7LineFan

Thankfully it was just a transfer so I didn't lose any money... this time.

Perhaps. But it's just so frustrating because I've had so many problems with the SBS machines on that same route not reading my MetroCard and then me having to pay an extra fare and go through claims to get my money back, so I switch to OMNY to put all of that behind me and then this happens... same crap different farecard.

They didn't look frozen, but they lit up red and read "Tap Again" instead of green with "GO" on them. And then when I checked my OMNY account, no transfer listed. Surprising because my card worked perfectly for the rest of the day before that: subway, bus, a different SBS line.

Been a while since I've been on this site but I found out about this conversation and wanted to comment. Similar thing happened to me about a month ago, on the Q44SBS. I was trying to transfer from the subway and the OMNY reader wouldn't read the transfer. Tried the reader in the back, no dice. Tried the reader in the front, no dice. And then the bus left with me on board. What happens if Eagle Team decides to show up for the first time in like five years? I can't exactly go back and pay at the machine, and it was supposed to be a transfer anyway. The kicker was when I called OMNY support to figure out what went wrong and the first thing they asked me was "How did you pay for that trip?" Come on now...

Cuomo is giving a press conference right now, I assume about the coronavirus, and someone asked him about this interview. His response? "I never worked with Byford; I worked with Pat Foye and the board... [Byford] doesn't even run the system." And then goes on to claim that he spent months in the tunnels and on the tracks, as if that qualifies him to make decisions about the system over someone whose entire career has been in public transport.

At my table on Wednesday I was the only person who said anything good to say about the plan. And I only had one good thing to say. Mostly good reviews, if the author going to cherrypick the people who had good things to say for his article.

Guy's name is Ryan, not Mark. The other dude who worked on the Queens redesign, the one who I didn't speak to, is named Julian.

My table did wind up talking about the express buses a little but but it did not dominate the discussion. There was a guy in another room standing in front of two boards with both the express bus map and the local bus map and apparently he was directly involved in the Queens redesign, but I didn't go over and speak to him specifically.

I was told to make comments online as well but the guy at my table (the closest one in your second photo, although I was in a different session) actually had a pen and pad and was writing suggestions down--more broad suggestions rather than specific, but he filled out a whole page between the time that I arrived and the time that I left. I must not have had the same experiences you did because I felt the atmosphere at my table was generally productive. Everyone I talked to said the same thing: they were this radical in the redesign on purpose so that they would get pushback and get the public to actually come out to these things. Standard negotiating tactics.

I've been leaving comments using the general feedback page and will be attending the Flushing workshop on Wednesday evening. Hopefully it will be well attended because there are bigger problems than the QT12 (i.e. Main Street corridor).

Thank you for saying this. I live near the Q88 and if they go through with the QT12 the nearest bus stop to me would be around 10 minutes away and that's at a somewhat brisk pace. Add in inclement weather and you can forget it. In general I don't think there should be any red or blue routes without a corresponding green route on the same corridor, or close by going the same general direction. The QT12 is the worst example of this, as there would be no east-west local service on the HHE anymore.

Honestly what they did with the Q58 is the best thing about this redesign and long overdue. If you want to get to Flushing from the Queens Boulevard subway, for example, now you don't have to deal with the long and winding Corona section and can just go straight there, and there's a real chance it'll decrease bus bunching which is still a big problem especially on the Flushing end. Too many times I've pulled up the MTA app and seen four buses in a row all 15 minutes away from me. I would, however, make it a red route instead of a blue--with the QT6 being a blue route and the QT12 being a red, my little section of Flushing has had all of its east-west local service stripped from it. There was a discussion earlier in this thread about the renaming. Boils down to either keep as many route numbers the same as possible to increase familiarity or blow the whole thing up and renumber everything and force people to learn the new routings. I can see both arguments, but I'm probably more in favor of renumbering the entire network because it would force people to actually read the map and actually learn about the new network. Mostly the same is not exactly the same. Either way, however, there's going to be people not paying attention to where they're going or what bus they're on no matter how well publicized this is...

The so-called QT86 is only planned to run 17 hours a day. Every day. Also take away Q44 overnight service on weekends and now you have no service on weekend nights.

If they have their way Main Street will have no bus service at all during weekend nights. I've been on Q44s much later than 9:30 that are SRO. It's ridiculous.

Well yeah, but that's an obvious spacing issue. Why couldn't the 143/160 B cars have been designed with offset doors?

I'm pretty sure we have 2+1 seating on most if not all (local) buses. The issue for me is the seating over the wheels on the articulateds: the New Flyers have 2+2 while the Novas go longitudinal, and because of that the New Flyers feel so cramped inside while it's so much easier to move around in an LFSA. I take the Q44 on the regular and I hated when Stengel gave up their LFSAs for New Flyers. Also regarding the lack of offset doors on B division stock--that puzzles me as well since all A division NTTs have it. Perhaps it has something to do with wider doors and a certain number of seats required?

They did that even when they plywood was up. Every time a downtown train I was on would come into the station it would stop and wait a few moments before proceeding. Never did that for 23rd St.

Why not? Some of the old ones are on their way to being illegible, even though it's common sense to know where the train is going.

8 per car. Based on the simulation of the "flexible" FIND I'm going to assume it's just an LCD display... so honestly it's not as brilliant as it seems. It's just programming. Besides the Japanese have had that kind of above-door flexible information display for years now (although maybe not as large a display), so this is just the MTA playing catch-up.

"If it still works..." And I get the feeling they probably have a large stock of fluorescent lamps as well. But if they could switch the entire fleet (and all the stations) over to LED tube lamps, considering how much more energy efficient LEDs are over fluorescents, they'll realize a huge cost savings eventually, even if the purchasing cost is higher.

It would seem that I am in the minority then. Even extending the cab door up into that space, to me, would clean up the look significantly. As for the front bullet, I'd do it like the R110B's front curtain sign for the and readings. But I guess my design aesthetics are different from all of yours.

Not a big fan of the split front destination sign. Looks clunky to me. I'd rather they put all that information in one place, whether it's the top or the side of the door.

Ah, see, now we're throwing different cameras into the mix. However, the D3200 is the predecessor of the D3300 so they're very similar. The way the camera world works now, each "new" model in a camera line is an incremental improvement over the previous version (more MP, better ergonomics, more video resolution, etc). So if you don't know the (admittedly small) differences between the two, research them and get your hands on them again (the 3300 has a slightly different button layout than the 3200). What's important here is that you find a camera that you're comfortable with--not necessarily the most capable on the market. In terms of lenses, the 18-55 VR II is actually a huge improvement over the 18-55 VR that I have. It's a collapsible lens, which means that it can be made smaller in order to fit into a bag more easily. It also has a real focus ring on the front, which means that you don't have to twiddle the whole front of the lens in order to manually focus. Performance-wise, they're pretty much exactly the same, but the ergonomics would lead me to get the VR II. The real question here is, what kind of shots are you going to be taking and in what conditions? If you're doing low-light, VR is much more important. If you don't mind moving closer to your subject, then the 18-55 is all you need. If you're shooting from far away and can't get close enough, or you like the makes-far-away-things-look-closer effect of the telephoto, you might want to have the 55-200. Of course you could choose a package with a D3300 and an 18-55 VR II with a 55-200 VR, but that's going to cost you a bit more.

Neither is VR-capable? Are they Nikon-branded lenses? To my knowledge Nikon hasn't released a package with a non-VR 18-55 (or a non-VR 55-200) in years. I could be wrong, but VR has been standard on the entry level lenses for a while now. When I got my D3100 with 18-55 and 55-200 three or four years ago, both were VR.

VR stands for Vibration Reduction. Basically it reduces blur caused by jittery or shaky hands, especially in lower light situations where the shutter has to be open for longer. (Proper technique--or using a tripod--is obviously the best way to reduce blur, but this helps quite a bit.) It's much better to get lenses with VR for this reason. It's controllable by a switch on the lens as well so if you ever want to turn it off, you can. Which is why I question the fact you're considering a bundle with a non-VR telephoto lens (the 55-200). Might as well have the option not to use it than not to have it at all. On the issue of the different kits, definitely go for the kit with the two lenses. Even the cheapest lenses cost more than a memory card.