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3 hours ago, MTAbus677 said:

One of the operators on the B11 unit #236 today was like “Watch the closing doors!” “Hold on to the handrails!” and “Thank you!” when you pay the fare. Plus, he was making announcements when the bus has screens! He is a great operator!

Hate it when they do that. I can hardly understand what they say plus it’s pointless if the bus is equipped with on-board announcements. 

However, that’s cool how you got an operator who was nice.

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6 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

Well, faster service does not mean that operators get a pass to speed up and down the street either. 

And for the record, supervision has been holding all buses on the M14 to their times, since the busway opened. 

Well that's the problem.  The (MTA) needs to make up their mind.  Either they want the SBS buses moving or they don't.  They do a lot of things that don't make sense. For example, the whole situation with transferring from SIM express buses... A memo went out saying that express buses were open door.  Well that policy still stands from what I know, yet some drivers refuse to acknowledge it.   You can't run a system efficiently when there is no consistency, and with management doing their own thing, the drivers have nothing to follow.

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9 hours ago, Snorunts said:

Hate it when they do that. I can hardly understand what they say plus it’s pointless if the bus is equipped with on-board announcements. 

However, that’s cool how you got an operator who was nice.

I’m not totally against a B/O making manual announcements because those newfangled announcements often have incomplete transfer info or give a different name to a stop than what people are used to (ie: Amendola Place instead of Pelham Bay Station, 42 St and Park Avenue instead of Grand Central, etc)

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35 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

I’m not totally against a B/O making manual announcements because those newfangled announcements often have incomplete transfer info or give a different name to a stop than what people are used to (ie: Amendola Place instead of Pelham Bay Station, 42 St and Park Avenue instead of Grand Central, etc)

Usually the announcements are programmed to say whatever is on the bus stop sign, but there are a few that have been moved and haven't been updated. On the B16 going to Bay Ridge the bus announces "86th Street/Narrows Avenue" when the actual stop is at the corner of 86th Street and Shore Road. Temporary bus stops also have this issue, they'll trigger earlier or later than usual. On the 43 for India Street going towards Prospect Park, the bus announces that the next stop is Greenpoint Avenue while at the temporary India Street stop.

Edited by SoSpectacular
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2 hours ago, paulrivera said:

I’m not totally against a B/O making manual announcements because those newfangled announcements often have incomplete transfer info or give a different name to a stop than what people are used to (ie: Amendola Place instead of Pelham Bay Station, 42 St and Park Avenue instead of Grand Central, etc)

If they do decide to make announcements, then they need to use the phone, not that stupid button on the ground that picks up all sounds in the driver area (we hear potholes, mumbling, etc, when that happens...very annoying. 

 

And before a B/O says, "that's what we're supposed to use", don't use it at all then, let the clear pronouncing screens do the work . Its either you use the phone or you're wasting your breath because myself and the entire bus didn't hear you and will ask you again. 

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3 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Do none of the eastbound M34 riders read the destination sign to know if it's going to Waterside or FDR Drive? I swear at least 19 people come up to to the driver everyday at 2nd Av asking if they're going to Waterside or not.

Lol if you think that's limited to the M34.....

You'd be amazed as to how ignorant people tend to be when it comes to public transportation....

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14 hours ago, paulrivera said:

I’m not totally against a B/O making manual announcements because those newfangled announcements often have incomplete transfer info or give a different name to a stop than what people are used to (ie: Amendola Place instead of Pelham Bay Station, 42 St and Park Avenue instead of Grand Central, etc)

That, and the transfer information is completely messed up. At 8th Avenue on the SIM8, it said transfer is available to the (1)(7)(C)(W) trains (or something along those lines. It didn't list all the connecting trains), but then at 6th Avenue, it listed a whole bunch of transfers to other express bus routes that nobody would have any practical purpose for (even if the drop off-only rule is supposedly waived, nobody would get off the SIM8 to take the SIM25 when they both take the exact same route, and neither one runs reverse-peak, so even if someone wanted to travel from the Mid-Island to the South Shore by backtracking into Manhattan, that wouldn't be possible anyway). 

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40 minutes ago, Snorunts said:

The operator probably just put the wrong code in.... It’s likely an SBS 44.

It annoys me to no end when a SBS Bx12 driver does a short turn and puts in the code for the Pelham Bay local. At least they’ve gotten better at that lately and have been putting in the proper code.

Although to the OP’s point, SBS buses on the local and local buses on the SBS do happen from time to time, at least on some of the routes. One time I saw both happen on the same day 😆

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3 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

I find those automated announcements absurdingly annoying anyway, from the misinformation down to the inflection & "speech" pattern.....

I would honesty volunteer to fix all the incorrect or unrealistic transfers, stop locations on BusTime, along with the pronunciation of certain streets. I honestly don't understand who controls that or why its so hard to fix....

It might seem like a small thing...NO ITS NOT....its about to be 2020 and we can't even get fully accurate automated announcements on buses? The subway had it since the 1990s. 

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8 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

I would honesty volunteer to fix all the incorrect or unrealistic transfers, stop locations on BusTime, along with the pronunciation of certain streets. I honestly don't understand who controls that or why its so hard to fix....

It might seem like a small thing...NO ITS NOT....its about to be 2020 and we can't even get fully accurate automated announcements on buses? The subway had it since the 1990s. 

The subways were recorded by real people, big difference.

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2 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

The subways were recorded by real people, big difference.

If Siri can pronounce most words reasonably well, the MTA can do better. Even in the subway station announcements, where they splice together individual words/phrases, it sounds a lot better than the buses. Some of the errors are likely easily fixed with minor changes, like the Q46 to "LEEEJJ hospital" probably just needs to be programmed as L. I. J. rather than LIJ so the system announces them as individual letters rather than a single word

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13 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

If Siri can pronounce most words reasonably well, the MTA can do better. Even in the subway station announcements, where they splice together individual words/phrases, it sounds a lot better than the buses. Some of the errors are likely easily fixed with minor changes, like the Q46 to "LEEEJJ hospital" probably just needs to be programmed as L. I. J. rather than LIJ so the system announces them as individual letters rather than a single word

Siri is very, very, very different from what the mta has. On top you’re talking about Apple vs a transit company. It’s like comparing apples to oranges.

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