Cain

7 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

While minor, this is one reason I keep putting off the rest of my assessment of this draft of the redesign... Quite frankly, I got tired of going back & forth between referring to the PDF for the headways of these routes, and the remix map for the stop locations on the map itself (while the PDF spells out all the stops along a route in text format, the strip map/line map for each route on the PDF does not show the stop locations on them)....

It is disingenuous as a layperson would not find this helpful at all if they need to dig for changes in their commute. The redesign feels like it is literally designed (pun intended) to sneak through. 

The Remix map feels like a black hole to me. Why can't we see the other submitter's comments like on other DOT project portals? Also, it is kinda annoying and infuriating that they do not put up the headways and times for each route on the Remix map. A normal and reasonable person would find this rather irritating too and would likely give up trying.

42 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

It's not just about getting through Jamaica but also to it as well. Hillside is heavily congested until you pass the Clearview Expressway for buses coming from the east.

The Q27 is busy, but it's not really slow, and very few of the roads it's on are heavily trafficked until you hit Flushing itself, and that you'd have to deal with no matter which way you try getting into Flushing.

Outside of the Flushing Main St busway does get a bit congested and double parked cars on the bus lane does not help either - although this happens much more on weekends rather than weekdays from what I have seen. Northern Blvd, Union St, and Main St before the Flushing Post Office gets bogged down, especially during the middle of the days and weekends.

However, the busway has really sped up this segment considerably for all of the buses operating through here.

2 hours ago, N6 Limited said:

I started using the Q27 to go between Flushing and QV because it was faster as well. I made the mistake of taking the bus all the way to Jamaica for the Q44 and at that time it took 20+ mins to go from Merrick Blvd & Archer to Main St & Queens Blvd. What a waste of time.

Has this changed now that parts of Jamaica got a new busway and bus lanes (as useless they are when its blocked by taxi drivers and waiting cars for LIRR passengers)?

The Remix map still has not updated the headways and times. Was there any talk of when they will be populated?

Thinking about new Q12 terminus at Sanford Ave, it is going to be tough turning into this road (given Q12 uses artics) from Kissena Blvd without adding a bus lane or removing the bike lane/parking there. It serves as a traffic turn off for when Kissena becomes a busway. I see buses get stuck here often when cars clog the intersection, like just now. DOT needs to fix the traffic patterns and signals in Flushing to resolve this.

I added comments to the Remix but it feels like a black box of nothingness...

41 minutes ago, LTA1992 said:

I don't understand the pushback against stop removals. It's usually one of the first things that comes up when this type of discussion comes up. And you'd be surprised how often transit comes up lol

(Which is crazy considering most of the people I talk to are completely unwashed to the ins and outs of transit, or barely even think about it outside of their day to day)

The first argument I hear a lot is the extra walking needed, which would be detrimental to elderly or disabled. I would need more data/study if this greatly affects such a group. The additional 2-4 minute (max) walk time for the additional 300-400 feet for one to allow a overall trip to improve for many seems like a positive for me. And that is assuming a rather leisurely walking speed. With better technology like apps letting riders know when buses are coming and giving ETA, this can be better planned for a person's walking comfort.

I can't say for sure but any delay like tight bus stop spacing has a ripple effect for all riders on the bus. One suggestion I saw on a FB group was that the elderly/disabled can flag down a bus along the line, but not sure how that would work since that would be using driver's discretion. 

I have not seen any notes regarding bus service during the school year AM/PM arrival and dismissal rush. Are those going to be accounted for in the redesign or is it just generic headways? Also noticed that the redesign Q76 no longer has that branch which services Bayside HS during those times as well as losing Q31 service through there.

18 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

Lack of Bronx - Western Queens Service - I'm kinda disappointed that such a service wasn't devised. Clearly it didn't happen with the Bronx redesign, so if it doesn't happen now it's not gonna occur this way. I think there's demand for such a route. I would design a route (labeled Q71), which operates between Elmhurst Hospital, Jackson Heights, Woodside, Astoria, and The Hub.

Here's a map of the route. It would be a LTD service, operating between 6 AM and 12 AM on weekdays, 7 AM to 12 AM on Saturdays, 8 AM to 11 PM on Sundays. I would start it off with 15 minute headways during rush hours, 20 minutes during middays, and 30 minutes at all other hours. Then if there's more demand as a result later on, add service as necessary.

I am a little disappointed in this too - in MTA's mind, they think the M60-SBS would take care of such trips but headways are not great and Queens connections to the rest of the borough are terrible. I dare say make that Bx to NW Queens route into a super limited or "SBS" and skip a stop in certain stretches except for the end few stops that matter. It would alleviate some of the pressure on the Lexington line for such trips and would be the most forward thinking thing since the IBX.

16 minutes ago, 7-express said:

My concern is that the Q16 might get bogged down in traffic big time.  The intersection of Roosevelt and College Point in front of Skyview can be a huge chore to get through and it could tank reliability.  The Q58 doesn't have those issues since it turns further south on College Point Blvd.

College Pt and Roosevelt has needed some new infrastructure there for years since the Skyview Mall was built... That place needs an overpass (or tunnel?) to handle the foot traffic going towards the mall. Also the intersection should eliminate that "middle area" where cars get stuck causing gridlock and add new traffic and light pattern to allow for turning cars. Widen the road on Roosevelt Ave going east on the mall side to allow for three lanes (left turn, go straight, right turn), that sidewalk does not see much foot traffic.

They have the new Q58 and Q16 turning into here and I can only see this as a choke point if these fixes are not added.

One thing that has irked me for a long time is why there is no bus on Roosevelt Ave from 111 St to 74 St, Most of those stations are not even ADA compliant. They could run a circulator route with 2 to 4 buses along this less than 2 mile segment. One major issue NYCT and NYCDOT need to figure out is the intense traffic and double parking here.

3 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

This is just a general thing but I don’t get what’s the obsession of have routes like the Q16 and such terminating honestly in the middle of nowhere where they should just end at the major hubs. It’s just a waste of mileage in my opinion.

The Q16 terminating here might be due giving this corridor some coverage as the Q58 is re-routed and Q98 being a SBS.

There is a Rec Center with Pool/skating rink, Western Beef (re-opened) and Home Depot at the loop that the new Q16 route would make. Perhaps bus layover in downtown Flushing is too congested?

P.S. I actually like this change to be honest (and I am biased as I do live off the Q16 and use that gym often).

6 minutes ago, NBTA said:

The middle lanes turn into the underpass at Southern, so how would you do that? 

They could start from Southern Blvd and end at Sedgwick Av before they head into Manhattan.

The proposals are here: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/03/21/dot-offers-three-proposals-to-finally-improve-bus-service-on-fordham-road/

Ah, I see it on the Remix map now. It was not clear on the pdf. Thanks.

Still - Fordham Rd in that area could use center running bus lanes, it is always congested. Any other plan would just be ruined by double parking.

I agree with the Q16 opinions, they should repurpose the buses from Q62 to other needed areas in NE Queens - just let Q16 continue serving Ft Totten up Utopia.

Q19 is a strange line... I feel like it should be more limited service like instead of local. That cross town route connects two major neighborhoods.

Q44 going to Fordham is nice but that area is always congested with double parking and traffic - probably going to cause the whole service to suffer with delays. That area needs a busway or center running bus lanes. It is still an important artery for car traffic, unfortunately.

Q50 Co-op loopy seem so inefficient but I understand bus service should have priority for one seat rides for elderly and limited mobility folks. Thinking a circulator type route for the Co-op area seems like a better idea.

Having Q16, 61, 62, and 28 turning into Union St is always problematic - it needs some transit priority. The buses gets bogged down with traffic significantly and the police station there think they can park their cars anywhere and everywhere.

Having the Q31 straightened out as N/S service is nice.

Possibly unpopular opinion? Bus service should be free on weekends or at least Sunday. They should try a one month pilot and see if economic activity picks up in local businesses and downtowns.

Question:

Is there a higher resolution map of the redesign somewhere?

They should consider center running bus lanes if it is feasible. It is more expensive to implement but this is the more logical solution for that area and even if double parking/truck loading is present, buses still has easier access with center running lanes.

There are videos of it on Youtube - most of them have been empty but it was only a few days since they started the service.

41 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Exactly right! By setting the limitation from the beginning that this must be cost-neutral, the  is pretending that there was exactly the right amount of service already, and it just needs to be spread out differently. But if you are truly redesigning a network from the ground up, why would you start with such a silly assumption?? I don't think anyone out there would say that Queens has sufficient bus coverage, considering how little subway coverage there is relative to the total size of the borough. Obviously, the answer is that the  just wants to pretend they are improving things as usual without actually investing more money or resources. I wonder about the cost of the redesign process itself--I bet all that money could have just been put into making the existing service more frequent and people would be happy. 

Along similar lines... The LGA AirTrain is slated to cost 2 billion after all is said and done.  LIRR to AirTrain would cost 15 bucks peak and about 12 bucks off peak. Not great but not terrible.

Why not use that money to improve the Q70-SBS & Q48 (in the future QT50 which would serve the Bronx and Flushing) buses which would be much more useful & practical. Those buses already service Woodside, Jackson Heights, and Flushing to LGA relatively well. With the M60-SBS coming from upper Manhattan, they serve LGA functionally. They could use the funds to upgrade buses to make them more luggage friendly, make bus lanes, HOV lanes on Grand Central, etc..

4 minutes ago, BrooklynBus said:

But when the MTA puts in artics with more capacity, they also reduce service to compensate so the buses stay just as crowded. 

That is a shame... although with all of the cuts they are proposing in the Queens Redesign, would that mean I would expect Artics?

I have ridden the artics on the Q53 and Q44 SBS routes and it is a thing of beauty when it flies down the bus lane while passing by cars in traffic...

On 1/28/2020 at 11:39 PM, jaf0519 said:

The only SBS lines in Queens will be the M60, QT44, QT52, and QT70. The QT1-7, QT13, and QT50 will all be limited stop routes. The prurple routes will act as the kind of as the Inter-County express buses act in Westchester, taking people from a neighborhood to a high demand destination like the subway. Both the green and red routes are local, with the red being more major corridors with high frequency and slightly further stop spacing, and green being more infrequent with more stops. SBS will most likely be phased out by the time OMNY is fully implemented, since OMNY should be quicker than the Metrocard is now, combined with all door boarding, even though i disagree with that part of the plan.

Thanks for this - as for the last part, that would be disheartening. I feel NYC would be better served if it had BRT like service in the city - especially in the outer boroughs.

Out of curiosity, would the MTA add more articulated buses to these "straightened" routes? Some of these lines could be better served with more capacity per bus.

12 hours ago, Jdog14 said:

 

OMNY basically made/making SBS a name lol

Sorry, what does that mean?

So the new blue lines in the Queens Redesign Plan (they call it "connecting high-demand areas" service type) are just like Super Limited bus service without the SBS treatment?

I don't know if this is true or not but I've heard rumors that DeBlasio's vision zero also tweaked the signal timings so that cars would not have a "green wave" on many city streets. This in turn prevented cars from having headroom to "speed up". Anecdotally, I have noticed streets that used to have green lights turn to stop and go reds in recent years.

Back on topic:
Regarding the blue lines in the Queens Bus Redesign, are they meant to be future SBS type bus lines with all the SBS treatments? They shared the same color as other SBS lines but did not have the "SBS" moniker attached to it.

I wonder if this has been mentioned before.

The redesign plan and their rush hour times do not factor school children dismissal times. At least in NE Queens, kids of all grades get dismissed around 2:30pm. The PM rush hour according to MTA Bus' definition is from 3/4pm - 7pm. I may have missed the passage in the draft plan but I do not see it expressed explicitly in the schedules.

Also for NE Queens, the purple lines (rushing to the subway) should also run outside of rush hours - it is this region that always gets shafted when it comes to public transit.

The QChron article has been blasted for cherry picking good reviews on some FB groups I've been following - mostly by Maspeth and Jackson Heights residents. Makes sense since news outlets tend to report the bad more than good.

I will provide a relatively positive data point: Out in the NE Queens transit desert, I live about 5 minutes walk to the intersection of Utopia Pkwy and Francis Lewis Blvd - the plan would likely get me to the 7 train faster via the QT49 (as it would run express on Northern Blvd from 160 St and westward). I have relatives in JH and NE Queens and their commutes would become somewhat easier (either they travel around the neighborhood, catch the 7, or travel to Maspeth from Flushing via the old Q58 (now QT6). Finally having a N/S route on Utopia Pkwy in the QT64 is a nice addition. In the future, if my kids decide to go to Francis Lewis HS, they can finally have a direct trip.

This may be my unpopular opinion but I do not see enough outrage for the MTA to change their course significantly.

NE Queens has been relatively quiet other than some noise from College Point and Beechhurst where their buses have really changed. Not to mention Express buses being decimated all over Queens. The QM20 which I take relatively often has been reduced to ashes. Now its new analog QMT103 goes to downtown Manhattan and runs a few buses during rush hours only. To catch anything outside of rush hours, I'd have to walk 15 minutes to the nearest Express bus that runs or take one of the green lines. I get why the Express buses are being decimated, off peak buses would run <5 passengers sometimes each way. It's nice but very inefficient. They should have been like the LIRR and lowered fares for non-rush hour travel.

The rushing to the subway service (purple lines) in NE Queens only run during rush hours - which is terrible. NE Queens is considered car culture heavy and a bit like the "suburbs".. but it cannot be that people do not use the bus outside of rush hours.

The redesign for NE Queens has some positive changes but the bus intervals are AWFUL. It is a huge service cut, through and through. Bus connections which many will be forced to make would be terrible under these new bus headways. The outreach to commuters is close to nil.

The only way I would see this bus redesign work at all is if bus headways are 5 min or less on all routes or buses are dispatched in a way where a bus connection will arrive within 5 minutes or less. I just do not see it and if the bus redesign does go through, it will be a bad news field day.

It is sad to know what Byford had to wade through with all of this political BS - and still had measurable success during his tenure. That in itself is a small miracle. A fraction of that mess would cause people heart attacks.