mac5689

 

Another dangerous intersection is William Floyd Bennet Parkway/Montauk Highway, 9-lanes each direction only on William Floyd Parkway and near Mastic-Shirley Station.

 

Famous the name is only William Floyd Parkway, not William Floyd Bennet Parkway. And William Floyd is DOES NOT have nine lanes in each direction. William Floyd has three lanes Northbound and three lanes Southbound for a total of Six lanes. 

Sorry Famous, I didn't realize that you were talking about the intersection of William Floyd Parkway and Montauk Hwy itself. William Floyd Parkway is 9 lanes at that loctation, though only because of the deticated turning lanes for turning either West or East onto Montauk Hwy. (Two lanes for turning West, One for turning East Northbound. Two for turning East and one turning West Southbound)

I personally never cross at the intersection of William Floyd Parkway and Montauk, I don't know how many do cross there, I always cross William Floyd at the next nearest intersection North or South. 

Which is more important, people crossing the street safely or traffic flowing at highway speed with no traffic lights? If you want to drive highway speed than take the highway.

Technically the safest place to cross a street is at a traffic light, so technically a roadway's speed limit is a moot point. People running the light as to not to get caught at the light would be the problem. 

Actually Hempstead Turnpike was graded by Tri-State Transportation Campaign's dangerous intersection, so NYSDOT put safety median on parkway.

 

Another dangerous intersection is William Floyd Bennet Parkway/Montauk Highway, 9-lanes each direction only on William Floyd Parkway and near Mastic-Shirley Station.

Famous the name is only William Floyd Parkway, not William Floyd Bennet Parkway. And William Floyd is DOES NOT have nine lanes in each direction. William Floyd has three lanes Northbound and three lanes Southbound for a total of Six lanes. 

 

NICE Bus and Suffolk County Transit is different agency. Suffolk County Transit bus never had Sunday Service below, and thanks to Suffolk County Legislater/Executive working together with LIBRU/LIJWJ got funding to get Sunday service.

 

LIBRU didn't get the funding, the funding came from riders (fare increases) and money from the state. I also doesn't remember once the LIBRU ever being mentioned when Suffolk started the Sunday Service.  Sunday Service only came because Riders were willing to except to pay for it and an County Executive that was willing to enact a fare raise and spend money for the service. 

Just because the LIBRU wanted SCT to have Sunday Service doesn't mean you can claim you helped get it. I told you that the Suffolk Legislature already had a riders group that they listened to, and who had been telling them the need for Sunday Service, for alot longer then the LIBRU has been around. 

What is nice bus standards for hiring drivers? Maybe nice bus should put every bus Driver In a customer service class once or twice a year.

I don't know what NICE's standards are. Each company is diffrent. 

According to http://www.nicebus.com/About-NICE/Job-Opportunitites.aspx, the job requirements are to have a Class B CDL, and a passion for providing excellent customer service.

Left out the requirment of the Passenger Endorcment,

I think nice needs to put up signs no eating & no littering on the bus & take your trash with you.

Doesn't NICE have a sign at the front above the Windshield? I know SCT has a small sign on their buses that shows food in a red circle with a line though it.  Though it wouldn't matter, just because there is a sign that says someone shouldn't do something doesn't mean people would follow it, What you would need is someone who would inforce the rules, like the driver. If the driver or anyone doesn't inforce the rules then people will break them. 

Also the drivers do not have a nice friendly tone, each passenger deserves a nice & friendly bus driver. 

As one School Bus Company in suffolk says, anyone can drive a bus though not everyone could drive for them. Obviously NICE doesn't seem to have high standerads when hiring their drivers. Though it probably isn't easy dealing with the public in general. 

I saw foothills bus (still in foothill livery) 1256 numbered 1016 being towed on Merrick Rd. Going eastbound just east of the meadowbrook. I haven't seen one of them being towed in months! Are they getting more or is 1256 one of the buses damaged on its way from CA? Also I've never seen these buses on sunrise usually I spot them a on 109 or Sunrise near the 109/Sunrise junction on their way to AKA...

1016 has been used in service I beilieve, or at least I don't think it was one of the ones wercked during delivery. Nothing really has been said about the ones that were wercked in delivery.

Please do not continue talking about politicians, Democrats/Republicans/Independents, etc. This is one mess/argument we do not need. I personally don't want to give any warning points out...

 

Also, as per the rules of the site, let's stay on-topic. If a politician gets mentioned here and there and there that's fine, but please don't get carried away with it.

 

Thanks!

Sorry about that, I wasn't trying trying to cause any problems over politics. I probably could have said what I said without mentioning politics. 

Saving money sure didn't make the buses any more tolerable to ride...

Saving money usually doesn't make anything better. It either makes the problem more noticeable and worse. Saving money should only be done to store money for a set point in the future. Otherwise whatever you are trying to save money on should just be cut and be done with it. Unfortunetly the latter cutting isn't very good when it come to transportation. 

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano and his republican and republicans don't care about bus riders/drivers.

I don't think it's that. Most Republicans probably realize that in order to fund things it has to come from two sources. Either Taxpayers or the people who relay on the service. 

Taxpayers aren't going to like having their taxes go up to pay for bus service, and rider's aren't going to keep having their fares raised to pay for service. It's a lose-lose situation. 

Also it's not fair to blame Mangano since Nassau also had problem with pay the MTA under the last administration which was Democrat, if I recall correctly. Just because the problem seems worse and Mangano actually decided to change the systems operator doesn't mean he should get all the blame.  

As of 8/13/15

Why does nice bus drivers wear vests?

Company Policy obviously LOL. First Student School Bus drivers wear reflective vests. If it's a reflective vest then it's probably to make the driver more visible espcially in the early morning and late evening when the sun isn't up. 

Not all that time. Some suffolk County Transit passes through area, where radio cannot be reach like foresty area, which blocks radio communication.

I've only heard that happening on the S94. 

Most newer school buses these days have radios built in wired into the speakers. School buses have a kill switch, when you stop at RR tracks you are supposed to open the window, the door, engage the kill switch (which kills the am/fm radio, the bus radio, the fans, heat, etc. all extra noise) then you are supposed to "look and listen."

 

It was an older bus both time. When the driver did my middle school route it was a Mid 90's Blue Bird CV200 International 3800 Chassis. When he did my sisters route he had a late 85-94 Carpenter Ford B Chassis. It should be noted that with my sisters route he didn't need to cross the railroad tracks. Infact I don't think any of his routes the year he had my sisters route crosses Railroad tracks. At least with kids on board. 

Somebody said circus uses that excempt tracks, you never know if a out of service train or fright train uses it. If I drove for

Nice I would stop at excempt crossings.

Circus only comes though probablyuses the tracks twice, and I'm sure if Veolia is a good company they would have personell who are aware of when the circus would be going though and would notify the drivers when the tracks would be active. 

I never said that a driver couldn't stop at excempt tracks, just that they aren't required to. I would probably stop as well, but that would be more out of habit more then anything. 

I believe law says you have to stop for excempt railroad tracks too if your driving a transit passenger bus or school buses.Burrstone

 Burrstone is versed in the operation of buses, so until proven otherwise, I'd believe that him saying that the rule doesn't applys to excempt or out of service tracks is correct. 

When I rode the N35 every day, B/O's would stop on Clinton Avenue at the Mitchel Field Secondary crossing even though the tracks were marked "exempt."

My guess would be automatic reflex when the driver saw the railroad tracks, or the driver is a very cautious one, or maybe the driver was afraid that a road supervior may have been following and didn't want to get busted for not following the rules even if that set of tracks were rxempt.

Now we know all passenger buses have to stop at railroad crossing, does NICE BUS drivers actually stop at the railroad crossings? If not that is a major ticket right??

Yesterday I saw 1007 near the sports fields in Massapequa on the sides streets off Sunrise HWY near Sunrise Mall, the destination sign said "training bus." Because of the location I'd say they were probably learning the n19.  An hour or two later I saw 16xx that read out of service on the destination sign in Lindenhurst or West Babylon on Montauk HWY.  This bus caught my attention because it was moving very slow, I look at it and could see an instructor next to the driver (both wearing safety vests).

 

Like the first bus the second had to be learning the n19 because there are no other NICE routes there, unless NICE is having new employees learn SCT routes (insert evil laugh).

Do NICE drivers actually follow a route when training on a bus for the first time? I would figure that they would just go out on the road and drive around like they do when you are learning for your regular licence. I would figure they would train on a route after they passed training on how to drive a bus. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't veolia own the buses? It says owned by veolia & I also see a name of Edward manndanno on every bus

As  NY1635 said Nassau County owns the buses. Veolia's name is on the buses because they operate them, I believe it's the law that the company that operates the buses has to be put on the bus. Ed Manganno is the Nassau's county executive, they probably wrote his name in place of Owner: Nassau County. 

I know Suffolk County owns their buses but the companies they contract with has their names on the buses as well next to the word Operator. 

Who is paying for these new buses? Last thing we need is a fare increase, I think veolia should pay for the buses, because they make a lot of profits off the $2.75 fare.

If Veolia brought the buses with their own money then they could take the buses with them if they were to lose the contract, so while a good thing for Veolia that would be bad for Nassau. 

The money to buy the buses probably is coming from moeny set aside in NICE's budget plus money from the Federal and State governments. 

I'm pretty sure any money made goes to NICE's budget not Veolia, also I don't think any profit would be enough to buy buses by itself. The fare goes towards the operation of the system so I don't think there is a lot left over from that for a large profit to buy buses. 

 Not all Suffolk County Transit bus stops has Guide-A-Ride (bus schedule posted on pole) because some Suffolk County Transit bus stops are small.

Has nothing to do with the size of the stop, Suffolk only seemed to put Guide-A-Ride's at Transfer spots. (Or at least that's the only places I've seen them) 

 what is stoping nice and Suffolk? 

Nothing is stopping Suffolk, as I said Suffolk prints paper schudules, they just don't do it every month, unles there are changes to the route. Otherwise they make one run of route schudules, normally in Janurary, and that normally lasts until the next run. Which is every year or two. (Suffolk use to do it every six months or so) 

As I told you it cost money to print paper schudules, which is why Suffolk prints them once every year unless there is a change to the route, because it cost a ton of money to print alot of schedules for 50 something routes. And since Suffolk Transit has always operated with a deficit with it's budget, something had to be cut, and since nobody wants routes to be cut, then how often they print schudules had to go down. 

Just like there websites bus schedules which says January 2014 that's how long bus schedules have been updated 

Cost money to print up schedules, and is kind of pointless if there are no changes made to them recently. 

Suffolk normally only prints up schudules with recent effective dates only when there are changes made to the route. Otherwise you may see schudules on the bus with effective dates from like a year or two before. (I think I was told they print new schdules for non route changes every two or so years.  (Some routes haven't had any changes in years that you could use a schedule from the 1990's.

Wow. Every nice bus driver has told me it's $2.75 in coins, maybe nice bus drivers need to be retrained on the cash fare

Or maybe the drivers were told that the cash fare is $2.75 as well, and either whoever told them is wrong or NICE never updated their website to reflect the change. I mean just because the website says that the cash fare is $2.50 doesn't mean that is currently correct, maybe NICE doesn't have someone that can update their website on demand. 

Bus driver do multiple routes, so they cannot always have schedules for every buses they drive.

 

NICE's system of assigning buses doesn't help with putting schudules for routes on the buses either. I mean one day a bus could be on one route and the next it can be on diffrent route.

That's why I think Suffolk's system of having the same bus used on the same route everyday works better, especially for putting schudules on the bus and leaving them on the bus. 

Li bus riders union should have the power to force nice bus and Suffolk transit to make changes that will benefit

The riders, having a guy from a transit commute means a lot to

The riders. Thanks for all your help li bus riders union in trying to make nice

Bus a better place for it's riders, next we need more buses on each line maybe every 10 minutes like mta would be nice

The main problem is and, Suffolk County and Suffolk Transit would probably agee, is money.

Suffolk Transit has basically always been operated with a budget deficit. And that it's service has always been the way it is. In the late 80's Suffolk had threaten the cuts of routes if a fare hike wasn't imposed. (Fares were like .75 cents or so at that time) Two routes were cut however. Again in the mid 90's Suffolk threaten to cut routes again, I don't remember what saved them though there was no fare hike, however only one route was eleminated. Other the 30 or so years of offical operation Suffolk Transit has cut at least four routes, due to low ridership. In the 2000's they created two routes, one being half a duplicate of one they had cut in the 80's.

That's also not to mention that people don't like to be forced to do anything expecially the government. Also you would have to contend with if it is legal for a group of people, I have no idea if the LIBRU has any legal set up to be called an actual union, can make a government agency to make changes. Suffolk Transit is a government agency that is run by the Department of Transportation which is a part of the County's Department of Public Works. I have no idea how NICE is set up.

I've ridden Suffolk Transit my whole life, and while I admit there are problems, I also am aware that you need money to operate it and money to make changes, no matter if People like the LIBRU or others what it., Also you would need some type of data or other stuff to prove that changes are needed. Nobody wants to spend money for changes just to find out that it was a waste. (While not a money loser, I'd like to point out how in the opening months of the expanded Sunday Service last year it was said that the routes that got it had been pulling in less riders then they normally had on Saturdays. I'm sure there were some who had thought that that was a waste.)

 

Actually, Aaron from LIBRU is on Nassau County Bus Transit Committe board.

Having one member on a Committe doesn't give him or the LIBRU any real power. Unless of course this  Aaron is a charming guy who can get the other committe members to side with him. 

& Why do you think they aren't even a real union? I thought they stick up & defend the riders.

I believe by 'real union' BM5 via Woodhaven means that they aren't like the type of unions like the TWU or Teamsters that repersent workers and have some power to get some type of changes done. The LIBRU is a union but can only suggest that changes should be made, they don't have any power to force those changes be made. 

The Suffolk County Legislature only reconizes one "riders union", and it's not the LIBRU,  and allows them to suggest idea's for better bus service. To date their suggestings haven't been acted on or not in a timely manner.