Interested Rider

I know the community as I went to school with many of them over a half a century ago and nothing has changed except that the community has expanded over the years as the children want to be close to their parents. At that time, the community was considered "wealthy" in comparison to others in the area and now is it is more wealthy as compared to other parts of Brooklyn that adjoin the area such as Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay. This is a community where there is a lot of building going on as one family homes on big lots are being replaced by bigger homes on the same lots. This is a community that insulates itself from other communities as it has its own institutions within its area (when I was going to school, their children attended the public schools but not anymore) and the prices for homes and apartments make it next to the impossible to afford anything there. As soon as the children can drive, they do and the bus becomes irrelevant to them. In my travels over the years on the B/3 (which also goes through the community), I seldom if ever saw the adults from the community unless they were elderly riding the buses and i rode at all hours. As far as the traffic agents are concerned, they seem to be all over the area of Nostrand Avenue south of Avenue U and the surrounding streets but I cannot recollect when i saw them in other areas. When I ride the B/44 SBS, I see that nothing has changed since it was a limited except that that the route has artics and the headways have increased as compared to prior to its implementation. If the MTA and the DOT are so interested in making the B/82 run better then send it via Avenue P to West 6th Street and then onto Kings Highway. The passengers that take the Brighton Line will have to walk a bout half a block (similar to the B/36 at the Brighton Line) and the F train stops at Avenue P. This will alleviate the problem as Avenue P unlike Kings Highway has three lanes in each direction and the business district runs from McDonald Avenue to Ocean Parkway only.

While I am reading all of this information that is being furnished here on the b/82 along with what the MTA and the DOT are trying to do to improve the portion of the route between Ocean avenue and McDonald Avenue, let me say it will not work. I read the local publications that are read by the community and they are up in arms as to the loss of parking especially between McDonald and Ocean Avenues . To give everyone an idea of how much opposition, there is, one of the publications contained two articles outlining its effect on local businesses including a full page letter from a community association outlining how to write a letter and to address it to the governor, not the mayor (it should be noted). Honestly, the community does not play and every single elected leader is beholden to the community so if it is opposed to something like this, rest assured the local leaders will do everything in their power to stop the removal of parking spaces on Kings Highway. The community except the school age children do not ride the B/82. They drive to the stores and anything that interferes with the ability to park such as taking away their parking spots for a bus only lane will find that the bus only lane will be filled with parked cars and no traffic agents in sight if they appear on the first couple of days at all after the route is implemented. If anything, the service will get worse as Brooklyn Bus has stated (just look at the B/44 SBS with its 20 minute headway south of Avenue U during the weekday non-rush hours when it used to be less than that) and how it still gets stuck in traffic at the locations that the DOT and MTA were told it would happen when the route was first implemented by many of us who went to the meetings. Neither the DOT nor the MTA understand how these communities have changed over many years which has been discussed numerous times in different threads by Via Garibaldi, myself and others and its impact upon bus service in this part of Brooklyn. What looks good on paper to those who work for the MTA and the DOT, has no basis in reality as what is being promised is just plain "pie in the sky".

All of the routes from Avenue J down to Avenue U have the same problem as the B/82 as the routes all traverse shopping areas from either Ocean Parkway or Coney Island Avenue to Ocean Avenue. Note Avenue J it is its to the East 16th Street. The problem is that other than Avenue P all the streets are virtually one lane in each direction and there is virtually no off street parking on any of the streets. If a truck has to make a delivery in many cases it has no alternative but to double park and right away the street gets clogged up. What gets me angry is not the delivery trucks but the private cars that double park and make illegal u-turns on those streets. Do I think that anything will be done to help the B/82 other than stepped up traffic enforcement? Quite honestly, no and forget the traffic enforcement as whether it is the B/82, B/3, B/6, B/11 or B/9, the answer is a flat out no as that is what i define as moneyed Brooklyn and they come out to vote in big numbers. So while the B/82 will have the SBS tag, it will be the same B/82 as it did not carry the SBS tag on that section of Kings Highway.

Thankfully, Flatbush has two SBS routes with the B/44 having the artics and the B/46 having 40 footers. So when there is a storm like this , the B/44 can still run SBS with 40 footers and keep the artics off the streets.

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.