BrooklynBus

No. The meeting had an abysmal turnout. Only about 18 from the neighborhood. No elected officials and no one from the community board. I asked why they are not straightening the B16 but they wouldn’t answer the question.

60 St was presented to CB 12 in 1975 and again in 2004, and both times was rejected for congestion issues. Both times they suggested what you did. My plan suggested everything you did for the same reasons, yet the MTA insists they know what is best for the community and has refused to discuss my plan with me.

Right now the B36 is underserved during rush hours. The B44 SBS will fill some of that demand when they should just add B36 short turns from Avenue U to Sheepshead Bay. B36 riders will now take which bus cones first which means there will be fewer B36 riders. Fewer riders translates to reduced non-peak service.

Rerouting to Coney Island Hospital is a poor idea. All it accomplishes is allowing for reduced B36 service. Makes much more sense to reroute it to Kingsborough College when classes are in session. There is no need for increased local service south of Avenue U as it is lightly used. However SBS trips to Knapp Street need to be maintained during the change of shifts to serve the workers from Crown Heights at the several nursing homes and assisted living facilities near Knapp St.

As I stated, before the mid sixties there was no bus service north of there and of course no trolley service before that. Service was not added to help passengers but making Nostrand a one way left the TA no other choice. You could be asking why we needed duplicate two way service on Nostrand and Rogers before that since they are only one block apart. We didn’t. They only existed because there were two competing trolley companies trying to get the same market which is why the Rogers and Nostrand Avenue trolleys and later buses did not grant a free transfer to the same routes. If the 44 transferred to a crosstown route, the 49 did not and vice versa.

I would move the B44 to Rogers and replace New York Ave service south of Kings County Hospital with a new route.

Yes, but you have to remember that prior to the mid 1960s, Bedford Avenue never had bus service. It was only when Nostrand and Rogers became one way pairs, that the TA was forced to add service to Bedford and NY Avenues. It was not done to help bus passengers, but to speed traffic which it greatly did on Nostrand and Rogers. But Bedford has always been exceedingly slow for buses. I don’t see moving service from Bedford to Ocean as a loss, but as a gain. The only riders that would lose a Brighton connection are those from east of Utica Avenue and I doubt there are many. If the B16 terminates at Rutland / Sutter, those near East 98 St would use that route to access the Brighton line and some could walk from East NY Ave to Clarkson for the B16. There would be very few east of Howard Ave who are going to the Brighton line. Most B12 riders are destined for Kings County Downstate or the Nostrand Ave Line. I used the B12 all the time growing up so I am familiar with its usage.

I totally restructured all the routes in the area. I shortened the B12 so it terminates at Kings County Hospital. I rerouted the B49 to operate straight on Ocean Avenue then on Empire Blvd to Utica Avenue. I rerouted the B43 to continue south on Brooklyn and north on Kingston going around Kings County Hospital to Clarkson Ave, and extended the B16 east to E 98 St along Clarkson.

My idea is much better.

The B36 operated from CI on. Surf to W 5th, then on Neptune from West 5th to Emmons, then Sheepshead Bay Road to E15 to Avenue Z to Nostrand and then to Ave U. There also was the B21 which used the B4 route from Sheepshead Bay but used Emmons to Sheepshead Bay Road, to E 15 to Ave Z to Ocean Parkway to Brighton Beach Ave to Manhattan Beach. I like the Stillwell Neptune route for the B4 provided the B36 is rerouted onto Shell Rd and straight along Ave Z to replace the B4. It’s just too bad the Ruth Bader Ginsberg Hospital only has vehicular access from Ave Z, but I guess you could walk through the parking garage.

I was the one who designed that detour. It is definitely needed. It allowed the straightening of the B36 in 1978. The MTA is not proposing to change it. If MTA had any brains, when two eastbound buses bunch on Neptune Avenue, the late bus could transfer its passengers to the following bus and bypass the loop, where it would gain about nine minutes and be back on schedule. That is one of the advantages of the current route. But the MTA has no interest in reliability so both buses unnecessarily follow each other around the loop when they bunch.

Because the B45 has or had that loop that it would have to lose if it were extended.

It should remain as is because it provides an alternative to the B46. The only bad idea about the B40/78 combination was eliminating the east west portion of the B40 which should have been added to the B65.

I don’t know where you got 2026 from.

Overnight service is not an issue. The B49 has no overnight service between like 2 and 4 AM last time I checked. If the routes were switched, then the B68 loses service between 2 and 4 AM. We are only talking about two round trips which are probably empty or near empty anyway. The major problem is the loss of direct service between Manhattan Beach and Sheepshead Bay turning a current ten minute trip into a 40 minute trip. Also, there are dozens of medical offices along Ocean Avenue which would no longer be directly accessible from Manhattan Beach. I haven’t really looked at the B48/69 swap that closely but it also has received lots of opposition.

The B49/68 swap is a horrible idea which is why it received so much criticism. Only one person likes it and he lives in Southeast Queens and doesn’t use the route.

If they wanted to remove bus stops, they needed to establish a parallel route a few blocks away. Now some have to walk as much as 3/4 to access the route , when the guidelines call for a 1/4 walk. There is a reason why stops were previously only two blocks apart.

Helped the operators, but it the passengers.

Yes, the bus will save a few minutes, like five from end to end which means less costs for the MTA, but it also means many will now have to walk extra minutes to the bus stop increasing the chance of missing the bus and adding about 10 to 20 minutes to your trip. The time it takes you to make your trip including walking and waiting is more important than the time it takes the bus to make its trip. Also, eliminating lightly used stops save virtually no time at all since most buses would skip the stop anyway.

Stop removal will lengthen the time it takes to make trips. I have been pushing for a law to give buses the right of way leaving bus stops for about five year. The MTA has agreed to support it and agreed to get bills introduced, but they still insist on eliminating bus stops. Read more in my latest article. https://www.bkreader.com/local-voices/op-ed-the-brooklyn-bus-network-redesign-needs-to-have-public-town-halls-7279288

https://www.bkreader.com/local-voices/op-ed-the-brooklyn-bus-network-redesign-needs-to-have-public-town-halls-7279288

It’s a shame because the redesigns are opportunities to correct 70 year old routing problems, but not when your goal is to reduce costs rather than improving service for the passengers.

Don’t expect consistency from the MTA.

But the question is if the positives outweigh the negatives. Many don’t think so. Hence the opposition.

Selects will be renamed Crosstown. What will be eliminated are local bus routes which will all become Limiteds. Crosstown will have fewer stops than Limiteds. https://www.change.org/p/mta-oppose-the-mta-s-plan-to-eliminate-bus-stops?redirect=false