MTA tells bus drivers to nix auto-open for back doors

City bus riders should get ready to shout “Yo, back door!” more often.

Transit officials Friday issued a memo aimed at cracking down on fare evasion that’s on track to cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $500 million this year — telling bus drivers to keep rear doors from automatically opening in concert with those in the front.

The directive doesn’t apply to the MTA’s select bus services that require riders to board from the rear doors.

MTA officials said passengers will still be able to tap sensors near a bus’s rear doors to open them — but bus riding regulars know the sensors don’t always work when the bus is at a stop. Much of the time an operator needs to flick a switch to unlock the rear doors after a passenger shouts.

Several bus operators who spoke with the Daily News feared the policy would slow down service or spark confrontations with angry riders.

“It’s going to create a hassle because people are going to be yelling at the driver to open the back door when they try to get off,” said a Brooklyn-based bus driver who asked not to be named. “That’s not going to stop fare beaters. All it does is create more interaction with the bus operators.”

MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan asserted the policy would actually speed up service by “reducing the time that rear doors are open while no one is exiting on local bus routes.”

Donovan said the memo simply reiterates standing MTA policies at a time when fare evasion is a priority for the agency.

The memo was seen by transit advocates as a step backward by the MTA, which has already installed OMNY readers near the rear doors of buses with the goal of letting all riders tap and pay from the front or back.

Riders Allliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein said the shift would speed up bus service by reducing the time buses spend at stops — but the rear door OMNY readers are not yet activated on buses.

“With the flip of a switch, every single local bus ride could be sped up across all five boroughs,” Pearlstein insisted. “Fare evasion is no excuse not to provide better service for the millions of people who need it.”