BrooklynBus

I think there is some confusion here and perhaps it is my fault since I floated two ideas regarding the B44. The first one was to reroute some of the buses through the Sheepshead Bay Station. That was before the B44 SBS was implemented in 2013. Ted Orosz promised to evaluate it and get back to me in three months. I never heard from him again after several reminders. I abandoned that idea after several months. I replaced it with another one which I asked the MTA to evaluate in September 2016. That one was to operate alternate B44 SBSs to KCC when school is in session and to discontinue the B49 SBS. I also recommended that around school dismissal, they operate some B49s via the pre-1978 route bypassing Sheepshead Bay Station. They have not responded specifically regarding either idea other than by providing some irrelevant statistics. When I sprained what statistics they needed to gather to evaluate the idea, they never responded. I never proposed to eliminate all B44 SBS service to Knapp Street. I do not see why you ask where would I turn the B44 SBS. You say 10 to 20 riders board at Avenue X. Surely you cannot be talking about to go in the southbound direction.

I think he means well and isn't a phony like most of the others before him. I just don't think he is knowledgeable enough, and from what I heard was not liked that much in Toronto. He did not listen to bus drivers for one thing. He told me the redesign would be "customer driven". I'm don't see that being the case. If it were, he would have gotten me a response for my B44 proposal, and not have told me to wait three more years. That is just a stall tactic. At least he would have agreed to a sit down between me and his OP people which I suggested to him..

And isn't heavy loads what you want? Especially when it saves riders times and reduces loads on other routes? Or would you rather have 60 foot busses carrying six passengers or less? If you despite those passenger counts look at several sheepsheadbites articles that I wrote where I stood at Avenue Z for over an hour between 8 and 9 AM and counted the passengers. Also every time I am on Nostrand at different times of the day, every b44 both sbs and local are virtually empty. The buses leave Knapp street with only one or two passengers. If alternate SBS buses ran to Kingsborough non stop from Avenue X, buses would carry 60 passengers each in the B44:off peak direction so you wouldn't even need any more buses.

Yes, this time they gave a start date so they are serious. But it is absolutely ridiculous that this took five years. It is rare that a politician keeps fighting for something without giving up. Deutsch deserves all the credit for this one. Brooklyn redesign won't happen for three more years, but I have no faith that the changes will be for the better. They will seek more cuts. Buford is listening to the same people who got us in this mess in the first place. There will be few additions of service.

SBS has lost passengers. How can you justify better than 20 minute headways when there are no more than six people per bus in both directions even during rush hours (except perhaps during the change of shifts at the nursing homes)? That's why I proposed to extension the Kingsborough College during school hours two years ago which the MTA still has not reviewed. Byford told me they will not study it until they examine all the Brrooklyn routes in another three years. Why should a review if a single route change take five years? Deutsch told me about this about a month ago. The MTA actually made this promise last year and it was mentioned in the Bay News, but the MTA later retracted and changed their minds. This time they gave a start date. I told CB 15 in 2012 that if they didn't ask for the Avenue R stop before the SBS route started, they would never get it, although a few people did request it at the workshops.

DOT took away those lanes about two or three years ago and striped them off. Didn't even put in a bike lane. Totally stupid. So now that they have put in bus lanes no cars were affected.

I fully agree with you about cuts being a bad idea. But holding off on new SBS routes is the right decision. When I get a chance, I will review the 2017 ridership numbers for SBS routes. I bet it is down almost as much as the locals.

Putting a moritorium on new SBS routes is the right decision considering the phasing out of Metro Card. Why invest in new machines that will be obsolete soon? This is exactly what I recommended in my April piece in the Gotham Gazette. http://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/7599-the-great-select-bus-service-conspiracy-part-i I wonder if they still will be going ahead with the B82 SBS. Also, why is there no B46 SBS Progress Report after more than two years? Could it be because ridership has been down for the last two years in a row on that route since they instituted SBS?

There was a secret meeting on Friday. Don't have any other details.

Okay then. That I understand. Just explain to me the part about the OTO. If the bus was ahead of schedule as you claim, then why if he is told "to take it easy" would he get OTO? You get OTO when you are late, not when you are early. So I find it difficult to believe he was really early.

Let me tell you about my experience yesterday on the M34 SBS at about 5:50 PM. Once a month I take the subway to 34th and 6th and then walk over to 8th Avenue. I look to see if an M34 is coming. Most of the time there is none in sight and I walk to 8th before a bus gets there or we get there about the same time. Yesterday, I see an M34 SBS waiting at the traffic light so I get a receipt and get on the bus. There are only about 15 people on the bus and only about four got on or off, but rather than close the doors, the driver waits for about 30 seconds. I figured maybe he saw someone getting a receipt and he wanted to be nice. Then he starts moving no faster than five mph. I can't understand why he is going so slow but think maybe the signal mid block is red, so there is no reason to go faster. Once he passes it, he continues at the same slow speed. At 7th Avenue he stops and waits at least 30 seconds although no one is getting on or off. Then a bus dispatcher and another bus driver come over and start talking to the driver of the bus I am on. The dispatcher says, "I have no buses so take it easy." The driver answers: "That's what I have been doing." The other driver then chimes in: "Plenty of OTO," My driver says: " That's right." (OTO means Overtime Offset.) Then the driver continues again slower than 5 mph, barely moving. So I get up to see if cars or trucks are in the bus lane and I see the entire block to Eighth Avenue is 100 percent clear and the bus stop is on the near side, so it doesn't matter if the light is read or green and rather than getting there in 15 seconds or so, it takes him like two minutes. So I finally say to him. "I thought SBS supposed to be fast, so why are you going so slow? He answers: "Do you want to drive the bus?" People cut in front of you all the time." I said, "but there are no people or cars in front of you right now." Then he says. " Have a nice day." Then I made several more remarks and he answered all of them with " Have a nice day." Bottom line: with no waiting for the bus, an empty bus lane, zero traffic and a nearly empty bus. The two blocks from Sixth to Eighth Avenue took six or seven minutes, the same as walking speed. That is a far cry from a 15 minute river to river trip the MTA was initially promising when it first proposed SBS on 34th Street. It was easy to see what is happening here. The MTA blames slow crosstown travel times on blocked lanes or traffic, when the reality is the drivers are in cahoots with the dispatchers for them to acquire needless overtime while the passengers suffer.

But on the wide portion of Kings Highway there is no traffic even during the rush hours as the average bus speeds show. The lanes will create traffic where none exists now by reducing the main road to one traffic lane.

My big problem is there is no justification for exclusive lanes on the wide portion of Kings Highway. bus speeds there are already about 17 to 20 mph and the speed limit is 25 mph, so exclusive lanes will not make them travel any faster.

Whatever deals are being made, it is being done in private. No one is releasing any information.

So let me summarize. The plan was supposed to go into effect in July. There was protest because the community claimed they weren't heard. Byford delays the plan, supposedly halting construction so there could be more community input. Meanwhile there is no place on the MTA website to oust comments and DOT closed their comment page last May and no further events are held. Meanwhile construction continues for a likely fall implementation. So what did the delay accomplish? Just pretending to listen to the community and more phoniness and lies by DOT and the MTA.

It comes off that way because that's the way it is.

No. I never stated our federal taxes would go down. So what if another area gets federal funds for a project with more benefits than a wasted project here? To me that is a good thing. And if they go to another bad program instead, that would be the fault of the federal government, not our MTA. Also, there is no such thing as "extra buses". We have bus requirements because if increased ridership or buses needing to be replaced. The number of buses needed remains the same, whether they are put on SBS or other routes. The $2 million figure is not hogwash. I explained it here: http://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/7599-the-great-select-bus-service-conspiracy-part-i Explain to me where I made an error. And you are still naive enough to believe MTA statistics? According to your link the Eagle Team has been a success. Nowhere in the report does it state what the Eagle Team costs vs. the amount of revenue it collects. That is missing crucial information. It also states: that in November 2013, the Transportation Committee requested an update on the Eagle Team and that fare reduction after SBS on the B44 was reduced by 50 percent. Please explain to me how that is possible when the B44 SBS was not implemented until November 12, 2013? So what are they measuring? That discrepancy makes all the numbers in that report suspect.

I disagree. In the end, nothing is free. We are still paying for these buses. If not from our state taxes, then it's from our federal taxes. You don't implement a program that will not help people and will cost more to operate, just because you would get federal money to do so. Even if a few operating dollars are saved due to shorter run times, it is more than offset by having to pay for fare inspectors, unless they can collect more in fines than their salaries and pensions cost. At $100,000 per year per head, I doubt that is the case. I computed that the cost to provide all the proposed SBS routes over a ten year period will exceed $2 billion. Is that worth the cost if the average time savings is only five or ten minutes for 45 minute or an hour trip from door to door?

I was already considering all the special problems you mentioned. My point was that if the trip takes 90 minutes to two hours every day during rush hours, having a run time of 60 minutes is gross mismanagement, and I am not backing away from that position.

I also was looking at the NYMTC website. They are the ones who distribute the federal funds in this area.

Yes. A friend of mine who used to work for MTA Bus once told me the only reason the MTA even supports SBS is because of the free buses. It is really a DOT project

But that's not the way I think supposed to be. They are supposed to be the same thing. The only times there should be deviations is when there is an unusual occurrence, like a road blockage, fire, parade, accident, unusual traffic, etc. Or if there is some unusual activity that occurs only one or two days a week. Otherwise, bus running time and and scheduled time should be the same thing. But what happens is no time is allotted special circumstances like wheelchairs so one wheelchair passenger automatically puts the bus between 5 and ten minutes behind schedule. Then that snowballs until the bus is completely off schedule. For a bus to routinely take twice the allotted schedule is indicative of gross mismanagement. I wish I had the answers to your questions. The MTA has been very secretive about this. I remember trying to find out a cost for the B44 SBS and different sources quoted $15 million, $40 million and $55 million. What was happening was that each number included different things. When DOT was selling it they used the $15 million figure omitting what they were receiving for new buses claiming they would have needed them anyway without SBS. The Feds, on the other hand were including the dollars for the buses. I don't think they get monies for the service because every staff summary asked the board for about $3 milllion per year in additional funding to run SBS. If the Feds were paying something to run the service, that should have been reflected in the staff summaries saying the $3 million was the net amount needed after the federal subsidy.

True. So wouldn't you say the MTA has been disingenuous by touting bus time savings from the first stop to the last stop for every route when promoting SBS? I remember how they were bragging B44 passengers would save 15 minutes.

That's one thing I never did. Joyride on a bus. But that really isn't the point. Even if he was joy riding, he made a statement that one hour fifteen minutes was a great rush hour time and how it is a great improvement. I was just explaining how it is no improvement whatsoever unless you claim that the old schedules could never be met. If so, the question then becomes why would you have unrealistic schedules that could never be met for years on end? And why wouldn't you just first fix the schedules first to see if that improves service before undertaking an expensive and time consuming SBS project?

I drove daily on Woodhaven Blvd for nine years and can tell you that traffic was the heaviest in November and December and the lightest during summer months. So if anything, speeds should be the quickest in the summer. You certainly can make a comparison. Its just amazing how SBS supporters will still support SBS no matter what the facts say. Now the schedules supposed to reflect reality. That means in 2014 you should have been able in rush hours to take the Q53 Limited end to end in 104 minutes. DOT promised a 25 percent time savings in rush hour after SBS. That means you should now be able to name the same trip 16 minutes quicker in 88 minutes. And you are bragging how you did it in only 115 minutes with SBS. Meanwhile it's taking cars which represent 80 percent of the roads motorized users between 20 and 40 minutes extra to make the same trip. Sounds to me like a total failure.