Interested Rider

so was the B/44 SBS starting this morning

The more things change on Staten Island, the more that they stay the same. Even though I have been on the island once since I retired at the end of September 2010, the more I read here, the more nothing will change. Anyone who proposes artics for Staten Island does not know how narrow the streets are throughout the island. For example; Broadway is a two way street with one lane in each direction. The street is far narrower as compared with other streets in other boroughs where the regular buses run so it is no good for the S/53 artics. By sending artics to the island, it destroys the flexibility that the TA has now with 40 ft. buses as in case of need, you cannot run them on almost all the streets. Try Van Duzer Street or Arthur Kill Road (s/74) or some of the streets on the north shore and Tottenville for example, then the prohibition becomes quite clear. When the TA places artics on a route,, the headways on that route increase (the B/44 is a prime example) and increasing headways on Staten island would be an unmitigated disaster. The S/59 to Tottenville is run to provide service to the schools on Hylan Boulevard and thus the limited hours. At other times, the route operates to Hylan Boulevard as the S/78 could handle the passenger loads. Staten Island (when I went to school out close to 50 years ago) there had the S/6 Grymes Hill shuttle and three other routes that only ran to the ferry during rush hours as the S/6 Victory Boulevard-Jewett Avenue was the all times route to and from the ferry. The routes were the 106 Watchogue Road (later became the S/67),111 Bradley Avenue (S/61) and the 112 Victory Boulevard - Travis (S/62). As the island grew, it became necessary for the routings to be changed (and thank you Brooklyn Bus), two of the three shuttles had their schedules and routings changed to the ferry to provide service at during the day. The exception was the S/67 which retained its rush hour status until it was eliminated. The island continues to experience growth and that is why there is a need for more buses and when I think back to my days on the S/79 right around this time, the S/79 was one big disaster with the crowds. The one hour ride from the Transit Center to Brooklyn took at least an hour and a half and it was stranding room all the way. One last comment to all my fellow posters here on the forum: Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your families.

When I do go to Manhattan during the week (which is quite rare), i will take the B or the Q. Returning home, I always make my way back to the Q as I know how fast the B is cancelled without any notice. I remember standing at Columbus Circle waiting on a Friday evening for a B train for 45 minutes and not hearing anything so I finally took the D to the Q. After that, it was (and is) the Q to get home. It seems that the B is annulled very frequently for the reasons that the TA gives us all the time. The question then becomes would it not be better if the B was rerouted via either the N or D to Coney Island where (if the problem was resolved) the trains could be rerouted back to the Brighton Line? This is the question that I asking of the MTA.

What is being proposed here is similar to how the 8th Avenue Subway replaced the Pitkin Avenue (Fulton Street) elevated line in the mid 1950's. Liberty Avenue (Replaced Hinsdale Street and Pennsylvania Avenue) Van Siclen Avenue (same on both lines) Shepherd Avenue (replaced Linwood Street and Montauk Avenue) Euclid Avenue (replaced Chestnut Street and Crescent Street- Liberty Avenue) Both of the elevated structures were built at about the same time in the 1880's and therefore the station spacing is about the same. The difference is that while the Pitkin Avenue elevated structure was replaced by the 8th Avenue Subway, the proposal to replace the Jamaica Avenue elevated never really got off the ground.

Someone did not bother to check the subway map or for that matter the Brooklyn Bus Map! Warwick does not replace Norwood as Norwood is at least 7-8 blocks further east of Warwick Street. Warwick would replace Van Siclen Avenue and Cleveland Street Stations as Cleveland Street Station is two blocks east of Warwick Street.

On the B/36, we get everything and the strollers are no exception along with the wheelchairs and the shopping carts. The strollers should be folded up and not left on the floor so that people can trip over them which I have seen when i ride the bus. A person holding a baby deserves a seat and I will always give a seat to that person if I can get the riders who will not move themselves to give the person room to get to where I am sitting on the bus.

Add 9442-9447 to the list for the Q as it was in service as of last Tuesday at 11:30 AM. In fact there were 2 consecutive Q trains with 94 cars five minutes apart on the Q going northbound at that time.

I just mentioned Utica Avenue - Eastern Parkway as a possible terminal for the B/15 as a point of discussion. The issue here is how do you improve the service without coming to the conclusion that the B/15 should be divided into two routes which I think that there is agreement. The question becomes what will be the terminals of the two routes? Where are the riders from the airport off the bus and the local riders take over which can help determine where the routes should be split with a possible small extension to a major transit center which will improve the service. i believe that the route along with some other routes are too long and while it is a standard in many other cities ( Baltimore for example) have it, it does not help us in New York City. This is why sometimes that five years down the line or less depending upon the amount of delays, the route change has to looked at to see if it is working or does it have to be tweaked to improve the service. This is what has to be done with the B/15 and why I think the B/82 select bus will be a failure.

I notice that no one has posted about what happened to Bus 4226 on the Bx!3 this past Sunday night? It was reported in the York Daily News and the New York Post on Monday that the bus was hit by a brick that penetrated the roof on the bus while traveling on Ogden Avenue toward the George Washington Bridge about 9 PM this past Sunday night. Thankfully the bus driver was not injured and the one passenger who was injured was not hurt that badly and is in our prayers Can the bus be repaired?

i hate to say it but it is all about the money and the public be damned. if the pot of money that the Federal Government was offering to cities for services such as SBS did not exist, i wonder what the MTA would have done to improve service. Based on past history, most likely there would have been more "limited" routes without paying the fare outside the bus. Let's face it as many streets are too narrow and Lefferts Boulevard is no exception as well as the side streets that the Q/10 operates. This is common throughout the city and is one of the reasons that buses that operate on these streets are always delayed but as long as federal money is available for SBS, the MTA will implement it even if other less costly alternatives do work. Let me ask one question of my fellow posters; How long is too long for a bus route? If a route takes one hour to go from terminal to terminal is that too long? Or is one and half hours too long for a one way trip? The M/5 to South Ferry, was a prime example of a route being far too long and the posters on this forum stated this from when it started until it was cut back recently. The B/82 is too long and the SBS designation will not help the route nor will help the B/15. The B/82 has something in common with the B/15 (formerly the B/10)? Both of these routes were created through mergers (B/50 and B/5), (New Lots trolley and Sumner/Sackett Trolley lines which were replaced by bus service) and the end result was what we have now along with the problems that came with the mergers. Both of these routes are prime examples of what looks good on paper, is in reality, a nightmare. My suggestion for the B/15 is to restore the original B/10 which had terminals at Woodhull Hospital and Elderts Lane and have a separate B/15 route from Kennedy Airport to possibly Utica Avenue- Eastern Parkway. As far as the B/82 is concerned, bring back the B/5 and terminate the B/82 at Coney Island Avenue as the B/5 can handle Kings Highway and Bay Parkway. One last comment about the bench sitters that frequent the bus shelters. I see them all the time and what could you say to people who consider the shelter as their private bench. We are fortunate over here as there are always people waiting for the bus so the bus driver has to stop anyway.

The Queens routes that are proposed for SBS have been discussed recently on the thread involving the Queens bus routes as have the problems with Holly Avenue and the Q/27. Personally I think that the suggestions on that thread make more sense for Queens as compared with SBS being implemented on routes out there. The way I see it, SBS is an attempt to get federal funds for something that would be better done by improving traffic flow on narrow streets where the buses are running and will continue to run even if SBS is implemented. SBS is not the cure all to improving bus service that is being toted as the best invention since sliced bread by the politicians and their friends. It is also a way to cut service on a route and this cut runs which has been done. There are other ways to do it and one of the ways (heaven forbid) is to deploy the traffic agents more often on the one lane in each direction streets where the bus routes operate but then the community will cry a river and their political friends will stop it right away by going to their friends. I see the agents in my area on a regular basis but I never see them when I venture up on the street where it is one lane in each direction. Just a comment on those riders who are what I call "stone monuments" who just stand there and every bus driver should stop at their beck and call even though they do not want the bus. if I want the particular route,, I stick up my hand so the driver can see it and keep it up even if the bus is a block away. When I am standing at a bus stop where there are multiple routes and there is no one else waiting for the route that I do not want, I wave my hand to indicate to the driver that I do not want this bus. Let's face it as there are those of us who care and will indicate to the driver our intentions and those who live in another world who think that the bus driver has a Phd degree in mind reading. He/she do not want to hear from above that he/she missed a stop as it is the "stone monuments" who are usually heard first so the driver will make the stop anyway

it does not surprise me as yesterday around noon I saw 5113 with its back attached to a tow truck at the stop on Avenue Z & Nostrand Avenue

A lot of people wait for the select bus to show up on the B/44 pole before buying their ticket as if only the local is listed on the pole, it makes no sense to buy the ticket as the local will come before the SBS. What I see as well is the ones that wait until they see the bus is 1-2 blocks away and then run to the machine to buy the ticket along with a dozen other people. The problem we have here is that the rider does not know what is at the terminal that may be ready to pull out from there. What i do is I buy my ticket regardless of what the sign says as I have a good idea as to what time the bus will come and there are many who do that if they know when the next bus is due at the stop.

See the responses to resuming Q/75 service where the issue of the Queens routes has been discussed in depth with references to the Q/88. The question remains where are you going to get the buses for more service on the route as if you increase the number of buses on one route, it means that another route will have increased headways. Artics are not always the best solution for improving bus service as it usually results in longer headways on that route.

In response to FLX9304 asking for where he can find the story, I offer the following cites which have that information. New York Daily News Oct.9, 2017 p.26 "Vet dies after Staten Island Bus Crash' Staten Island Advance Oct. 7, 2017 p.1 "A driver is critical after bang with bus"

Staten Island Advance (SILive.com) has the complete story in last Saturday's edition. My deepest sympathies to the family on the death of the driver. Arthur Kill Road is an extremely dangerous street to drive as it has one lane in each direction, hairpin turns, no passing lanes and to be quite honest is quite scary from Woodrow Road to Tottenville. There are quite a few accidents on that street and just wait for the winter as the street becomes a sheet of ice. Where the garage is the roadway is quite narrow with no place to pass.

The members of the MTA Board are chosen by the bigwigs such as the governor, mayor, and the county executives and have to be approved by the State Senate. As a result, it is a political reward job, not a job where the ability to know and ride the buses and subways on a regular basis without the cameras and microphones present even with a free metro card is a requirement. The quality of appointments to the MTA board ranges from fair to absolute disasters but there have been some exceptions over the years who did a credible job. As far as Polly Trottenberg being on the Board, she is there to make sure that Mr. Vision Zero's thoughtless ideas for improving public transit are implemented especially when it involves bus service. Those of us who ride the B/36 bus to the Sheepshead Bay Station will gladly show you her greatest accomplishment known as the East 15th Street Pigeon Plaza any day of the week. I agree that something must be done about the double parking situation when it comes to deliveries during the day. In this area it is the school buses as well that causes the double parking as they get to the location early and then wait there until the students come out of school. Sometimes there is really no solution as if parking is eliminated in front of the school or Y so that the buses could wait there, then the employees will complain as there is no parking for them. The B/44 route has an automobile dealership along with medical facilities where the double parking is rampant so what can be done about the double parking there?The reality is that many of the streets are too narrow for two way traffic and making the streets one way will make the situation even worse. The only solution is enforcement of the traffic laws on a regular basis on those streets where there are most problems but it will never happen as the screams from the businesses wold be heard from here to Albany via City Hall and Gracie Mansion and right away the situation goes back to what is was originally

I should have clarified as to what I mean by the center of the bus. What I was referring to is a reference to the wider aisle space where the seats are facing the front of the bus. I do not like to sit in the first seats in the front and even though I can sit there, I prefer the parallel seats or the back where there is usually some room (Yes! I too feel the same way as the "old" person as long I can walk to the center or the back, I will not sit in the front )or exit through the front. There are exceptions and it is usually when there is a delay in service so there are more riders on that particular bus. Last Monday was one of those days and the bus had almost no seats when I boarded (I am three stops from the end) so I sat in the assigned seats. It got worse as the shopping carts and the walkers came on board at the next two stops. I offered a person with a walker a seat but the person decided to further to the center. What drove me up a wall was when a young lady boarded the bus with a baby attached to her chest and when I tried to get an immovable object out of the way (a person, no less), I had to push it after asking for it to move to move for the lady to be given my seat. After I gave her my seat as I was getting off the next stop, I had to push my way out the front of the bus even though I asked these "people to let me and the others get off the bus". If I just happened to be in the front of the bus and there is a large number of people boarding, I step off the bus and get back on after the exiting passengers have left the bus. Maybe I and many others who write on this forum believe in and show courtesy when entering and exiting a bus as that is how we were raised by our parents properly I even hold the back door for those exiting the bus if I am leaving the bus. The problem .is that when we ride the bus, we run into these fools who don't care and will test our patience with them. I know about the ones .with the walkers and the big shopping carts that are in the center and always want to go out the front door as I see them all the time as the B/36 has more than its share. Under my breath, I am asking the same question as to why? and honestly I have not been able to come up with an answer even though I know that they have heard the announcement to do so hundreds of times. The problem we have is too many people who are under the mistaken impression that rules don't apply to them even though it is in their best interest to follow them. We will never be able to change these people and no matter how many rules are announced or broadcast on buses these fools will never follow them.

As far as the B/36 going to the junction, that is another one of those ideas that should be put to bed. When the B/44 SBS was being proposed, it was bought up at the hearings about the problems between the junction and Kings Highway. What has been done about it since that time? Nothing of course and in fact, I think that it has gotten worse especially north of Avenue L. The B/44 SBS and local handles the loads very well and will do better if there was some traffic enforcement being done on a regular basis but I feel that that will never happen for political reasons. I think that problems of Access a Ride have made many of the elderly ride the local buses instead of waiting for a service that some may consider undependable, they opt for the local bus and this creates another problem in terms of time. Some routes have a large number of riders who board with either walkers or wheelchairs which results in longer boarding times at stops further delaying the bus. If we add the shopping carts to the mix, then it becomes highly probable that the route will not run on time and this despite the fact that almost all the buses being low floor with the exception of the remaining RTS'. If they would move to the center of the bus, it would help a lot as there is more room there for their walkers but for some reason they are afraid to do so.

The B/36 should remain as is as there is no need for the route to be extended to Kings Plaza as the bulk of the ridership is going to the last stop for the B/44 and the B/44 SBS. As far as a market for a B/36 extension, you have to work with the presumption that the ridership will have to come from the Coney Island end of the line as anyone who lives in this area will most likely drive there.if they go there. As far as the loop at Avenue U, there is no parking on Gravesend Neck Road from Nostrand Avenue to East 29th Street on both sides of the street and buses take their layover on either side. As far as the turn into East 29th Street and then onto Avenue U, occasionally there are some slight delays due to deliveries to the store on the corner (Kosher Palace) but for the most part, it depends on the time of day and the number of buses on layover. I raised the issue of the Avenue U turnaround when the B/44 SBS was being proposed with the MTA as well as with the store and my observation is that it seems that everyone there are doing their best to keep the buses moving on time through the intersection.

New York City is under a tropical storm watch right now for Hurricane Jose and it is supposed to start tomorrow night. A lot of the suggestions being posted here may come true depending on how fast (or slow) this storm moves during the week. I am hoping and praying that the storm stays far enough out to sea and we escape the brunt of this storm.

It seems that once the Verrazano Bridge was completed in 1964, the problems with the lack of garage space started in earnest along with a lot of other problems that persist to this very day. When Castleton was completed in 1950 (the same year as Ulmer Park, I might add), there was another garage on Victory Boulevard at Jersey Street which was given over to the Sanitation Department in the 1950's. The problem with Castleton is that it was built over Bodine Creek which led to problems up the wazoo as every time the creek flooded, there went Castleton, To give members an idea of how bad it was, I was in the process of moving to my present location between November 6-9, 1977 and we had 8 inches or rain in that period and the buses filled up and wen around the block and die as the water penetrated the fuel tanks in the garage. They finally fixed it later which means another couple of years with this problem. After the bridge was completed in November 1964, thet TA was caught in a vise as once the bridge opened so did the home building begin at a record pace. The route system was based on the 1930's and there were no plans for either garages or changes in routes until the MTA in the 1970's finally got a $500,000 grant to change the number sequence for the routes, make changes to the route structure and finally got permission to build Yukon at that time. This came about after Borough President Connor finally pawned off Pouch Terminal on the MTA after vetoing every express route for more than one year and at the same time unloaded his ex-wife in the process. So now the MTA had Pouch and the MTA started to add more express routes after the 9X was established in December 1968*. By the time Yukon was built, it was already overcrowded as the MTA had to play catch up as the express routes grew quite rapidly as new homes meant new riders that wanted express service to Manhttan. Pouch would eventually close and there was a need for a third depot which was talked about when I started working on Staten Island in April 1987 and was finally completed after I retired in September 2010 which is about 23 years from talk to completion. So from the late 1970's, the MTA was adding express routes (and later local rotues) but did not have the garage space to put the buses. There were parking lots near Castleton on Richmond Terrace and some buses would be parked on the street by the garage after being serviced. Now they have Meredith which helps a bit but if Yukon or Castleton needs any sort of major rehabilitation work that will further strain the system. As long as the MTA is playing catch up which it has been doing for over 50 years,then the problems will persist may years into the future. * I know about the 8X which was established at the same time, the S/7 took over the S/105 (Clove Road) route and extended it to Brooklyn. The 8X was a one trip thing in the morning and afternoon similar to what was done to keep a franchise route and would not fall into the definition of what is an express route today. The 9X started off with new looks 8922 -8933 and within a year the higher number local buses from 8879 -8921 were converted to express service. I rode 8921 in its first weeks on the S/6 (now S/66) in the fall of 1969 and soon afterwards, it was converted to express service. the 8X would eventually disappear many years later.

When it comes to providing correct information to the riding public over the years when it involves bus route changes, the MTA is the absolute worst by far. How many times during the day have i read posts that were totally inaccurate concerning the streets and replacing streets with avenues and vice versa. It seems that to be working in that department, you must have zero knowledge of New York City streets and the differences in street names from borough to borough. There are exceptions in that department and they I will praise as you always know when they are working as the information is always accurate. Unfortunately the so called media will not complement those in the department that provide correct information as for the most part, most of the media are just as ignorant of New York City streets as the ones who provide the incorrect information. If the media just like the MTA would do their job and call out the agency for providing incorrect information, then maybe something will be done and those providing incorrect information would be retrained and/or replaced,. I am not holding my breath that this will happen as the MTA is a bureaucracy and it will always protect its own.

I have a very simple question to ask; Who writes these posts at the MTA that are sent out to the public? It is posts like the last one that has me scratching my head as does anyone proofread what is sent out to the public for this one has me saying Huh! What happened to 36th Street Queens where the M could be sent via the F Line to the Q Line and reversed at Canal Street on the Broadway Line? ' It is the same thing with the bus posts and it has been going on for years with the same mistakes so it is obvious that they don't care about the information that is disseminated to the public as there has not been any change in years.

The first part of the comments given below are in response to an open letter that I wrote to Brooklyn Bus asking what was really a series of questions as to why bus routes in Brooklyn were not changed on a large scale until his proposals were implemented in November 1978. Listed below is his response and my response follows afterwards. As I just excerpted some of his response, it should be noted that. the complete text of both my letter and his response can be found on p. 451 of this thread. Yes, this November will be 39 years. Let me fill you in on some background you may not know to answer some of your questions. You ask why it took so long to implement the changes. The simple reason is there never has been anyone other than myself who is qualified at NYCT to understand the way people use buses and why they don't use buses. It is not as simple as looking at data with the answers popping out at you. You need to first have some theories. Then you can use the data to study if your ideas are good or not. Although I know Brooklyn well, my knowledge in the other boroughs is limited. But I can still apply what I know happens in Brooklyn to routes in the other boroughs. I can tell you for sure that B35 via Church knows more about passenger and route usage around the city than the entire MTA combined. That is not to say the MTA is incompetent. When there were bus dispatchers for each route, they were all the experts on their particular route. But the MTA never had the mechanisms in place to harness all that knowledge and put it in one place so that multiple routes could be studied at the same time like I did. When I wrote my Masters Thesis in 1972, I simply proposed combining the B1 and B34 as well as extending it to Shore Road and separate 13 Av and Fort Hamilton Parkway routes. It just seemed obvious to me. I also combined the B40 and B78, ended the duplication between the B75 and the F train by extending the B57 to Smith 9th and combining the 9th Street portion with the B77. I also proposed combining the old B47 with the old B62 as well as many other changes which the MTA finally made over the following 45 years. I also proposed extending the B9 to Bergen Beach to takeover the B41 Bergen Beach branch which the MTA is now considering as part of their proposed B41 SBS. In other words, just because many changes are obvious to you and me and others, they are not obvious to the "experts" at the MTA which also lacks the desire to improve bus routes. Now when I was doing my study from 1974 to 1978, after collecting data, I thought of a better idea than simply combining the B1 and B34 because I also wanted to straighten the B36 and get rid of the useless B21. That's when I thought up the existing B1. In 1977 when we were describing the ideas to the community boards, they told us they were asking for a single 86 Street route since the early 1960s and no one was listening. I didn't know that when I came to them with a similar proposal. The MTA stalled us for two years and still refused to name any changes until they were sued by the Natural Resources Defense Council. So no changes would have ever been made if not for that lawsuit. That's what it took although the community had been requesting the changes for 15 years. In 1978, I also proposed extending the R7 to 86 Street, the B68 to Coney Island, and the B5 to Coney Island. (They might have also been in my masters thesis too.) Those changes also were made many years later. My response begins here: There is a reason that I have been posting your response on the many threads involving bus service as a reference as it is the key to understanding how bus routing developed since the city takeover of the BMT in 1940 (The IRT was exclusively an elevated and subway system). Coming from a person that was on the inside, your comments in response to mine were quite refreshing as it finally presents a clear picture of why we have the problems with the bus system throughout the city today and why it is almost impossible to have routes changed based on changes in ridership. What has left me totally speechless was that the data was readily available but no one knew how to interpret it. Between the daily information provided by employees including dispatcher reports, fare box revenue and transfers used, the information was there but it just had to be "mined" as this was the age when computers were in their infancy and data had to be checked by hand. There was data which gave information on developing neighborhoods throughout the city, new facilities such as schools and hospitals being built but yet what I find totally incredulous was that there was no one who could interpret the data but knowing how a bureaucracy works, I am not surprised at all. It was like someone said, just let it remain the same as it was when it was a trolley route or a shuttle route (for instance like the B/1,B/21, B/2, B/31, B/77 et.. al.) and change it when it was forced upon us such as the one way streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Based on what wrote in your response, if and when data was examined, it was based on one route, not on a group of routes which is the way the data should have been analyzed as one route change impacts on one or more routes when a change was/is implemented. This gave me an answer as to why it took a virtual act of the almighty to have bus routes changed as you did in November 1978 and why the necessary changes that should have followed what you did have taken another 20 -30 years or more to be implemented. This is what happens "when there is a rigid bureaucratic structure that not only resists change but will do anything in its power to destroy anyone on the inside who dares to propose changes to them. The organization will strike back and that person will be subject to some punishment until he/she either retires or is forced out of the agency". (Quotes mine). This is how the government operates today and why "our complaints about bus service (I hate to say it) will be ignored.no matter how meritorious and justified they are and will only be implemented when the MTA is forced to do so" (Again quotes mine) As I wrote in my statement, they knew what was going on in the various communities and the need for route extensions and new routes but yet they did nothing. Here are just some examples which provides additional evidence to support your observations. Take the B/6 as it ran no further than Ralph Avenue on its east end and while the western portion of Canarsie was being built up in the late 1950's, it took them many years just to extend the B/6 to Rockaway Parkway. If I add, I was living in East New York in the mid 1950's when the Linden and Boulevard Houses opened up., they only had bus service on Linden Boulevard and nothing south of there. The only way to take the New Lots train (as we called it) was to cross Linden Boulevard, a virtual speedway and walk two more blocks to the station. When did the TA finally place a bus on Wortman or Cozine Avenues? It must have been ten years later or more.. It was 60 years ago next month that George Gershwin JHS opened to serve students from these two developments as all the schools in the area including PS 158 had some of their students participate in the celebration in June 1957 and then look at when the TA finally provided bus service to the community.The B/44 extension from Avenue U to Knapp Street did not begin operation until many years after the neighborhood was totally built up is another one that took what seemed to take forever even though it should have been in place as the Sheepshead-Nostrand houses were completed in the early 1950's. While I did not repost your statement here about the B/21, your reference from 1946 reminded me of the year that I spent at Kingsborough Community College from 1967 -1968 and the B/21. The B/21 was a U shaped route that served the beaches, Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island Hospital. It carried very few passengers and it had a headway of approximately 12 minutes during the day. When classes let out at Kingsborough, virtually no one took the B/21 but yet everyone took the B/1 as it connected to the B/49 at Shore Boulevard and Emmons Avenue even though the B/1 headway was 20 minutes or longer. The fact that it lasted another ten years still surprises me no end and that the B/49 was finally extended to the Beach sometime later after the college opened does not surprise me either. An aside as I had a B/1 driver that liked to pull out early so I decided to make a point. Every day for about five consecutive days that I rode his bus, I gave him a dollar bill to change as it was before exact change went into effect . He finally asked me why i was giving him a dollar bill and I told him, it was because he was leaving early. He got the message loud and clear as not only did he leave on time, he picked off the route as fast as he could do so. What really caught my attention was the proposed extension of the B/1 to 86th Street - 4th Avenue being implemented as part of the November 1978 changes instead of waiting until June 2010. I will be posting comments on your suggestion elsewhere on the forum for the R/7 extension to 86th Street and 4th Avenue at that time instead of waiting almost 20 years to do it. This caught my attention as I remember that i had to take the B/63 to either the B/4 or the B/1 from the R/7 on my way home and based on the time of arrival at either the parkway or the avenue, I would take either one to transfer to the B/36 in front of Coney Island Hospital where you put your life into your hands crossing there (you still do). At that time when the B/1 running over the B/34 route had the Bay Ridge Avenue ridership that it does not have now, so it may have been the best move at that time not to implement it at least in November 1978. What should have happened though was the B/1/34 combination should have been watched very carefully especially as the ridership continued to drop on the B/34 portion on Bay Ridge Avenue.and that a change should have been made way before the 2010 implementation. I appreciate your refreshingly honest response to my Monday morning quarterbacking (as they say after a football game) and while I plan to do a response concerning the R/7 move on another thread as well as to further delve into the problems of the crazy bus system, I thank you for providing a great response to the comments that i expressed on this thread. What the two of us have written here applies to all governmental agencies today and while some are less bureaucratic than others, the lesson here is that change has to come from the outside as it will not come from the agency itself despite all the hot air that is generated today by the people who have helped to create the problem in the first place..