Quite frankly anyone in the area of Rockaway park also has a free ride onto the train too. The whole lot where the buses enter are free for all walks of life to just walk in. What a waste of time and money.
Blue paint costs more than white, and with some of the buses clocking in nearly 10 years old (C40, 1200s, 3G, 2011 LFS) I personally dont think its worth the expense.
I have been told that they aren't allowed to collect the fare (how true that is I don't know)
I personally haven't seen them around on the B46 SBS but I still put my card in ( I usually take the train in some fashion during the trip)
But serves as an alternative to the B8 cause the B8 is also piss poor. If MTA would run the routes in the area with some consistency it wouldn't be so bad.
All boroughs are getting a redesign. What may end up happening in Manhattan is straight up bastardization (cuts of routes to places people don't go, and the complete removal of overs of which the M7 is looking like maybe a possible axe due to duplicating a route on every portion but what do I know.)