Burrstone

I meant male driver on 12:15 n20 #1855 left 3 minutes early from Great Neck Station to CW Post. He departed Flushing at 12:24, 1 minute early.

I was at Flushing at 11:51.

I don't understand what you're telling me?  The driver left within the allowed 5 min window, he didn't break any rules?  They can leave 5 minutes early and NICE suggests you be at the stop 5 minutes early.  What's the problem here?  What am I missing?

Male driver he left 3 minutes ahead all the way through CW Post.

NICE recommends you be at the stop 5 min early buses can be 5 min early just like LIB.  Think about it, it's nuts to think every bus will be sitting at every stop until it's exactly the time, unless you think that every bus should magically come at exactly the scheduled time?  

If buses sat at stops until it was the scheduled time on the dot A) buses could then become late as schedules can't predict traffic, accidents, etc. B)  Buses could be partially blocking lanes of traffic as sometimes the shoulder isn't big enough for the entire bus C) Given the track record, the more you have buses sitting on the side of the road for several minutes at a time is more chance for drunks to rear end buses.  You think I'm kidding, but look at the idiots who've rear ended buses since NICE started operations, imagine increasing the amount of time they are sitting on the side of the road?  More drunks and idiots rear ending stopped buses...  lol

Of course it would be better to have your parents buy you a car or one you can use whenever you want.  lol  You are not going to get the same level of service from public transportation, that's a no brainier.

As far as your concerns about being stranded, you need to give more info...  Will you be going to NCC or Old Westbury?  What line will you be using?  When will you get to school?  When will you leave?  I don't think you'll have a problem unless you're relying on the last bus of the night.  I've never heard of a bus skipping NCC, much less every bus on a line skipping a major stop like NCC, so really what are odds you'd be "stranded" (unless you're waiting for the last bus).  

If you're parents could afford to "family to acquire a third car" I'm sure they could afford to cough up cab money for their child in college to take a cab home in the rare event they were stranded.  

Yeah it went to the vendor, back in service now lol.

So 2486 back from Secaucus, NJ as of 1:58pm, 2487 sent to the Vendor for the weekend - next week.

When you say vendor, that means going somewhere else to be fixed besides the ?  Or is there a different meaning to vendor?

I think when NICE first started, there were quite a few former school bus drivers...

 

I know for a fact NICE hired quite a few former school bus drivers...  From what i heard I think a lot of them came from a certain company, word of mouth got around that Veolia was hiring.

I think when NICE first started, there were quite a few former school bus drivers around as they'd do the whole "open the door at railroad crossings" thing that I always see actual school buses do..

It doesn't matter the type of bus all buses are supposed to come to a complete stop at RR crossings and open the door even all many don't.   (there are some crossings that are exempt but that's a different topic).

When I'm delivering buses (transit or school) I'm still required to stop at RR crossings which is ironic because the buses have a transporter license plate and you're not aloud to transport passengers in any vehicle with a transport tag on it.

... but how do they get those endorsements on their CDL?

If you don't have a CDL you'd have to take the general knowledge written test, written test on school buses and written test on passenger vehicles.  If you pass these tests you get your CDL permit with P&S endorsements.  If you don't take or don't pass the airbrakes test you'll have a restriction on your permit not allowing you to drive vehicles with airbrakes.

When you take your road test you'd have to take the road test in a school bus to get your CDL with a P&S endorsement, if you take it in any other bus (transit, coach/greyhound sort of bus) you'd only get a P endorsement.  You must have a passenger endorsement with the school bus endorsement.  During the road test you also have to do a test on the airbrakes, which is not hard but is a process and if it's new to you or your nervous so if you fail it you'll get an airbrake restriction.  Most jobs advertise you must have an airbrake endorsement, there is no endorsement for airbrakes in NY but a restriction is put on your license if you fail the test ( or didn't take the written test).

The drivers you see driving a full size school bus or transit bus have a CDL B because the vehicle is over 26,001 pounds (anything over that requires a B), most of these  vehicles also have airbrakes.

Tractor Trailer drivers have a Class A CDL...  They can drive a vehicle 26,001+ with a trailer weighing over 10,001.

Someone with a Class B can also drive straight trucks as well as well as bobtails (the tractor w/o the trailer).

If someone with a class A wants to get their P/S endorsements they must take the written tests and take the road test a second time, with a school bus.  I have a CDL B P/S if I wanted to drive a tractor trailer I'd have to take the written test for "combination vehicles" and take the road test again in a tractor trailer. 

So, if someone has a CDL A with P or P&S they had to have taken and passed two road tests, one with a tractor trailer, one with a bus.  

They also have a CDL C because the mini buses like school and airport shuttles are under 26,000 and don't require a CDL so they are "under weight" but the requires the driver to have a P or a P/S, thus the need for a CDL C where the driver doesn't drive a a CDL because of the weight but does because of the passenger and school bus requirements.

BTW I think a vehicle designed to carry 15+ people including the driver requires the driver have a P endorsement.

IMHO anyone driving dollar vans, "supershuttles," or any other service where you'll be cramming people into a van should require a CDL C/ P!

SuperShuttle uses 15-passenger blue Ford vans with no lifts, you see them in Manhattan everywhere. They're a shared-ride airport van service.

Unfortunately, I'm very unfamiliar with SuperShuttle. lol

I did find out (as I expected) that SuperShuttle has "accessible" vans.  I figured they'd be required to, and if not required they'd probably have them anyway to put on a ADA friendly face.

http://www.supershuttle.com/AccessibleService.aspx

What is Rides Unlimited Nassau and Suffolk anyway? I see their buses all the time.

I think its just another handicapped service. Maybe this will help:

 

http://www.newvillageofislandia.com/pages/releases/030612.html

They are "associated" or owned by some sort of foundation or company dealing with mentally handicapped adults.  The people who need this service live in group home or shared apartment and go to day programs.  The company/foundation helping these people farms the transportation work out to Rides Unlimited.  They have a section of their site dealing with Rides Unlimited saying they created the service to help, blah blah blah...  In reality they are not a non profit organization, Rides Unlimited is incorporated not only do they handle their own work they farm out to themselves they bid on other work all around, nassau, suffolk, and the city (under bidding other companies).

I actually called them about a job over 2 years ago, without knowing it was them.  I called up about a job I saw in the paper and they explained the job driving a  van around Queens & Brooklyn doing this sort of work.  So you'd have to go out to their yard in Islandia pick up the van drive to brooklyn or queens, run around brooklyn or queens for 4 hours taking the pax from their residence to the day program, have a mid day break pick the pax up at their day programs and bring them back to their residence.  

I was told it was $10/hr lmao you have to be kidding me!  The problem I have with them and why I mentioned they underbid other companies in the area is they low bid the job just to get it and in return pay their drivers shit because of it.

I kinda laughed when I heard $10/hr and said that was kinda low for a job they require a CDL job (you could probably make more at Walmart).  The women said "we have that rate of pay because the drivers are covered by a union, and unfortunately that's the pay the union dictated."  Yea right, I'm sure they wanted to pay a fair wage and the union wouldn't have, you know how unions like the employees they represent to make as little as possible.  I wouldn't be surprised if this scumbag company wanted to pay less but this was all they could squeeze out of Rides Unlimited.

I said I saw they had school buses they painted blue, and asked if they needed drivers for them?  Oh no, everyone starts at a van, when you've been their long enough you could work your way up to the mini buses like Brett posted after you passed a test, then after driving a mini bus, you could earn your way up to a "big bus".  You had to earn the right to drive a school bus which is funny because anyone could earn at least $5/hr more driving a school bus anywhere else on the island.

The only people I could see working at this place is people who were trained at LIB (this was when LIB was still around) who only had a P endorsement and no S endorsement, no S endorsement and you can't drive a school bus.

That must be one unreliable pair...from Jamaica all the way out to Babylon...

I have seen this on the very 1st n19 of the day and two late afternoon n19's...

I'm very interested in these things, notice these buses always do the n19 first and then n4 to Jamaica... they know the n19 will not be held up, and then interlines the bus into peak n4 service. If it was the other way around ("yea, we'll just have a n4 coming in at that time pick up the n19) they really would've screwed the n19 and made it an unreliable route. By doing the n19 first I think it shows Veolia gets it and is looking out for the pax... They just as easily could've done the interline the opposite way...

I can now confirm the n4 & n19 interline...

I heard Veolia's plan was to have SuperShuttle (which is franchised out to independent operators) doing Able-Ride work in addition to NICE Paratransit. Which is weird, SuperShuttle's vans definitely don't look accessible, but it's possible they're trying to use the the NICE Paratransit buses for people in wheelchairs and whatnot that need the lifts and have SuperShuttle picking up people capable of using a van without a lift, to reduce costs of course.

Sounds smart.  Rides Unlimited Nassau Suffolk uses a lot of vans.  Does Super Shuttle have any vans?  Wouldn't they have to have some "accessible"  vans to comply with the ADA?  Not that it matters, I like the idea of using vans for those who can use them.

With that said I'm wondering if it'd be a break of contract for Veolia to be providing the services of NICE by using vehicles of another organization.

It's hard to say with the franchise situation. Veolia owns the brand, but every van is owned and operated under franchises.

All a bunch of ridiculous red tape bullshit. At any rate, at least service is being provided by making better use of resources.

waiting longer now that they're tied up with Able Ride?

I know people here will tell me "No Burrstone, they're obviously running it separately with the Able Ride stickers doing that work..."  I know, but look at how the average consumer is going to look at the stickers on the SuperShuttle vans, especially in Nassau County.  Is the LandRover gang Pine Power goes on about going want to a van to the airport they associate with public transit and able ride?

I like the idea, I think they need to not have the Super Shuttle logo on the vans, to protect the brand, but that's on SuperShuttle not NICE.

You'll usually see a lot of buses on Sunrise Hwy because that's the route they usually take to go out to the Detroit Diesel facility in Ronkonkoma.

 

If he was stopped, maybe he was taking a driving break, stretching his legs..

 

Such a long drive, I can understand the need for a stretch break lol j/k

There is a Dunkin Donuts next door, and it was around dinner time.  

I was waiting for the n4 (which was late) and some people thought that was the n4 coming.  All I could think was Pine Power would've shit a brick if he was there thinking the mother ship had come back for him. LMAO

7601 was in Freeport, on Henry St. between Sunrise HWY & Freeport LIRR, does anyone know why?  Also, I'm not sure if there was another bus that went by a few minutes before or if 7601 circled back around and parked (I couldn't make out the number).

The point I took was NICE was sending a spare bus!  If a bus broke down it was too bad, so sad.

Now for my NICE fail of the day, (actually this could be the fail of the week): 1602 was running around with a huge logo on the front of the bus!

Are you in school? NICE wants students who take the bus daily to class and want to have an input their community bus service.

More specifically, weren't they only looking for NCC students?  Or is this open to all students?  What is the compensation?  I know they get to ride the bus for free, any other compensation?

How did surveys look like? When I was at Hempstead, student ambassadors were checking the survey.

Maybe I could ask NICE if they could give make me ambassador, so new NICE drivers wouldn't give me hard time.

It never hurts to ask!

Saw surveyers on the n22 today, it was good to see NICE taking an interest in rider opinions, thats more than County or State officials (none of which returned my phone calls about bus problems). Of course I took the survey and filled it out and handed it to them, but they didn't have clipboards so it wasn't easy to write neatly. 

I swear, you'll find anything to complain about.  You say it's nice that NICE is taking an interest in peoples opinions, within the same breath you bitch that they didn't bring a clipboard for you to write on.     How many people were filling out the comment form?  Imagine how many clipboards these people would have to carry for everyone on the bus to use?  

Just a little insight on the Clever Devices turn warning system (Brett's vid reminded me). An "optical sensor" detects when the bus is turning and plays the announcement on the external speaker.

 

http://www.cleverdevices.com/pedestrian-warning.htm

 

Gonna post this in the NJT random thoughts thread as well.

It's not when the driver uses the turn signal?  If it is an "optical sensor" they need to adjust it so the announcement doesn't come one every time the driver exits and enter traffic from a stop.

I suggest they put a sensor on the bus that will sense cars beeping behind a stopped  bus.  A bus will make a stop, a car will beep, and the bus will say "this vehicle is at a stop, go around it, no need to beep like a dumbass!" 

The fact that he's even placing any faith on the system is just as hilarious.  I'm still wondering if this is his hobby or not because he doesn't do or talk about much else.

If he does this as a hobby he'd be like a bird watcher who bitches about being in the woods. 

I've asked him multiple times what he does for a living, he refuses to answers so I've started to assume he's on some public assistance program and spends his time (and the tax payers money) traveling around the nice system so he can bitch about it later..  Unless he'd like to tell us what he does for a living?

Today I had a bus driver that got pulled over and had no license on him. 2 hour 20 min delay. But wait, that was NJ Transit!

I guess I deserve it for dissin' NICE so much!

LMAO, you gotta admit you would've had a field day if this happened on a NICE bus, kinda priceless this happened to you on NJ Transit!  

Well thanks to Mangano my sneakers are more dependable than Nassau Buses.

Too bad the buses don't move as fast as the points whizzing over your head. 

SATURDAY FUN: The last n73 from Wantagh to Hicksville, to depart at 6:40pm, never showed up. I saw it pass heading south around 6:35pm, but it never came back by the train station. Took the LIRR to Baldwin for the n35. Its getting to the point where I feel like boycotting NICE. What a joke. Mangano can go back to the hole he crawled out of.

NO!!!  What will NICE do you bitch about?

 What a joke. Mangano can go back to the hole he crawled out of.

Actually the jokes on you, I don't know what Mangano drives but unlike I don't think the only transportation he owns is his sneakers.   

I can do anything now... but I'm not go into every thread in the NICE section, search for the posts where the topic has shifted to that conversation and then move them all. Seems like too much work lol.

LOL I never suggested that...  Maybe just the last few in this section and everything from this point on...  If it's moved to it's own thread from this point think people will get the point to keep it in that thread. Something has to be done, or else the first 5 year option will be done and people will still be saying "if Nassau/Mangano paid it's "fair"share" blah blah blah."  It's been 16 and a half months since Veolia took over, why are people still saying this?  Does it make them feel better because it doesn't do anything else about the situation.

I know but if any conversation is merged into that thread maybe people would get the hint to keep it  in that thread?  Do you have the power to merge threads?  

It was actually weird seeing Long Island Bus on the side of a V!

But anyway, how dare you remind Pine Power of this?  The roads were made of gold and it gumdrops under the .  We'd be better off the remember? 

Brett, could we have a separate topic with this moved in there and any future talk anyone wants to have about Nassau not paying their fair share can be posted (or moved) there?

Despite the 40 degree temps today, only 1 bus out of 4 I took had the heat on (and they were all 1800s). These new guys just put the driver's heat on and that's it. This was a problem under too but worse with NICE. Nothing more annoying than waiting out in the raw cold only to get on a cool, damp bus with fogged up windows. These stupid b/o's that shut off the HVAC need to be reported.

Maybe you can just ask them to turn/off the heat?  If they have their own heat maybe they don't realize that the passeneger area has gotten uncomfortable?

Yea I remember seeing 1542 on the list and as you noticed it doesn't seem auctions international archives the auctions that far back.

What I'm thinking now is that the auction didn't go as planned (maybe non-paying bidder or NICE decided to keep the buses at the end), and NICE probably kept the bus. However, none of us were informed if that happened. AGAIN, I'M NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED.

 

As it is, we don't know if each auction goes through successfully and the bidder pays and the bus is out of NICE. We can really just assume that until its officially off NICE property.

As we have all seen the buses put out for auction are usually stripped of useful parts and in very poor condition.  I'm sure it's possible that a bidder defaulted but if they did would NICE pay the expense to rebuild a bus in such poor condition to make it suitable for service?  I think the far more likely scenario is that 1542 on the sales list was a mistake or typo?

 I just searched youtube quick and their is evidence of 1542 in service on 1/5/12 (4 days after NICE started service, so it did see service NICE service and was registered under NICE):

There are also a couple of videos where 1542 was in service 3 months ago...

Unless the buses are being renumbered again by NICE, 1542 was one of the first buses auctioned off by NICE at the beginning of last year. It never operated under NICE and just sat in the Mitchel Field lot at LIB.

I assumed this was recorded at a way earlier time and just uploaded recently.  Now this is even odder because if the video is recent, regisitered under NICE (nice decals and gold plates), and you say the bus was never used under NICE just LIB and auctioned off.  What would NICE gain by renumbering the V's, you'd think 1500's would be renumbered 1600's if anything to keep 1400's (able ride), 1600 (Orion V's), 1700's, 1800's.  Unless of course they numbered the buses 15xx they plan on getting rid of soon, and renumber other V's they plan on keeping in the 1600's.  Just seems like a major pain in the ass to renumber for no real gain...

It seems we have a mystery on our hands, you've got my attention.

What happened to the coca cola wraps?  Did they take the wrap(s) off or did they scrap that bus?