Their guidance might be fine in Nebraska, but in NYC, good luck bringing employees to their jobs like that.”
The CDC guide also calls on employers to skip work hours – a call echoed by Foye in an open letter to city business owners on Friday.
In the letter, Foye also asked the company to expand and expand work-from-home options.
MTA heads often criticize the CDC for recommending not to wear masks at the start of the pandemic, before they turn around in mid-April.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said New Yorkers must decide for themselves how to work.
“As you wish,” said the governor. “You want to drive, you can drive. You want to pay for parking, handle that traffic, that’s your business.”
