You dirty rats!
A local lawmaker is pushing a bill to ban eating in the subway to help cut down on vermin — but the measure is already causing some straphangers to lose their lunch.
“I eat most of my meals on the train!” said Nisse Greenberg, 25, between bites of a falafel sandwich yesterday on the N line.
“I’m always running back and forth to somewhere, so I’m against banning eating on the train.”
The bill, proposed by Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), would slap a $250 fine on subterranean scofflaws who dare to eat on any train, platform, or shop throughout the city’s transit system.
“I’ve seen people open up plates of french fries and chicken and have a grand old meal — and then discard their stuff on the track,” Perkins told The Post. “The question becomes, ‘How can we minimize the feasts that rats are experiencing?’ By trying to control human behaviors.”
Cash from fines would feed a litter-prevention fund.
“It would kind of suck,” added Meredith Naughton, 22, snacking on pineapple on the Q train. “New Yorkers are always trying to make the most of their time, and it kind of helps to eat on the go.”
But backers of the bill said subway snackers need better manners.
“I’m generally supportive of people eating at tables or sitting down,” said Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Westchester). “I don’t enjoy seeing people eating on the run — it doesn’t add anything to our civilized society.”
Rider advocates said the food-ban plan is giving them indigestion.
“Subway riders need a snack now and then to get them through long commutes,” said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives.
“Instead of socking hungry subway riders with new $250 fines, state lawmakers should work with the governor and the MTA to restore last year’s service cuts.”
Perkins said he cooked up the bill after serving up 15,000 surveys in his uptown district and finding that the biggest contributors to big-bellied rats are sloppy straphangers whose litter feeds their “rampaging” population.
“We have to look at the source of the rats’ success — which is our eating habits,” he said.
Perkins’ bill is also supported by Sens. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan/Bronx) and Shirley Huntley (D-Queens). The bill will likely find companion legislation in the Assembly, Perkins said.
Last March, two members of the MTA board suggested a food ban after a video on YouTube showed a woman tossing her grub at another rider.
Then-MTA Chairman Jay Walder squashed the idea, calling it impractical and difficult to enforce.
Open beverage containers are banned throughout the transit system, according to MTA spokeswoman Judie Glave, who said eating food is not technically forbidden but is discouraged.
She said the agency is studying the bill.