mac5689

 

This was my testimony at Nassau County Legislature hearing. I know you don't like LIBRU, but I also spoke both NICE Bus and School Bus Strike together.

 

 

Problem is there would be no threat of a strike as the Strike was adverterted back on Tuesday, and depending on when you gave your testimony it would be a moot problem. Also a Mootoer problem since I believe most of the work in Nassau is done by ACME in Nassau which does door to door service and would have no impact on Publice Transit. I bellieve most of Baumann's large bus work in Nassau is done by driver that are repersented by TWU 252 not the Teamsters. 

As of 10/13/15

As of 10/11/15

 

From #1840~ is purchased by NICE Bus

I think 1840-1884 were  purcheased by the MTA, they were under order when NICE took over.  The New Flyers were purchased by NICE.

All the buses brought under the MTA were left because they were brought with Grant money that stated that they had to be used in Nassau County. Or at least that's what I remember hearing.

The S40 already serves Montauk Highway between Babylon and Patchogue, and the n19 serves it west of Babylon.

Oh, so it won't be replacing the S40. Thought you were proposing a merger of the S40 and S20. 

Check this out: http://mapq.st/1RkyW82

Why would you have the bus used Sunrise Hwy instead of Montauk? 

As of 10/1/15

The cutbacks talk:

Read the Newsday article, and the "chief" of NICE alleges on one route only 5 people ride. Hmmm, kinda suspect, especially given that if the route was already in operation when Transdev ("experts" in transportation) took over, how did that pass before as OK but now it's a problem?

 

I wouldn't find that to much suspect. There have been a few people over the years that claimed that the either the N80/N81 should have been cut or mergered into one route because of low ridership. If I remember correctly someone said once that one N80 run had about 5 people on it. 

I saw a NICE bus today with the back cover and the front door open (while the bus was moving). Is that common?

I don't think they are suppose to be operating with the front door open. I've never seen or been on an SCT bus that had it's front doors open while moving, except for one time on the S62 when the driver opened the front door before making a left hand turn from one street to the other. My guess was that it was difficult to see any traffic coming towards the bus on the street the driver was turning from with the doors closed.  

 

  Unions are sucking the Island dry and costing people jobs!

Intresting. Normally it's the Unions that fight for their workers, so they can keep their jobs. Not every union, but a majority seem to. 

As of 9/8/15

I think nice bus should install more metrocard machines on Long Island so people can buy metrocards instead of carrying around $2.75 in coins

Metrocard is a MTA thing, it would be up to the MTA, not NICE, to install more metrocard machines. 

That's your opinion.

NICE Bus drivers like when people use coins, MetroCard, or Mobile Ticketing.

There are some good drivers that help newcomer how to dip MetroCard into farebox.

When there are sometimes MetroCard read error, some drivers know Farebox sometimes have trouble, so they let the passengers on.

My guess would be that NICE would like it if riders used MetroCard or the Mobile Ticketing that way they wouldn't have to worry about handling and having to keep track of coins after they are removed from the fare box. I know not everyone can afford a MetroCard or has the ablity to use the Movile Ticketing Syatem, just saying that from NICE's point of veiw, it's probably easier for them if the Riders used those over using coins. 

Nice likes passengers to pay with coins.

Doubt it, it's probably a headache having to have the fareboxes cleaned out to retrive the coins when the bus returns to the depot. Or however they get the coins out of the farebox.  

As of 9/5/15

Nice gets funding from Nassau & NY state, if nice bus feels it is not enough then they should ask for more money or start making cuts, but do not cut bus service or maintence, I am sure nice over spends on certain things & if they over spend on a item that isn't necessary than that should be cut.

NICE also gets money from the Federal government if they ask and the federal government wants to give it to them. Normally though the Federal Government gives money towards new buses. That's how Suffolk was able to order the 82 Orion VII's back in 2010 because the congressman for the 1st District in the House of Repersentitives at the time helped get funding. Otherwise the money from just the County had would have only gotten 55.

The State doesn't pay enough to transit in Nassau or Suffolk, it's been a problem for years. Back in 2002 Suffolk had to raise fares and/or cut service because of a hole in the transit budget that started, I believe, when the State wanted to cut the amount of money it was giving the county for transit. The State reversed it's decision and gave the money, but only after Suffolk had raised the fares and riders complained. 

I watched the other videos also, youtube guy speaking says on video he is pine why doesn't he post here to tell the public how bad nice bus is?

He use to post on here but stopped. 

Long Island bus riders union took that dangerous walk across busy hwy by nice bus headquarters to show nice bus how dangerous it is to get to a near by bus stop, Long Island bus riders union is trying to help it's riders by keeping fares low. If everybody went to nice bus meeting to tell nice fare are too high maybe nice wouldn't raise fare, if you need money for

Maintence sometimes you have to go Into ur own pocket not the riders. When I am hungry I go into my pocket to buy my lunch I don't have my hand out.

The problem being, from a companies stand point is why should it spend the money to pay for service that the riders want. The riders want the service then they should pay for it, they want service expansion they should pay for that. It's not a hand out if the company gives something that the riders a paying for, a hand out is getting something and the person not paying for it. (which in this case would be the company providing the bus service yet the riders not paying to ride.)

NICE Buses lacks maintence like everyone here states. If bus breakdown, they have to wait for next bus because NICE Bus doesn't have enough money for maintence.

 

Like DetSmart45 said, it makes no sence to send a replacment but if a Mechanic could be dispatched and easily make a repair. I mean would be a waste of money to replace the bus  when it could be repaired and then sent to the end of the route to resume the run. In that situation the Riders would be forced to take the next bus because the next bus would come sooner then the mechanic would and they wouldn't want riders to wait on a non working bus and be delayed. Also another reason not to send a replacment bus to where the bus broke down would be that it is easier or faster to send the replacment bus to a location close to the depot or to the closed terminal ot major point on the line were the driver can easily get to to resume their run or to have a cover driver start until the other driver could catch up or could resume the run. Another reason could be that they don't have enough spare buses to start with, I mean it's not like bus agency's have spare bus for every bus that they use everyday. Just because NICE has bad mainatnce, doesn't mean that people can blame that for every problem NICE has.  

Why does nice bus drivers & dispatchers want mta back? What is the difference between a private company & the mta? 

 

Most likely there were certain benefits that they had under the MTA that they don't or can't have because they work for a private company. Remember the MTA is a government agency, so there probably is certain rights or something that they have to give their eempolyees that a Private company doesn't. Or it could be something simple like schuduleing of runs or working conditions themselfs seemed better under the MTA then the drivers & dispatchers feel they have now under Veolia. I mean every company handles their operations diffrently then another, one company/agency can be strict and one could be the opposite. Heck it could be that there is someone in upper management that everybody just doesn't like. When companies change, it's not suprising that some people may like the old one better then the new. 

Though with all the talk of NICE having hired a bunch of new drivers and former drivers having left, I;m suprised that there are any drivers from the MTA days left. 

Nice bus should do what smart does in Detroit, put real time cameras on each bus with somebody watching it, & if they notice a fare beater call a cop & have the cop pull the bus over & give the fare beater a $100 fine. Fare beating on nice bus is getting worse, people walk on like they own the bus, if driver says something they say to driver "what" or I don't have any money or

Can I get a ride? I'm wondering do these fare beaters also fare beat on the cabs? Do they take a ride from the cab driver & say I have no money or can I have a free ride? If they do it on the bus I'm

Sure they fare beat in the cab as we'll.

Problem with that is Money. Money for the camrea's, instulation (on buses already in service that don't have them), and the person to man the feed. This would probably cost alot of money, money that has to come from somewhere. 

Second problem would be having the bus pulled over and a cop board would end up slowing down the bus and thus possibly making the bus late. I'm sure other riders won't like that. Not to mention where would the money generated from said tickets go, would it go to the County budget or does it go to the transit budget. (non bus riders will probably want the money generated to go to the county budget, not to mention non bus riders probably wouldn't like hearing that cops would be diverted from their patrols to do this.) While a good idea there could be to much opposition to certain parts that it could never get off the ground. 

I did myself another daredevill bus-transit challenge to my favorite Golden Star Restaurant in Medford, NY by using n20 Hicksville, n79 South Hungtington, S54 Patchogue, S58 Riverhead, quick Whole Food shopping, then #3D Stony Brook, S71 Mastic-Shirley to Medford for quick 15 minute walk since I was walking very quick.

Why did you take the S58 to the 3D to the S71, why didn't you take the S58 to SCCC and just transfer to the S71 there? 

The S71 goes to Shirley, I have no idea why the sign says Mastic, it's annoying. 

 but the principle is if we the public keep paying more & more for a bus ride but the conditions do not

Get better & buses are still missing & breaking down.

Even if conditions did get better, that doesn't mean runs wouldn't be missed or buses won't break down. Sure there may not be as many as now, but they won't go away. I mean even with the best maintance in the world something could still break. 

He works at Stop & Shop near Hicksville Station and sometimes he's forced to spent about $20 from his salary for taxi ride.

 

$20 bucks to get to work, I don't think my father ever spent that much ever to get to work at the supermarket he use to work for (Not Stop & Shop) except maybe when he owned his truck and worked 2 jobs back in the early 90's.

How does nice afford N4 and N6 overnight service? is it in the budget?

They afford it most likely because riders have shown that they will ride the routes at that time, which therefore allows the 24/7 to be included in the budget. 

 I shouldn't have to pay a fare hike because nice needs more money to repairs there buses, don't do the maintence then, it is not required just keep running the buses.

Maintence is needed to for buses or any vehicle to run. In a perfect world a bus wouldn't need maintaince but we don't live in that type of world. 

Fare Hicks don't just go to cover maintaince of the bus, they usually go for the system operation which maintaince falls under, as well as the payment of every bus driver, mechanic, and anyone else that makes the system run.  

Most riders who use nice bus don't make a lot of money, we can only afford $2.50. Public transportation is supposed to be cheap,  

You want a system that runs 24 hours a day, short wait times for buses, and buses that are 100%, then you're going to have to pay for it. A system like that isn't cheap. To have a cheap system then things are going to get cut or not funded as well as it should be. 

Don't pay the correct fare & the bus drivers just sit back & remain silent, maybe a cop or eagle team

 

Those drivers probably have enough sense to know that it's not worth arguing with a passenger over fares.  Back in 1998 a SCT driver, that my family knew, argued with a drunk passenger over the fare at Smith Haven Mall and got stabbed. The driver survived and the guy was caught , but it shows that it's not worth arguing with a passenger over the fare. 

A cop could help, but also a cop could make matters worse. It's a double edge sword. 

9 lanes in each direction? That is very dangerous & unheard of, li should in the name of pesteredian safety make it 3 lanes each way one bike lane & remove the turning lanes .

It's only nine at that intersection (William Floyd and Montauk), the reason being that the turning lanes are for turning only, not like in some places were you have turning lanes where you can continue going stright as well. The road way it self id only six lanes wide, three in each direction. 

William Floyd Parkway handles alot of cars and is almost always busy. Cutting lanes would cause traffic to back probably alot more then it does now. Traffic as of now doesn't back up as bad when your at a red light at that intersection (or any in my opinion) on William Floyd. Not like Montauk Hwy, which is a single lane for the most part, where cars could end up waiting in a long line if traffic is backed up. And where walking is shown to be better.