SIMplicity

If this is the SIM1 line, wait until after January 13th when all the SIM1s past 7:20pm or so are cut and the SIM10s past 6:40 are converted to SIM1Cs without any added trips... So much for faster more reliable service...

Here’s something you don’t see every day: SIM1c/3c/4c and X27/28 are running down 2nd Avenue instead of 5th. (Detoured to Lexington today, but Con Ed is working on Lexington so they’re detoured to 2nd)

Bad weather and accidents caused a commuting hell on the SIE this afternoon. First a school bus got into an accident on the Verrazzano Bridge around 4pm. Then pieces of concrete fell from the Bradley Avenue overpass onto the westbound SIE right in time for the heart of the PM rush. They closed the highway for some time. It was a complete mess. Buses sat on the SIE for HOURS. It wasn’t the MTA’s fault, obviously, but I think they could have been proactive and sent the buses through Bayonne or something the moment they heard about the incident. On an unrelated note, to me it looks like Academy Bus has been doing whatever it wants and getting away with it. From what I’ve heard they made the decision to move the SIM23/24 back to 34th Street without consulting the MTA or the Borough President. They say that they moved the buses back because of the feedback they had been receiving from riders and that they expect the changes to be positive overall. But I’m not so sure, a friend of mine who rides the SIM23 is very upset and says 42nd had been so much faster than the X24 on 34th in the PM. This morning I overheard some people on my bus saying that the SIM23 and 24 are struggling and don’t have good ridership. They think that the MTA will probably take over the routes soon. When Academy changed the routes back to 34th St, they modified the stops along Madison and 5th Ave to be 37th St and 46th/48th St but skipped 42nd entirely. Overwhelming complaints (as expected) led them to add back stops at Madison/43rd and 5th/43rd (and 34th/8th which they also had removed for some reason). BUT that stop on 5th at 43rd St was extremely problematic when the SIM6/10/31 stopped there. So the SIM23/24 really shouldn’t stop there. I’m not sure if Academy or DOT or both are responsible for the decision. I’d say that the stop should be moved to 41st or 40th. I was thinking about the idea to have a second downtown route on the South Shore along the SIM26 and 25 (via Amboy, Bloomingdale, Woodrow, Rossville) and I’m not sure how feasible that would be. Since they split up the X22 there is a lesser frequency on each of the new routes. The SIM2, 25 and 26 run on 10 minute headways in the heart of rush hour. If you add another route to the mix, you’ll have to get those trips from the SIM2/25/26 (since people will switch over from those routes to this new route) further reducing the headways on all of them. Compared to the X22, those would be pretty long headways for the heart of rush hour. Despite this, a fair number of people who live along Rossville Ave transfer between the SIM2 and 25. I strongly support corridors having a downtown route and a midtown route (I’m definitely not a fan of what they did on the north shore with the X16 and X13/X14), but I’m just not so sure if I can see this new route happening.

It’s taking the buses like 10-15 minutes to make that turn onto 42nd right now. Those buses bunching on 57th are still very far. This bunching, and such a huge gap in service, is awful. Maybe we need a separate turn phase, even if it’s only like 7-10 seconds, at 42/5th so the buses can turn without worrying about pedestrians. Aside from the pedestrian issue, and the issue of people turning right from 5th Ave bus lanes, here’s how I think you can easily fix the traffic at 42nd (well, at least improve it). The stop line (Stop here on red signal) on eastbound 42nd (at 5th Ave) should be moved back several yards. When the buses wait to turn right from 5th, they have to block both bus lanes. If you move the stop line on 42nd back a bit, the buses can turn from the right bus lane and leave the left one open. That will help the traffic. Could you swing this idea by DOT? @Via Garibaldi 8

Right now at 42nd/6th, the line for the express bus is about 50 people long. It doesn’t fit at the stop so it wraps around itself. Nobody really know what’s going on. There have been no SIM30s in over 30 minutes. The next one is 8 minutes away.

I forgot to post about this when it happened, but apparently NYCT workers were getting on buses during rush hour to survey as many passengers as possible. Two weeks ago I was riding the SIM25 in the morning when a friendly NYCT worker with a tablet got on at Victory Blvd and moved through the bus surveying us passengers during the length of the ride. If I remember correctly these were the questions. How many days per week do you take this route? Do you take the same route in the afternoon? If not which route do you take? How do you get to the bus stop in Staten Island (walk, drive, etc.)? Rate the following as Better, Same, or Worse than they had been before August 19th Bus stop location relative to your starting point a) in Staten Island, and b) in Manhattan Travel time a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon Scheduled bus arrival times a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon Seat availability a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon Reliability of buses Rate the following Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree MTA listened to customers in the redesign process MTA has been trying to improve the system by listening to customers and making changes These were most of the questions, there were a few others but I can't remember them. Hopefully the MTA listens to the feedback and uses it in a meaningful way somehow.

I'm shocked by how little time the operators have between runs. The 5:00pm SIM3C from Castleton is scheduled to reach CPS at 6:20, and the next outbound SIM3C leaves at 6:30. I know it's Sunday, but what if there's an accident? Any minor incident or traffic can cause highly unreliable service. If it's early in the day, the operator might not be able to catch up on the time lost, resulting in late buses all day long. 10 minutes is just not enough wiggle room. Reevaluating run times and adjusting the schedules to allow for unexpected delays or hold-ups would really help reliability, which seems to be worse under the SIM system. I was watching BusTime for a bit, and today that SIM3C I was talking about (bus #2670) reached CPS at 6:30 on the dot, but to my surprise he sat there for 14 minutes before leaving late at 6:44. Could he have been taking a bathroom break? Did he stop to make a phone call? I am curious as to why he left so late...

I agree. My high school is in Manhattan but the average student commute is over an hour, people come from all over the city and the tri-state area. (Just saying, it’s sad that some kids from Connecticut have a commute at least 20-30 minutes shorter than mine.) A bunch of kids who go to my school take the express buses (SIM, QM and BxM). A student MetroCard to cover part of the cost would be ideal (and fair). Especially when the alternatives are lacking. A few of my friends live in transit deserts in Queens and the express bus is the only option that makes sense to get to school. For me, if I didn’t take the SIMs, it would be either the S78 to the S79 to the R to the N to the 4/5, or the S59 to the SIR to the ferry to the 4/5. I would never make it to school. I’d probably have to wake up almost an hour earlier each morning. I just checked BusTime and the 2:30pm SIM2 left Tottenville 24 minutes late at 2:54pm (bus#2578). The 3:00pm bus left on time, just six minutes behind it. The 2:45pm SIM2 (#2732) from Chambers passed Battery/Washington and entered the tunnel at 2:49 instead of the scheduled 2:56.

Wow, that’s strange... are people actually listening to the gridlock alerts and avoiding driving? I know the SIMs from Central Park S are running on 7th until 50th and the ones from 57th/Lex are running down Lex until 42nd. Not sure why they couldn’t just keep the buses on 5th. 42nd in the morning is a total mess from 6th eastward. One lane in each direction is closed from 5th to 2nd for emergency vehicles. I’ve been getting off at 6th and walking to Lex. Maybe they should’ve sent the SIM buses in on 34th, but since the majority of riders get off on 42nd between 9th (or 8th, depending on where the driver stops first...) and 6th, not too many riders are really affected by the mess on the east side.

Wow. I really, really hope that’s not true.

And I noticed that there are “Customers Count” Surveys all over the floor of the express buses 😁 that would explain it

Me and the ~35 other annoyed commuters standing here at Broadway/Liberty want to know why there haven’t been any SIM2s for over 30 minutes... (it’s 6pm) Of course, the one that just came was just about full... Meanwhile in that span of time there have been at least 5 SIM1s, even though they’re supposed to be on 10 minute headways, and 2 SIM4Xs, one empty, and back-to-back SIM32s, one empty...

I just discovered that the express buses (in Staten Island, at least) have a scanner above the door that counts the number of people boarding the bus. Is this a new thing or has it always been there? I mention this because IMO the MTA should release bus ridership data. That way the public can see the exact ridership and whether it justifies any cuts to service that the MTA decides to do. And by knowing how many people are on bus trips, we (the riders, or the Express Bus Advocacy Group) can provide better suggestions on how to adjust or fix issues in the schedules. For instance if we see in the data that the SIM3C is undercrowded and the SIM4C is overcrowded, we can go to the MTA requesting an adjustment and have the concrete data to back it up. Or if the SIM2 running every 12 mins around 4:30am is empty, but every 15 mins around 6am is SRO, we can request a change. Also, just overall transparency is always good thing. @Via Garibaldi 8 If you agree maybe it’s something you can think about for a future item on the Express Bus Advocacy Group agenda.

The MTA promises that in the future bus redesigns, they will be much more transparent with schedules, spans and frequencies. However I don’t trust this. There’s another SI express pick this week or next for the October schedule changes. Why haven’t the revised schedules been released BEFORE the pick? That was one of the initial problems with the new schedules (necessary changes had to be made using drivers from the extra list).

My usual SIM25 actually stops at 9th Avenue to drop off. I think it’s just that one driver, I’m not sure if he’s doing it for rider convenience or because he doesn’t realize it’s not a stop. Yet people do get off there, sometimes even more people get off at 9th than at 8th. Those cars turning right do block the lane, but it isn’t too much of a problem because the bus stays in the left lane to pass the cars and then pulls over towards the stop as it crosses the intersection. I think at least some of the routes (I don’t know if the stop can handle all of them) should stop there in the morning. I think it’s also because of reliability. If those 57th Street bus lanes are not enforced, which they’re not, buses will likely crawl across 57th Street, the congestion has gotten worse. A small number of riders may benefit from the service to the West Side but the majority of riders along the line (down 5th and along 42nd or 23rd) will have less reliable service. (I saw this with the SIM6.) Personally I think the buses should avoid 57th Street if possible, start on CPS (or another nearby cross-street) and 6th heading east and turn right on 5th. The current arrangement is unnecessary (is it an issue of layover space on CPS?) since there’s no stop on or near 7th Ave so those turns and going crosstown on 57th doesn’t make that much sense. Side note, I’m glad they painted the Madison Avenue and Broadway bus lanes red, but without NYPD enforcement it probably isn’t going to make a noticeable difference. Another side note, even if those curbside 42nd St and 57th St bus lanes were enforced, it seems to me that they’re just too narrow for a bus to fit through comfortably. Even when they’re clear I rarely see a driver try to squeeze through. Even with the bus lanes on Hylan, some drivers go very slowly because it’s so tight.