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MidwoodMartin

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Everything posted by MidwoodMartin

  1. The plan is 7-7, not 24/7. I'm not sure why the signs don't list the times. Rumors float around all the time. I wouldn't believe them all.
  2. No, it was a compromise with elected officials. Originally only rush hour lanes were planned. Then Councilman Chaim Deutsch and others complained about parking spots. So DOT offered two alternatives. Those alternatives included less bus lanes (meaning more parking spots for Chaim Deutsch and others) but in return things such as left-turn bans. The alternative they chose (a variation of alternative 2) was the one with the least amount of bus lanes, but also one with them being 7-7 instead of rush hour only. You can find the details for each alternative at https://bklyner.com/two-alternatives-for-select-bus-route-along-kings-highway/. TL;DR: 7-7 lanes weren't retaliation, but part of one of the alternatives offered to parking-obsessed politicians that would reduce bus lanes.
  3. I'm also interested in this. Does anyone know the B46 SBS fleet? Is it more or less than 22?
  4. I asked about the B82 SBS at the '#AskNYCT' session last Thursday. Here was the response I got from Darryl Irick: Figured I should post this here to keep people updated, especially after reading the past couple of threads of people asking for updates. This does seem like good news to me and shows that the MTA hasn't abandoned the plan, like that KingsCountyPolitics article seemed to suggest. However, it does suggest that the scheduled July launch is not the goal anymore. Not sure what "consultation with the community" means here. What are they talking about? Negotiating the hours? The bus lane currently proposed is already only 6 hours. What are they going to do? Make it 2 hours? I have also noticed that on those big yellow/orange DOT construction cones (ones that look like this) on the B82 bus stops (the ones that logically are there for vending machines, as they were put on bus stops right after sidewalks were opened up) there is now a little black screw inserted where there wasn't previously, at least not on the stops I observed. Seems to make the cones more difficult to remove or connect them with something. It might just be DOT rolling out what they were scheduled. Then I don't know why there wouldn't be a date or any postponement.
  5. Heh. Yeah. I wonder how that discussion would go. Surely those suburban families and the locals would all be understanding of the need for a better B82 and rapid transit and not oppose any changes to Avenue P for the sake of a few parking spots at a few hours a day. Surely they'd be interested in serious discussions and debates rather than to outright stop any SBS on Avenue P. Surely they wouldn't wait until the last minute to get upset about a plan which would already be on the brink of implementation. /s We had discussions on the B82 SBS on Kings Highway since 2015. Now it's time to launch it, not postpone it. If the Mayor of New York City stood right in front of them telling them that there's gonna be a SBS on Kings Highway but they say months later they didn't know about it, what exactly do you call proper publicity?
  6. Let me just weigh in one thing about Avenue P: you guys realize this is a street with residential houses, families and driveways? Now imagine a bus with 28k people daily just comes along, out of nowhere without asking, and stops in front of your house along a curbside bus lane? That's sort-of invading your privacy. And it can make it more difficult for people to exit their driveway too. I rather have a bus on a street with businesses (where it's been for YEARS!) than on one with houses. Sure, other buses run on similar streets. But they've been there for years and those streets are not exactly Avenue P. It also seemed to me from the B82 SBS opponents that some don't even know that a B82 currently exists! I know how foreign it can be for a car owner to think about buses but that doesn't mean riders aren't a part of the community. Plus, you'd likely have the same stupid protests with Avenue P. The bus lane would still take up parking. What difference does it make if you "take" parking from Avenue P or from Kings Highway? People can walk from Avenue P to shop on Kings Highway the same way people could, according to some of the people here, walk from Avenue P to Kings Highway to take a B82! BTW I wouldn't call the bus lane "taking" parking away. I'd call it delaying parking, as that lane would only be active for 6 hours per day on weekdays only, which is already a giant concession from the DOT/MTA. The B82 on Ave P is a joke of a proposal and once the same people who did the protest realize that, they'd oppose that as well. People need to realize that Kings Highway is not a countryside. It's in urban Brooklyn! Yes, it is a bit like Manhattan. Every borough has business districts like that. They need normal bus service, not locals where people fight for oxygen. As if one bus lane, partially installed, active few hours on weekdays is somehow going to "ruin the neighborhood". Can it get any more irrational? The only rational solution here is to go and launch the B82 SBS. If someone would propose a B82 Local today on Kings Highway where there was none, don't you think those protesters would turn out as well? You can't deal with people who will oppose ANYTHING which makes them and their driving habits feel uncomfortable. Someone wants to build a medical center? OPPOSE. Someone wants to build a business? OPPOSE. Someone wants to fix up a bus route which serves thousands of people daily? OPPOSE. I don't want to call them NIMBYs, but what other term is there to call these people if they think the whole world revolves around parking spots! And that's just not the case, especially not in Brooklyn. At some point you just have to launch something to help the route and with that the community. And BTW, one more thing: the freaking MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK announced this plan at Chaim Deutsch's town hall LAST YEAR! In front of the WORLD! Live streamed! What are they talking about they only found out a month ago? No, Chaim Deutsch sent his press release about a month ago. That's when they "found out". The plan itself was there since 2015, they just didn't pay attention. That's not the DOT's fault! All it takes is for Chaim Deutsch to send one dumb and misleading press release and this entire area goes crazy! They're only well organized because they're tightly knit and 'everybody knows each other'. And you know what- that's great! That's beautiful! I love these warm and fuzzy communities. But that doesn't mean they're people who the DOT or MTA should listen to if they're being completely irrational on a topic. If the agencies care about their votes and are postponing it because of that, what they should do is launch the B82 SBS in late 2018 or early 2019, when there are no elections that year. I hope that's the DOT/MTA's strategy.
  7. I forgot to post this here for some reason. If anyone would like to come out tomorrow morning to advocate for the B82 SBS and to counter the opponents, please do so: https://www.facebook.com/events/1982126291828751/ Please come out if you support the B82 SBS.
  8. Local riders? Seriously? I took the B82 hundreds of times. Most people avoid the local buses to get to a limited one. The limited stops are not too far from local stops. It's not like with the B44 where there was a senior center next to a local stop. And even there they're adding an SBS stop now. Again, I do believe that rides with cars will become faster as well due to the B82 getting out of their lane. Not for a second do I believe that the B82 SBS would increase any car ride by 30 minutes, nor have I seem any data to prove that. " Let's look at that report from the comptroller. It does show improvements. It just says that they're slim. Plus you keep forgetting one major factor which statistics can't even prove if they wanted to: SBS reduces overcrowding. You have no idea how many buses I skipped due to them being packed to oblivion. You might say: just put in articulated buses! I say: without SBS, that isn't happening anytime soon! The 27k daily riders of the SBS shouldn't wait for 20 years for the MTA to bring them in without SBS. I can tell you that if I don't have to skip 4 buses due to overcrowding, that I will make it to my destination faster. Now the reports won't show that since they simply look at speed. Not at how many buses I have to skip to get to that bus in the first place. That's exactly my point! We can't wait 20 years for those improvements to happen on their own. The B82 needs them now and SBS is providing them in one package. I agree with both you and B35 to Church that the SBS is highly unlikely to cause the route to be flawless. Yes, people might still have concerns even with the SBS. But it's something. And something is better than nothing.
  9. Well, doesn't SBS deserve the credit? Question is, can they do these things without SBS? Sure, theoretically they could. Make 20 different projects. One for a bus lane, one for an articulated bus, one for the off-board tickets, one for reroutes etc. But we both know that without it being done under SBS those things simply would be virtually impossible to achieve. So the SBS is a great tool which advances these projects and actually gets them done. Just think of it. By this summer it will all be complete. Without SBS, these improvements to the B82 might have never seen the light of day. The SBS isn't going to cause significantly lower patronage. The "lower" numbers for some of the SBS routes are very slim. I'd even argue those are natural declines in bus ridership. Plus many SBS routes have shown an increase in ridership. Oh and why spend that money on the route if not for increased ridership? Well, maybe so that people wouldn't be late to work or school or other places they need to be? To help over 27k everyday riders on the B82 who are struggling in crowded and delayed buses. I think that's worth it. Again, SBS is not just there to increase ridership. That's one of the outcomes which is hoped. But even without it it has many, many benefits. Again, you expect someone to put in articulated buses just like that? Without it being done for SBS? I see that as very, very, very unlikely. I was talking about 1601 Kings Highway and Kingswood Center where the B82 goes to. I did look at that report, I have a copy of it at home. It's a report, I'd say, partly based on misleading data and flawed conclusions. However, even that report said that SBS improved many of those routes. It just said that the improvement wasn't as strong as expected. It's main criticism was that SBS wasn't the "magical solution" it was promised to be. And I don't think SBS is supposed to be that "magical solution". Yes, routes can still have issues even with SBS. The B82 might still have issues even as a SBS. But if you ask people who now ride SBS routes over their old limited routes, I'd say that a vast majority (in my experience) have said that service has improved for them. The B82 is such a terrible route that it doesn't need a "magical solution". It just need some answer. An answer. Just something to reduce those crowds and make these buses run. Even just some improvement in speed and some reduction in the large crowds could help many thousands of people come to work or school on time. And that's an important thing to do. I don't think that's realistic at all. You expect the DOT/MTA to team up and do all of those things (lanes, reroutes, articulated buses) just like that? Come on. Let's be realistic. It seems you agree with much of the rest of the SBS (enforced bus lanes, articulated buses, off-board ticketing), but oppose it because of a few lanes you find unnecessary. I see SBS as a really great opportunity to help this broken bus. Real improvements without an incentive for the DOT/MTA to do it? It's just unrealistic.
  10. Why do what SBS does, without SBS? Come on. Let's be honest. Was someone really going to do anything about the B82 bus route without it becoming a SBS route? I highly, highly, highly, highly doubt that. I highly doubt that anyone was going to install multiple bus lanes, ticketing stations, bring in articulated buses, and reroute the bus without it being done under the SBS banner. And especially not by 2018. In fact, I believe you do need SBS to do all of this. I took the B82 in the mornings (7am), afternoons (2-5pm) and evenings (7-9pm). And each and every time it was the same exact horror story. Crowds and movement you could beat many times by walking. I did check a presentation and did find one graph (pg 9) which used only 4:30-7pm and that had some more dark green areas, but still a huge number of red and dark orange areas. Feel free to send me one which shows great difference by time period. I wasn't able to find it. And if you'd take the B82 for a week, every day, I strongly believe that you'd find that data more than accurate. And does it really make sense to put a bus lane on one part of the street and then none on the other? Simply because one part on average has greater MPH than the other? On some parts I understand why the bus lanes don't encompass both streets or are not done at all due to parking concerns and lack of lanes. But those wide routes would see no parking reduction since the bus runs in the middle of the road. I don't see the goal of SBS to simply increase patronage or to lower fair evasion. Patronage by the numbers on the B82 is going to increase simply because of the many developments in the area. Imagine people trying to get to the new Target or Century21 on the B82 we have now. SBS is coming just at the right time to meet those people. Fair evasion is unstoppable with the current B82. There are thousands of people who jump onto the current B82 from the back door without paying due to the insane crowds, even though they might have payment. That's going to reduce automatically with the SBS. I don't need proof from other routes for that. And you're telling me that a bus with dedicated bus lanes over a bus that fights double-parked cars and trucks for hours every day will be only "slightly more reliable"? Even other routes, though they might improve only "slightly" (another word up for interpretation), have improved. The B82 is so awful that the SBS should have significant positive impact. Not every route has the overcrowding, the delays and the slow speeds the B82 has. It's a route which is uniquely broken and needs improvement. SBS is doing that improvement this summer. Without SBS the improvement might have come in a decade or two, maybe never.
  11. Three small sections? You're kidding, right? You see that huge chunk of red from McDonald to Kings Hwy? That's the part where the B82 goes below 5 MPH. That's a "small section"? Plus everything in dark orange and yellow is where it goes below 15 MPH. Only the green part is above 15 MPH and only the very dark green is above 20 MPH. So ONLY ONE section is above 20 MPH. McDonald Ave to E 16th St: less than 5 MPH (That's not a small section. That includes 2 separate subways (F and Q/B and a huge school. That's a major section.) W7 to McDonald Ave: less than 10MPH Kings Hwy to Nostrand: less than 15 MPH Only a few sections go above 20 MPH. And as I mentioned to you before, if part of the route keeps the B82 delayed in traffic - the rest of the route is affected. Splitting the route apart isn't going to help it as those sections where the bus goes below 5 MPH are stretched out throughout the entire route. (see image) Obviously, if the entire route would be going 15-20 MPH then a SBS would be unnecessary. But that's simply not the case. And again, who says that a bus lane would delay cars? If buses and cars wouldn't have to compete for space, the traffic flow could be smoothed out. I'd argue the bus lane would help many cars as well. And to simply say it's a waste to fix the B82 because you don't ride it isn't completely fair neither. The people on that video and over 25 thousand other B82 riders can benefit from the SBS. And it's the right thing to do. Thankfully it has already started as well.
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