Axis

I miss the last Q44 bus by one light for 20 minutes because one stupid “Baby On Board” FUV didn’t want to move fast enough...and I now have to just miss the train from Jamaica to Cedarhurst, wait an hour for the next one, AND be late to work...because no advocacy group on here wants to care about the most underserved part of Queens/LI. Enjoy your stupid Patriot Day!

To be perfectly honest, I think the bottom line here is...the n24 was probably just not meant to act like a parallel to the n22 by being extended between Roosevelt Field & Hicksville in the first place, considering that’s exactly how it was back in the day.

I feel like the way the route was designed, given the ridership, traffic, and runtime, maybe giving away the Old Country Road segment from the n78/n79 to the n24 all those years ago has since overwhelmed the route & it’s reliability in a way.

But the question is, if you had to revert the n24 to it’s pre-Hicksville configuration, what do you throw onto Old Country Road?

17 hours ago, Snorunts said:

More like the MTA is a joke. The people in charge of buses need to start drinking their morning coffee. ☕️

More like have their morning coffee get spilled all over them.

If there were any other big changes, I probably haven’t noticed them yet (mostly because they don’t specify everything that’s actually changed, the way Bee-Line does).

Fall 2019 Schedule Changes are out: https://www.nicebus.com/Passenger-Information/Summer-2018-Schedule-Changes

Things that come to mind:

n16 - I’m honestly curious to see how this n16J pilot goes. I really hope that against all odds, it gets expanded to a full-blown express route (maybe with added stops in Mineola & Roosevelt Field).

n20 - They really overhauled the schedule with this one (mainly the n20H). Slight reduction in service, but now everything is much more sensibly spaced out than ever before (the former 40 minute gap in weekday evening PM rush shoulder service out of Great Neck was such an eyesore to even glance at). Plus weekday nights & Saturdays are seeing service end later with a new late night trip added out of Flushing to Great Neck. Also, weekend n20H service has this funny looking 65-minute frequency going for it now. Welp, at least it helps the last few of Sunday trips out of Hicksville leave equally apart & later (presumably so people can stay out a little longer).

n31/32 - Seeing what trips at what times are designated as n31 or n32 have been incredibly inconsistent during the weekday evening shoulder when Queens-bound service becomes too infrequent too early. Can’t wait to leave work just to be rejected from the last bus for the next hour again, and have to lead 10+ people to Mott/Rockaway to get a Q114 instead.

n35 - I do specifically recall that last weekday evening departure out of Westbury being truncated to Roosevelt Field. Apparently it got extended back to Hempstead Transit Center. Odd...

On 8/28/2019 at 8:26 AM, NY1635 said:

NICE is testing out a pilot shuttle for Queens residents attending NCC this fall. It's supposed to be making stops at Sutphin Archer, 179th Street Subway, Old Country Road, and then Endo Blvd. 

https://www.nicebus.com/Passenger-Information/Nassau-community-college

Guess I oughta buy a lottery ticket now, with that kind of luck of predicting stuff...

Here’s a bright idea. How about run trains to Bedford Park during middays to compensate for the once every 1̶6̶ 30 minute train bs. 

FOH with the 20 bus going too slow and making me just miss the last train for 15 minutes.

I propose we crowdfund buffed weekday midday Manhattan to Bedford Park/Woodlawn/Cross County scope of service (or at least begin by bringing back all-day full-time bidirectional BxM4C). Or...tell people to stop going up here when there aren’t enough trains & buses to go around in the first place, so everything stops being too crowded AND slow.

17 hours ago, Brillant93 said:

Some buses may not be on the radar. Today I was waiting for the B82 select and it showed a near 20 minute gap but the bus showed up 6 minutes instead of 20. That bus just wasn’t on gps. 

Once again, you are not using your head. If the bus has 20+ standees, all seats filled, and there is a 40+ minute gap between it & the bus ahead of it, how on Earth is there an invisible bus in between them?!

22 hours ago, GojiMet86 said:

Just curious, which carrier is responsible for the phone wifi/internet around the Queensboro Plaza area? That area has been a deadspot for years and it seems like they will wait for the buildings to be built, which may take decades.

Parsons between Hillside & Archer is another deadzone, at least from my experience.

40 minute gap in Jamaica-bound Q114 service. By the time a bus finally shows up here in Cedarhurst, the Q114 bus ahead is already at Archer Avenue. Completely SRO, zero seats available (I chose to sit on the steps in the back because FOH with standing up for the entire trip). Do you so-called advocates & dispatchers have literally zero self-respect or something?

On 8/17/2019 at 9:53 AM, B35 via Church said:

An express Q46 from the subway to Springfield (meaning, catering to those that need the subway, east of Springfield) is too narrow a riderbase & from the subway to Francis Lewis wouldn't add that many more people on these suggested Q46 expresses, compared to Springfield..... I used to work at LIJ & used to do the whole Q46 from end to end bit & you're right, too large a majority are taking buses west of 188th to have buses running nonstop to some point well east of that.... Glen Oaks patrons are too busy driving or taking QM6's/36's to worry about bombarding on Q46's enough to support such a service pattern... It'd loom immaterial.....

As far as the Q46 vs. the n25 @ LIJ, I'd say it's a push; never definitively saw more or less people taking either over the other.... It is something to be said though that you even have people willing to a] backtrack, b] put up w/ n25 service, and c] xfer to another NICE bus route, to get to the subway.....

I do wonder how well the n26 would be able to compete with the n25 & Q46 if it were [hypothetically] buffed to full-time service...

On 8/22/2019 at 1:43 AM, NewFlyer 230 said:

The best way to fix the Q113/114 is by having better dispatching and buses that actually leave on time.  

No amount of dispatching is going to stop hundreds of vehicles from gridlocking Rockaway Turnpike & Nassau Expressway everyday, and thus ruining the Q113/114 regardless.

Bus lanes on Rockaway Boulevard/Turnpike? Maybe...? But I doubt it’d ever happen or help...

I do have to wonder why should the n24 have to be punished (more than it’s already being punished in general) for the Q36’s absence...just something to think about.

18 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

N22 is significantly faster between Jamaica and Roosevelt field. 

N24 is slower between those two same points due to those stops in Queens/Floral Park. It is however faster east of Roosevelt field along Old County Rd vs the 22 via New Cassel/Westbury

I have to wonder if there’s ever been consideration of routes/trips that are a hybrid of segments of the n22/n24 route pair (i.e.; via Hillside Avenue then Old Country Road or via Jericho Turnpike then New Cassel).

On 8/16/2019 at 7:02 PM, NewFlyer 230 said:

The Q25/Q34 and Q65 suffer from traffic in the Jamaica and Flushing areas. Everyday you always get gaps in service, which causes buses to bunch up badly. I’ve seen 5 and 6 buses bunch up before and half of those buses could have easily been turned around. How the MTA can fix this is by planning accordingly. Have buses start at particular points, so service is not so much disrupted when gaps occur. 

I think having a lot more Q111 buses start/end at Peninsula Boulevard & Rockaway Turnpike would be a good start to “solving” this mess with the Q113/Q114.

It really simmers me that I have to shell out $6 for an LIRR ticket every time there’s a 1 hour gap in Jamaica-bound Q114 service in Five Towns every time I leave work at 7 PM. They should just cross-honor this useless Unlimited Rides MetroCard.

It really simmers me that I have to shell out $6 for an LIRR ticket every time there’s a 1 hour gap in Jamaica-bound Q114 service in Five Towns every time I leave work at 7 PM. They should just cross-honor this useless Unlimited Rides MetroCard.

On 8/10/2019 at 12:02 AM, IAlam said:

Queens bus routes never feel like they get the service they need. There a very few number of lines that get the amount of buses that they actually need. The Q25/34/65 is a great example of that. Some of the lines I've seen for the buses especially Q27 are so long they go around the block. Compared to a lot of Brooklyn buses and Manhattan buses I've been on I've always been able to get a seat without much of a problem. 

I always felt like Queens bus routes are being punished for having a much lower turnover rate compared to their Manhattan/Brooklyn counterparts. Since people are usually only going to or from one place ridership appears to much lower even though the buses are full.

The Guy R Brewer corridor is a perfect example of both of these ideas in action simultaneously.

At the height of rush hour, you’ll see a good three or four Q111 buses pass by before a single Q113 or Q114 shows up. And even then, you best hope it’s using an artic & not an O7 (by which point nothing in life matters anymore).

Also, from what I’ve noticed over the past few months, traffic has been piling up severely around the Five Towns Shopping Center area during the daytime/afternoon rush, slowing down any & all Q113/Q114 buses that go through Rockaway Turnpike at that time (turning a seemingly innocent 40 minute trip between Jamaica & Lawrence into as much as an hour plus). You eventually end up with no-shows on the Jamaica-bound side towards the end of the afternoon/evening rush (usually about 6~8 PM). Makes me wonder what could somehow fix this...

Interlining H01 with the H07/X, huh? Sounds like an interesting take. Also, extending the H07/X to Spring Valley was definitely warranted.

Of course...you kinda forgot Suffern to White Plains.

Once every 12 minutes out of Bedford Park for points beyond Empire City Casino is so far from enough at the height of the afternoon rush if the bus is always SRO out of the Bronx, because a  train terminates at Woodlawn right after the Yonkers Avenue short turn bus in front of us leaves.

#more20service

Just missed the last 1C for the next hour because I decided to take a bathroom break instead of holding it in.

I propose doubling of 1C service to half hourly frequencies.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Append: It gets better, the one time the 1C decides to use an Artic (#577 no less), I miss the bus.

Finally, peace & quiet at long last. No one else but me on this Q25 LTD bus, at the height of rush hour.

40 minutes ago, Axis said:

Poorly timed lights along Sterling Avenue on the W25 line, purposely hold the bus back for literally nothing at Wakefield Avenue, then make us just miss the light at McLean Avenue. Please fix and/or reroute the buses elsewhere. Waiting the maximum possible amount of time for the next  train is barely convenient (when they already don’t send  trains up IRT White Plains Road at a time when they should)

Append: Missing the train I was supposed to make it to has caused a domino effect, making me miss the last Q44 bus before a 20 minute gap. Isn’t this just the greatest?

Poorly timed lights along Sterling Avenue on the W25 line, purposely hold the bus back for literally nothing at Wakefield Avenue, then make us just miss the light at McLean Avenue. Please fix and/or reroute the buses elsewhere. Waiting the maximum possible amount of time for the next  train is barely convenient (when they already don’t send  trains up IRT White Plains Road at a time when they should)

6 hours ago, bwwnyc123 said:

Take

Take Q44SBS to either Q113 or Q114.

Forget that. Too many cars keep gridlocking Rockaway Turnpike & Nassau Expressway.