Good evening everyone. I'm a new member (as of the Admin's approval this evening), but I spent the weekend catching up on this thread, so I'm up-to-speed. My name is Chris, and I live in Bellmore on the N46 route. I have a few questions and observations on NICE in general.
Yesterday (Sunday), 2 NICE buses came past my house at about 1:15PM. Since the N46 has no weekend service, I thought that maybe the drivers were lost or on some long detour. I looked out my window just in time to see that the second one was #1650, and the information sign said "Training Bus." Ahhhh, that explained it. Is it a normal thing for NICE to conduct training on weekday-only routes? Is it normal for 2 "Training Bus" units to follow each other? I had never seen this before.
Occasionally, I see buses with a "Promotional Bus" information sign on them. I always wonder what that means. Do the lucky bus riders get a free ride on these units? If so, do they have to pay first and then receive a voucher for a free ride in the future, or is it just "no charge" as soon as a rider gets on?
I think that part of the problem with the lateness of NICE buses is the redesign and traffic light resequencing that was done on both Hempstead Turnpike and Jericho Turnpike. These routes have become a lot slower to drive due to the long red lights (so that pedestrians can cross safer) and the light sequences that prevent traffic from going more than a half mile without stopping. The lateness of the buses is a side effect of these changes.
That's all I have for now. G'night all.