Lawmakers are questioning the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s request for two fare hikes in the next 18 months, after two reports released yesterday found that the agency is failing to maintain its subway stations and cars.

“It’s so outrageous, so ridiculous, so inexcusable, that it’s criminal what is going on,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn, who initiated one of the reports, said of the state of disrepair it found. “They have to be out of their freaking minds to be asking for a fare hike. That’s an insult to every New Yorker who uses the subway system.”

The report surveyed 91 subway stations in four boroughs, and concluded that close to 65% had severe safety hazards. Of the 15 subway lines analyzed, the report produced more than 300 photos of hazards.

Details of the MTA’s planned fare hikes are unknown, but some have speculated the base fare will rise to $2.25 from $2.

The president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer, said the report confirms that the MTA must find new revenue streams, as “there’s no room for shaving the cost of subway service and maintenance.”

Sixty-three percent of the stations inspected had a significant safety hazard, the report found, including cracks in platforms and stairwells, missing sections of platform edges, loose ceiling panels, and eroding cement.

The study was conducted over the past two months.

In a separate report, a subway riders’ advocacy group, the Straphangers Campaign, said the average distance between subway car breakdowns had dropped to 149,646 miles in 2007 from 156,624 miles in 2006, a statistic it said raises “questions about the condition and maintenance of the aging transit fleet.”

The MTA said in a statement that while distance between failures is decreasing, its subway car fleet “remains far more reliable” than any other in the nation.