Via Garibaldi 8

Yeah moving those lines off of Avenue K is dumb, not only because of congestion but because of the demographics there. Homeowners and people in co-ops, condos are the exact people that take the express bus. You want to target those people and make it easy for them to access the express bus because they are more likely to take it since it is there and they would other have to take a bus to a subway (there is no local bus counterpart on Avenue K, thus making the express bus more appealing).

Some contracts with the union and the specify that "X" amount of trips must run each day. I believe the union that represents Spring Creek Depot made some concessions to that years ago. This is why they have continued to struggle to keep bus operators at that depot. No one wants part-time work and the amount of work continues to shrink overall. It will negatively impact all of the neighborhoods that the depot serves, both local and express, as those areas have scarce public transit options as it is.

There would be some off-peak service left, hence the "C" (combination) lines, but no BM Saturday service at all, and off-peak service would be significantly cut. And yes, Spring Creek Depot would be hit pretty hard with a lot less work, but their union agreed years ago to a terrible contract allowing part-time drivers, and the has been cutting service ever since.

Well the thing is they do that for all of the express bus routes. They refer to all of them as being "low ridership" routes or serving "low density" areas, and some neighborhoods have 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people living there, so they are not really "low density" areas. Overall I have mixed feelings. Some changes are smart. If we're talking about the BM1 - BM4 lines, I like the tweaks made at the northern part of those routes because they often are stuck from Ocean and Cortelyou on up. This streamlines service a bit more and hopefully means less sitting around at lights. I also like moving them off of Cortelyou and onto Beverley. Should keep service moving better along there. I don't like the Downtown service cuts because Church & Barclay is a big stop that people use that either work west of Church St. Those people have no service in the morning, but have service in the afternoon. Just keep the loop as it is. The loop isn't the issue. It's the issue of those buses starting on-time and getting stuck coming into Manhattan that they need to resolve. The cuts to the spans and frequencies and Saturday service definitely are a no-go. I do agree with the bus stop consolidation, and thus support cutting at least some stops. For what it's worth, the Beverley Rd change is something that I had asked the to do several months ago when there was construction over by Ocean and Cortelyou and they claimed that it made no difference in run time back then, but this change that they're proposing would absolutely make a difference. Fewer turns and less waiting at lights in that area. ------ @BrooklynBus Some of these proposals particularly for the local bus lines are stupid. Cutting off the B49 from Manhattan Beach looks great on paper, but as someone who grew up down there, everyone knows that Manhattan Beach has next to no commercial areas, so everyone goes to Sheepshead Bay to shop, dine, etc. That connection absolutely should be kept. People do not want to go to Coney Island Av via the B68 to shop. Now some people that live in Manhattan Beach want Brighton Beach, and for that they take the B1. The other one I don't care for is cutting off the B4 to Coney Island Hospital. It's no secret that every local bus near there turns onto Ocean Parkway to serve that hospital so the B1, B4 & B36 all should continue to serve that area and turn onto Ocean Parkway. Overall there isn't much on the local side that improves connections. They just cut out turns and consolidated bus stops.

The City has been spending record amounts of money on the homeless, so it isn't that they don't care enough. New York City has extremely friendly homeless policies in the first place and some laws in place actually hamper what the City can't and cannot do to deal with the homeless population.

It's a proposal. Not written in stone... Some of these changes make sense. Some don't. The cuts to Sea Gate will be fought as well as maintaining off-peak service. Bus stop consolidation I expected and the BM4 routing makes sense since it would serve an area that has asked for the X29 to be restored.

Not enough of it. NYC is inundated with these people. Time to clean house As I said before, a lot of these mentally ill people are chronic drug users (there are countless videos now out with people shooting up on the subways), so of course they don't want treatment. No other way to deal with the problem. The Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was on CNN this morning criticizing the decision. Of course he offers no real solution. About time this administration starts tackling the problem and just admitting what everyone knows regarding the drug problem further exacerbating the issue, otherwise we'll continue to see these random attacks on people just going about their business in the subway system.

Good because it's not on the website yet.

Brooklyn Redesign Proposal supposedly to be released today (this morning)...

There is rampant abuse when it comes such reporting. I'll leave it at that... l've been privy to such examples and I was shocked, but that's how the operates. Reports reports reports, but who is confirming how accurate those reports are?

That's exactly what is needed. The subways are not homeless shelters nor rolling cars for the mentally ill, and I strongly believe that a lot of the crime problems in the subway system are being perpetrated by mentally ill individuals. They'll never get people back to taking the subway if they don't get these people out of the system and treated. For what it's worth, de Blasio and his wife did nothing with hundreds of millions of dollars from "Thrive" to address the issue, so here we are. Every time I'm in Manhattan, the few times that I do go, I seem to encounter mentally ill people roaming about. I was on Madison Av the other day and this guy was just walking and yelling like crazy. Part of the issue causing so many mentally ill people is we have a serious drug issue - I mean the kind of stuff that sends these people into hallucinations and such. People taking who knows what and then going crazy. Something no one wants to talk about, but it's all there. Add that to the lack of psychiatric beds and it's a recipe for disaster.

This one I wouldn't call a glitch. Just poorly thought out on behalf of the .

Yeah unfortunately the tech folks that were working on this left and I wasn't aware of that, so I've started the conversation with the again about the need to get this done for all new express buses, as only some of them have been adjusted. I also am trying to work on the air conditioning problem now because these new buses pump out hot air on a bus with no windows and people are becoming overheated and ill. Totally crazy in my mind to be advocating for things that were just fine on the old buses.

You're jumping the gun. Fare capping is still in the pilot phase, meaning that they wanted to see how people took to it, evaluate the results from that and then go from there. From speaking with the they have stated that it has been successful, and the plan is to roll it out for express buses down the line. They have not decided yet on things like what the threshold will be and there is also programming issues to sort out. That was one of the reasons given as to why express buses were not initially included, and from the Board Meetings, it was definitely clear that there were programming issues, which is why they were so delayed with rolling out the reduced fare OMNY cards (that and the pandemic). You also must understand that anything fare related has to be decided and voted on by the Board and from the very beginning, the was unclear as to whether they were keeping passes, doing fare capping or what. The initial focus for them was ensuring that the payment system worked and was secure. Without those two things, nothing else matters because if people can rely on it and can't trust their information to be secure, then the system couldn't be successful. As for the programming issues, I am not sure if the issues have been on the 's end or on the vendor's end, but they have struggled. For example, there have been instances where my OMNY card was suspended while I was still traveling and I still had a transfer that I should've had access to. I only fill my OMNY card with whatever I need to travel since I only take the express bus now occasionally being work from home, so I would've been pissed if I had to pay again to access a transfer that should've been available while I traveled (I was alerted that my card was suspended maybe 15 minutes after tapping to pay). They seem to have fixed that because after keeping money on the card, I again decided to just load it with the exact amount needed recently and my transfer was available for the duration of the time that it should've been. I am also finding fewer broken OMNY readers. The OMNY website is still a bit buggy, but better overall. Sometimes I have been unable to reload my card and have had to wait or it times out when trying to reload. I was interviewed by phone earlier this year about the whole fare capping situation by the Staten Island Advance. The interview delves more into why express buses weren't included: That said, I've been very clear in my discussions with the that there must be fare capping for express bus commuters. That was why I agreed to be interviewed to use the media to advocate further: Source: https://www.silive.com/news/2022/03/why-doesnt-mtas-omny-fare-capping-program-include-higher-priced-express-bus-trips.html#:~:text=“Because the Express Bus pass,%2C” according to the MTA.

That is correct. Not only that, but moving the seats requires Prevost technicians and additional items have to be ordered. Basically what they are doing is reconfiguring the seats back to the old seat configuration for the previous Prevost order. That doesn't add a ton of leg room, but I definitely notice the difference. It provides a tad bit more leg room in seats where before your legs were crushed against the backs of the seats in front of you.

I think part of the problem was they sampled some riders on some lines and called the redesign a raving success and thought that was it.

I checked out the schedules to see how frequent the two lines are. They're supposedly frequent.... That's pretty pathetic to have no buses when there are two bus lines operating along a major corridor. It also means that there is little to no dispatching going on.

Yeah, but that was precisely the point of the redesign... To improve the local bus lines and make them more reliable and correct "habitual problems"...

How long of a walk is that? So much for the redesign of the Bronx local buses...

Even when I was working hybrid, I still went wherever. Variants will continue to pop up. The difference is now that there are better treatments compared to before. Most people are not wearing a mask either, though some are. To each its own. Whatever makes people feel comfortable, but if we're talking about travel, from the polls I've seen, most people are not concerned about COVID or they are not letting COVID keep them from going out. Now because of inflation and work-from-home, that has made some people lazier in terms of going out, myself included. I am playing catch-up workwise, but once I am fully settled, I will get into a routine of being out regularly. From what I have seen when I do travel people are still engaging in plenty of leisure commuting.

People are traveling wherever, COVID or not. I don't use public transit much anymore because I work from home, but when I want to go shopping or do either leisure activities, I will use public transit to go into Manhattan without any thought about COVID.

They just said that they had supply issues. I misunderstood originally because I was going off of what I had been told previously. Previously, they noted that about 100 of these new buses had to be adjusted. Then a news article that covered the story noted it was 132 buses. The reporter and I know each other and chatted over the phone and they do thorough work before they publish these things, so my guess is the said one thing at the time, but things change. This is the article I'm referring to: https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/3/2/22959075/mta-will-retool-more-express-buses-for-leg-room-after-complaints Later on in the day (yesterday), I received a phone call which clarified what is happening... One fourth is supposed to be out of the total bus order, which stands at around 257 buses, so they have completed roughly 55 buses, which is still pathetic given that it has been over eight months, but better than the roughly 33 I thought they had done originally. They are working at a clip of pulling and fixing about five buses a day, and if that pace continues, they should be done in about six to seven weeks with just the seat adjustments, which should allow all seats on the new express buses to be re-opened. As for the shields, I am not sure what is going on with that. The shields had also been delayed because of supply issues and I was told that they were trying out different things. Where are they are getting the parts from? Perhaps China. The windows on the buses are definitely sourced from China (you can see that if you look closely). I always thought that the was required to source here in the US, but they just have to assemble the buses here in NY State. The parts come from wherever. Sourcing from China keeps costs down for the vendor Prevost, but given the ongoing shutdowns in the country in terms of manufacturing because of COVID, it means ongoing supply delays. Aside from that though, some drivers do not like the new shields, but the union pushed for them, so you can see what a mess things are right now. As far as I know, the plan is to proceed with them. I am not sure if any drivers are complaining enough to halt them being installed. There is an issue feeling enclosed and feeling as if they can see everything when driving, hence why they use the ones that open out and lock in the passengers, but some drivers don't want any shields.

I'll look into it. Not sure if this an NYSDOT or NYCDOT project. UPDATE: This is a NYCDOT project that should've started in 2018, with a completion date of February 2022, but it is clearly delayed. Electrical and mechanical systems on the bridge are being rehabilitated.

CORRECTION: Roughly 1/4th of the express buses have been fixed out of 257 buses.** About five buses a day being serviced.

LATEST UPDATES: Leg room update on new express buses: -I'm disappointed to announce that the is only about 1/4th through adjusting the leg room on the new (blue) express buses, which is unacceptable. I've inquired as to why it has taken over eight months to fix the roughly 132 new express buses with this issue and am awaiting an answer.