Interested Rider

Just what we need another extension of the B/6 to make a bad situation worse. What is my interest in the B/6 extension when I ride the B/36? The answer is that many drivers work a split; that is one half on the B/6 and the other half on the B/36 and when the driver is running late on the B/6, it impacts upon the service on the B/36. When drivers did both halves on the same route then a driver could be put in place during a delay which helped the riders. As many members of the forum know, I remain adamantly opposed to having drivers do one half of their trip on one route and the other on another route as while it saves pennies and justifies what the pencil people are doing, it hurts ridership. For the same reason, I believe that there is a limit to how long a route should take one way in terms of time as you reach a point where maintaining a decent headway becomes unsustainable as one small delay can snowball into a major problem on the route. One last comment concerning the extension of the B/2 (or for that matter the B/31) from Kings Highway Station. There is no market for that service as the B/64 headway during the non peak hours is 20 minutes which means there is no reason to justify another route on Bay Ridge Avenue. The 69th Street Ferry is long, long gone and that was the reason that there were 7 minute headways 50 years ago and now has 20 minute headways. The extension would serve an area that is almost all residential and where automobile use has skyrocketed as it has in other parts of southern Brooklyn.

The way to stop copycat crimes is to come down hard on the perpetrators by making sure that they do the maximum amount of time so that they will regret what they did and send a message to anyone else who even thinks of doing this type of crime. Unfortunately, we have not heard a word from the persons that enforce the law such as the mayor, governor or district attorneys or their mouthpieces in the media that once these individuals are caught that they will not be allowed to plea bargain to something lessor that will perpetuate the falsehood that this is a "victimless crime". I heard many times from inmates about property that belongs to the state should not be treated with the upmost respect as they do not care as the state can afford to buy a new one. It is that type of thinking that leads to more crime as the person will take more chances as he feels that if he could get away with this crime then he can get away with bigger things.

Whether particular laws or rules are enforced comes from the top and that is both the elected and unelected officials who make the these decisions. Whatever they decide will have either a positive or negative influence on a person's actions. Remember Bill Bratton and the "broken windows" philosophy and how it worked. What it did was to create in a person's mind that if they do something wrong, they will get punished for it. What it did was to put a scare in many people who may have thought about doing something (for example: farebeating) but the thought (and most likely certainty) of what the consequences were changed their mind. This was stated many times by our then elected officials including the mayor and our district attorneys who prosecuted these crimes. The message got through and the city saw a decrease in crime as when not only farebeating was prosecuted but many other things that have an effect on the quality of life, it created an environment where people thought twice before doing something like it. Today it is different as since our mayor and his friends in the New York City Council came into office, they came with a mindset that the "broken windows" theory does not work and therefore it must be changed completely. They want to pick and choose what laws are to be followed and thus the ingredients are there for a decline in the prosecution of what they consider "low level" crimes such as farebeating. When the public hears the elected officials stating that they will not prosecute them and say it publicly like Cyrus "White Shoes" Vance, the District Attorney of New York county (A/K/A Manhattan) and this is broadcast in the media and is supported by other elected officials either publicly or privately, then you have the makings of a major increase in farebeating. If the crime is not going to be prosecuted then the perception in the public's mind, becomes just do it as there is no penalty as if it is not being enforced in Manhattan, then the perception becomes the same policy will apply in the other boroughs as well. If you are in law enforcement or a transit worker, would you put your life on the line to stop farebeating when you know that management will not support you?

A note and a question: The B/9 westbound stop at East 13th Street and Avenue M is being skipped as the old NBC studios has been sold and the stop is right on line where the trucks will be entering and exiting the property. There is scaffolding on the Avenue M side of the street as the sidewalk is blocked off. Has the eastbound stop on Avenue Z at East 18th Street by the post office dock been eliminated as even though it is listed on the stop list on the new buses? it seems it is being skipped. The stop remains in the westbound direction.

You are not bothering me at all as it is a legitimate question and one that deserves an answer. The structure is there but it cannot be discerned whether the entrance is open or not. If we look at all the elevated BMT stations on the southern division that had entrances at either end, there was always another entrance at the opposite end, When there was an entrance in the middle, there were no entrances at either end. Taking it one step further, unlike most of the stations further north on the West End and Culver Lines, it seems that three stations mentioned did not have the ridership to justify keeping both entrances open. The West End line used elevated cars from Bay Parkway to Coney Island and the Culver line used elevated car shuttles from Kings Highway to Coney Island until the mid 1950's due to a shortage of steel equipment during the rush hours. Another factor could have been that the areas south of Avenue U did not have the ridership which was the reason that the entrances were removed on the West End Line and later on the Culver Line. Neck Road ( Avenue U) on the Culver Line was open full time through the 1950's and most likely into the 1960's when it was cut back to part time. Again, I am unsure of dates as I did ride the line that frequently at that time.

I cannot answer that question as I do not know the answer

I honestly do not know as whenever we used the Avenue X station, we exited on the Avenue X side,

The closed entrance on Bay 50th Street was closer to Bay 49th Street. I did not use the West End Line as I lived right across the street from the 86th Street Station but the few times that I was there i remember the steel skeleton.. As far as Avenue X station and the Avenue Y entrance, i can now provide a picture source with a year date. Subway cars of the BMT by James Clifford Greller (n.d.) p. 50 has a picture of Standard 2743 in the Coney Island Yard at Avenue Y and Shell Road. In the left hand corner of the photo, the complete Avenue Y entrance can be seen and it is dated February 22, 1959. What is interesting is that 2743 remained with its silver roof for another couple of years as I remember seeing it at the end of a 2300, 2800 consist heading northbound on the Sea Beach Line at Kings Highway heading for the East New York Yard in 1962.

In looking at the list, here are two others that have been totally eliminated. 25th Avenue . There was an entrance at 26th Avenue but it was removed many years before I moved to the neighborhood in 1957. The steel structure was there for many years which indicated that an entrance existed. Same for Bay 50th Street at the north end of the platform. Avenue X F Line. South end of the platform. Exit to Avenue Y. Again the steel structure was there which indicated an entrance. It was gone by 1957.

I was on the Brighton Line at Kings Highway last Thursday about 1:45 PM when I spotted an 8 car R-42 on the northbound express track. Are they running tests again like they did last June with the R-46 on the southbound express track north of Kings Highway?

The city and the Federal government "kicked the can down the road" as they need more time to develop a full funding source for the authority. It seems that both HUD and the city want to keep the power in the hands of the city, not place it in either the hands of the Federal Government or give the power to a receiver.

If anything, the two barking dogs (Cuomo and DeBlasio) who were in charge of Housing and Urban Development under Bill Clinton should take full responsibility for the condition that public housing is in today.. Cuomo was the secretary of HUD and DeBlasio was in charge of the New York region. Neither of them did anything to help the developments at the most critical juncture and both the tenants and the developments are paying the price today. If you ask many of the long time residents that was the time to sell the apartments to the tenants so that the developments would have had money to do the repairs that had to be done at that time not 20 years later. By selling the apartments to the tenants (for example a junior 4 room apartment for $60,000 ) many of the tenants would have bought their apartments as it was an investment that in many areas would appreciate in value. Those that did not want to buy their apartment would have been able to stay until they vacated the apartment at which time the apartment would have been sold. It is my opinion that many of the people living in the various developments would have found the money to buy, the apartments as at that time as it was a good investment. it was a win-win situation for both the authority and the tenants as painting, kitchen cabinets, appliances and the bathrooms would have been fixed up by the tenants as tenants want to make money when they sell the apartment. One of the things that the tenants would have gotten rid of is the heating system that predates Moses as each and every tenant owner would have not tolerated a system that does not allow for individual controls for individual units that allows for heating many of the lower floor apartments to unhealthy levels at all hours. Alas, it was not to be for both of these crybabies knew what they were doing as both of them at that time aspired for higher office and knew that they needed their real estate buddies who wanted many of the housing authority sites and having tenant ownership of the apartments meant that the real estate moguls if they wanted the buildings would have to buy them out at current prices which for the tenants would have been a substantial profit over the original investment. These two knew (and know) what they are doing and when the receiver is appointed, all their vulture real-estate friends will be waiting in the wings for the first opportunity to buy many of the developments and demolish the buildings. Cuomo and DeBalsio will get their campaign donations at the expense of the residents in the public housing developemts.

What disturbs me deeply is that by adding all the signals (many of which are unnecessary), clearly the problem is that management does not trust the employee to do his/her job. If you look at others that have held the position that Mr. Byford holds over the years, management just does not care as most managers today are political appointees, not transit people. Thus the needs of the rider are secondary to the needs of the person that appointed them. If anything, the Kiley-Gunn management structure took many of the top positions out of the civil service structure where the person holding the position had to have knowledge of transit operations, and has made the system much worse. What looked good to the person on top that he/she could control the persons below as before the person had civil service protection, worked at the beginning but now it has made the system more unresponsive to the public.The power has shifted in terms of the civil service persons who had to have a basic knowledge of what the system needed to persons that is dependent upon the penny pinchers and the lawyers as decision makers. At the same time, the voice of the employees who keep the system running day in and day out has virtually been stilled by the new decision makers who will do everything in their power to keep their views in front of the media. Thus a problem that cried out for a correction for so long is finally getting the attention it should have received if the program was evaluated 5 - 10 years ago and the only reason it is receiving its attention is that a person on top who did not care about the political - media axis.

What Mr. Byford is doing is quite rare in government as when there is an accident or a tragedy, the response by the agency to what happened is that more is needed, not less. Thankfully, this particular action taken over 23 years ago is being re-examined. Once a program is implemented, it remains and in many cases forever, instead of being re-evaluated as to whether it has it has achieved its goals, In this case, the goal may have been fewer accidents but at the same time there was the failure to recognize the effect that the goal would have on the riding public. Think about it and in the case of other programs, how we constantly read that there is a need for more laws and rules every time something happens that is taken up by the media-political establishment in response to an accident or tragedy. In most cases there are existing programs in place that provide the services that need to be re-evaluated as to their effectiveness but instead are downsized for one reason or another to satisfy the needs and desires of the budget or a particular group. One particular program that is crying out for help is the need for more secure mental health beds in New York City. We constantly read about crimes being committed by persons off their medications but yet the number of beds has been cut by the governor to almost zero. This is one program for instance that should be evaluated to allow for many more beds for the seriously mentally ill patients to be sent to a secure facility for a longer period of time instead of being pushed back on the streets.

The B/48 was a crosstown route as I remember that route when I worked on Montgomery Street near Washington Avenue in 1972.

The week to watch will not be next week as Columbus Day is Monday and while the public schools are closed, the religious schools most likely are open. The following week will be the real test as all the schools will be open and it will basically be a normal work week.

Today and tomorrow are religious holidays so that ridership may be lower on the Kings Highway portion of the route.

Your point is well taken and for future reference, I will not include you in any arguments that may arise in the future. It is a shame that I had to include it in the first place and I ask that you accept my apology.

It seems you is trying to place the focus on me which is totally wrong as once again your methods of twisting what others have been said on a subject that you presented on a thread was met with derision. No matter how hard you tried to put a fresh face on something that many who write on the various threads here can attest, it seems that whenever you post something in print, it has to have his former title. Why? You have been a private citizen for 14 years and you feel that it strengthens the letter in the eyes of the reader. Some will say "Oh! that person is so important so therefore what he is writing should be treated as words from heaven" while others will say"who cares" as it is just "another writer who thinks the world of himself" You have become like "the famous diva who has not had a major role in the past 14 years and has to keep her name in the newspapers with the hope that a famous director will see her name and cast her in a major role in his next film" Do you remember what you were doing on this date in 2013? Even though you may remember, you expect me to remember what you wrote in 2013 concerning the B/44 SBS and the B/36 when I can't remember what I did last year? It is like I committed the ultimate sin of sins and that the heavens should punish me for the rest of my life. As B35 via Church put it so well in his response to me, this is one of your tactics to wear your critics down and therefore with the hope that I will stop posting whenever you inject yourself into the discussion. In this case, however, I will no longer post from kingscountypolitics.com as I am quite honored that Future ENY Bus operator has taken the time to post transit information from the site on the relevant threads. The reason that I am using the word honored is that this means that he is now reading and posting information for our readers from a very good website that provides a lot of information on what is going on in Brooklyn. I will continue to post on this forum and write and will respond to others who have taken he time to raise issues of importance to all of us here. There are a lot of things happening now in terms of transit and we have an election coming up where transit will be an issue front and center. It is up to all of us to make the voters aware of what is going on and the proposed solutions being offered.

Thank you B/36 via Church for a very good and well thought out response to what I wrote here. The points that you raised as to his style of trying to debate him and how he twists what I say to his advantage are well taken and I appreciate the points that you have raised. I will refer back to this post for reference on a regular basis. I agree with you that while he made a difference (I am talking about 40 years ago in terms of the buses), the fact that he always uses his title at the MTA from which he retired 15 years ago is just one big ego trip and it turns many of us off. You are right on the money that I am quite concerned about the impact upon the B/36 route and I should have made that point quite clear.The B/36 often runs into delays when it turns into Avenue Z from Nostrand Avenue where a truck can delay a bus 10-15 minutes in each direction and there are delays on the segment from Ocean Avenue to the Station, Calling his bluff and working with the existing B/44 SBS schedule, this means that with a 16 minute headway during the non rush hours all B/44 SBS buses formerly going to Knapp Street will now go to KCC via the B/36 and the B/49 route with the B/44 locals continuing to go to Knapp Street, The MTA will use the B/44 SBS as an excuse to cut the B/36 and increase the headways. The MTA will also say that since the B/4 is providing service to Coney Island Hospital from Ocean Avenue and the station, then the riders that formerly rode the B/36 can ride the B/4 to get there. Anyone who rides the B/36 will tell you that the buses can get extremely crowded during all hours of the day as it is a route that has a considerable portion of riders who are seniors who ride the bus. With the numbers of students that will be on the B/44 SBS that he is projecting, then the regular passengers who need to ride to the station will be unable to board the buses as along with the B/44 SBS change will come a corresponding cut in B/36 service His proposal places my community in a very vulnerable position especially as the B/44 SBS change to KCC results in a major cut in B/36 service which I believe will happen if his proposal is accepted.

The report in Kings County Politics that you have posted is a duplicate as kingscountypolitics.com reported it in members on the move August 24, 2018 and posted here on this thread on August 25, 2018 by me.(Post # 1743). The reason that I bring this up at this time (and no harm was done by the duplicate post) and I agree with you that the stop should have been added when Avenue L was added some time ago. The fact that it is being added (the dates that you listed are the same that appeared in one of the local weekly ethnic papers that I read on a regular basis) is a good move on the part of the MTA and is possibly related to Mr. Byford ordering a review of the necessity of the need for the stop. This has also appeared this week in one of the ethnic newspapers that I read on a fairly regular basis. There is one reason why I will not give the cite for the ethnic newspaper that I read where this appeared and it can be summed up in two words: "Brooklyn Bus". The last time that I posted information on something that appeared in one of the local ethnic publications (it was on the B/82 and appeared in April 2018), i received a message from him asking for the cite. Knowing his motives and his love of getting his name in print, I denied it as not only was it inappropriate not only by me but by the publishers of these publications as they are not interested in what outsiders like him write or say as the publications are geared toward the particular community. The information that Future ENY op. posted appeared listing the same details for it's readers and again I will not post the cite is for the same reason that I refused to give the cite in April 2018. In a way, I can understand why duplicate posts occur here and after seeing about 60 posts after #1750 as Brooklyn Bus tried to "hijack" an informational post for our readers as by the time anyone has finally found the original post, he or she is exhausted. If you look at the posts beginning approximately with # 1750 you will be able to read his push for Kingsborough routing for the B/44 SBS which many of us stated was wrong and posted remarks to indicate that we disagreed with him but yet he kept at it. When forum members pointed out other possible scenarios, his responses to us in many cases included the word "explain" for what? and to explain to him? Why is he questioning us and what is his (possible hidden) agenda? It is like he is the expert on everything transit and we know nothing as we are bus riders, bus drivers, community residents or to sum it up in a short phrase "it is all about him". I used the word "hijack" as when I look back upon his posts, it becomes quite clear that "it is all about him" and it can be seen in his desire to control the discussion as can be read in his posts on this thread since #1750 For me, reading the forum and responding to others is the way I find out what is going on in other parts of the area. I have an enormous amount of respect for posters even when we disagree on something that I posted. I am not afraid to admit that I made a mistake and to correct it on the forum but I feel that none of us who write here should be subjected to reading words such as "explain" by him as we have been since post #1750 on this thread.

There is something new on the B/82 that was posted on Kings County Politics a couple of days ago. kingscountypolitics.com brooklyn-lawmakers-on the-move-August-30-2018. Scroll down to "Colton applauds MTA's revised plan for SBS service on B/2 route". In addition there are two other political related items that are posted there that may be of interest to those who want to know how a candidate stands on an issue involving transit. "Gournades promotes Marty Golden's lock box bill" and "Hamilton, Myrie weigh in on mass transit woes". A reminder as Primary Day is less than two weeks away (Thursday September 13, 2018) and now is the time to ask your local and state representatives about how they stand on improving and funding the MTA as the candidates need your vote to win.

If my memory serves me correctly, I was reading on this thread where someone mentioned the possibility of re-routing the B/49 to Ocean Avenue from Avenue Z to Emmons Avenue instead of its present routing. For the record, the route will not be changed now or in the future. For those who cannot understand why there must be B/49 service on Avenue Z? Sheepshead Bay Library (East 14th Street near Avenue Z) Post Office Brooklyn NY 11235 (Avenue Z and East 18th Street serves the entire Manhattan Beach area) St. Marks Catholic Church and School (Avenue Z and Ocean Avenue) Stop and Shop (Avenue Y and East 17th Street) This is in addition to the Sheepshead Bay B and Q Station where service to Manhattan is on the same platform not like Brighton Beach! Everything is focused on KCC, a college and when Brooklyn Bus trumpets the college, he forgets all the public and religious schools and their students on the B/44 local and SBS that will now be unable to board as the B/4 SBS will have standing room only prior to turning on to Nostrand Avenue. It is quite evident that Brooklyn Bus has not seen the crowds during the mid- late afternoon at Avenue X for the B/36, B/44 local and SBS, and the periodic fights while waiting for the bus which disrupts our local businesses. Anyway, Kingsborough has its own fleet of buses to transport their students to the Brighton Beach Station along with the B/1 , so why do they need a B/44 SBS serving the college? They can expand the fleet of buses to transport their students direct from the college to the station and not disrupt the B/44..

The 20 riders getting on the B/44 SBS at Avenue X are riding in the northbound direction and the number of riders getting off the B/44 SBS at Avenue X in the southbound direction is approximately the same number with higher figures during school hours. Statistics can be used to justify anything that the person wants it to be promote a particular point of view for the purposes of having the idea become the controlling viewpoint. For example, not allowing voters to have a voter Id card prevents people from voting. This is not true as voter participation statistics and therefore voter turnout is not impacted by the use of a voter ID card as the opposite has to shown to be true. Yet we continue to be bombarded with statistics that the voter ID card prevents people from voting. This is my point as every time Brooklyn Bus have mentioned the six B/44 SBS riders to Knapp Street, is is designed to promote his misguided view that there is a need for service to Manhattan Beach for which there is zilch, nada demand here. How do i know that the residents in my community do not want the Manhattan Beach Services? Just by riding the B/36 bus and counting the number of riders getting on and off at Ocean Avenue which is quite negligible and those that do take the bus take the B/49 north on Ocean Avenue not toward the beach. If there was demand for service to Manhattan Beach then the number of riders getting off the B/36 at either Ocean Avenue or East 18th Street would be far larger than the numbers getting off at East 15th Street which is not true. I speak to people in this community all the time and I have never heard anyone here or on the bus mention that there is a need for service to Manhattan Beach. Yet he keeps pushing the lie that the B/44 SBS should be extended there even though there is no need or demand for it. You want it as B/35 via Church explained quite clearly in his recent post for the students to get to and from Kingsborough so it helps your community while at the same time it destroys the service in my community who wants no part of it As far as Mr. Byford's statement to you about how long it will take for him to study your proposal, accept the reality that there are other more pressing needs that are a priority for him of which everyone on this board can name quite a few At least you got an honest answer.so I would not be offended at all.

Allan (Brooklyn Bus) stated that the traffic on Avenue Z is not that bad near the station, Really as every time I take the B/36 to the Brighton Line Station, we seem to get stuck in traffic on Avenue Z from the Ocean Avenue to the station segment as I carefully delineated the reasons why in that short segment. It seems that Brooklyn Bus does not have to wait on Avenue Z under the trestle when three different buses try to board passengers (4,36 and 49) without tying up traffic on Avenue Z. I think he forgot that his routing of the B/36 in November 1978 to stop under the trestle on Avenue Z (I am not referring to the 1978 change only the location of the stop) sent the B/36 on the slippery slope that took 20 years to recover from even though he had it routed via Sheepshead Bay Road six months later. The routing continued until Councilman Chaim Deutsch and his friends in the taxi industry (a man who you praised in the previous post on this thread) destroyed what we in my community worked so hard to change for the better.A political note as Chaim Deutsch would not have been able to run for that seat if the former Council speaker did not want to get even with Lou Fielder for losing the congressional race to Republican Bob Turner in 2012 which Carlos Danger A/K/A Anthony Weiner was forced to resign from earlier Let me state quite emphatically that no one in the community where I live wants the B/44 SBS to be extended to Manhattan Beach now or in the future. In addition there are many on this forum who know the B/44 local and SBS route that have either made or are making constructive suggestions to improve the service and none of them have had anything nice to say about the B/44 SBS going to his Manhattan Beach. Brooklyn Bus' constant refrain about 6 riders going to Knapp Street reminds me of a book that i have been searching for and I have not been able to find titled "How to lie with statistics" which is applicable to his use of the 6 people as the ends justify the means. As far as his work for the MTA in Operations Planning, that is in the past as he retired 14 years ago. It means one thing as he is out of the agency and no one in the MTA (or anyone else) has to listen to him as he is just one person among the 8 million New York City residents .hat have the right to voice an opinion which he is doing on the forum and I can express my opposition to his view on the subject. It is the same thing with his views on Andy Byford, who I got to know from the Toronto Star and the Toronto Transit Commission. I have stated numerous times that Mr. Byford should be cut some slack as compared with many of this predecessors who were just there to fill the job. Mr. Byford is fighting an entrenched bureaucracy that will fight tooth and nail ty as to protect their turf as he tries to help improve the service slowly one small step at a time.