Manhattan Beach Group asks for more summer beach service

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I wouldn't put fudging numbers beyond them, but I think a more likely explanation could just be sloppiness or arithmetic errors. After all who checks their work? I might have mentioned this before but I once caught errors in their statistics when they proposed turning the B40/78 into the B47 and told them about it, but they just ignored me. In one table, they counted a "customer" as someone who made a round trip, and in the other table, they counted "passengers" which was someone making a one-way trip. Then they compared the tables and used the terms interchangeably, calling everyone customers. Of course, their conclusions were off-base.

 

Good point. I mean someone here in the forums (an worker I believe) said that having additional staff to help with posting the proper directions when detours occur isn't necessary, even though they give out the wrong directions consistenly, so I can only imagine how they f*ck up other things. Is it me though or do the folks in the offices not have that much work to do? I don't know, maybe it was because it was the summertime, but I got the feeling when I worked there at 370 Jay St. that the is set up sort of like the U.N. Everyone has their position and they don't do anything outside of that. The thing is they don't need all of that staff to do some of the things that they do. In sum, they have too many people in some areas, and too few in others.

 

I would imagine that with the interns they have working in the offices during the summer and other times during the year that some of those folks can just pass their work off to those guys and put their feet up. I'm telling you, the guy that I worked under my second year there at 370 Jay St was a piece of work. I'd see him maybe in the morning just to say what he wanted me to do (sometimes nothing lol) and that was about it. Half of the time I was there bored out of my mind. Thank God we had Fridays off.

[checkmatechamp13]

The thing is checkmate swears by the stats. Who says it isn't possible for them to fudge the numbers so that they can cut certain lines? That's also another problem. Granted some lines don't carry well, but the also does try to kill some lines as well by providing sh*tty service and inaccurate stats on the actual number of passengers on some lines. Truth be told from my own personal observations, service along that portion of the B4 was increasing, certainly wayyy more than it was back in the 90s. Think about all of the new stores and restaurants that have opened up of late along Emmons Avenue and I'd be very surprised if no one was using the B4 to go to these places, especially with the population in Sheepshead Bay, not to mention the Marinas and such during the warmer months.

 

Anything is possible, but the numbers they come up with make sense to me. It's the conclusions they draw from those numbers that don't always make sense.

 

For example, I calculated (using their numbers) that the cost of running the B4 along Emmons Avenue was about $2.57 per person, which isn't great (it is a little under double the system average of $1.44), but it certainly warrants keeping the service around. I did the B64 portion in Coney Island and got an even lower number (I believe it was something like $1.50), which definitely means that the service shouldn't have been eliminated.

 

I wouldn't put fudging numbers beyond them, but I think a more likely explanation could just be sloppiness or arithmetic errors. After all who checks their work? I might have mentioned this before but I once caught errors in their statistics when they proposed turning the B40/78 into the B47 and told them about it, but they just ignored me. In one table, they counted a "customer" as someone who made a round trip, and in the other table, they counted "passengers" which was someone making a one-way trip. Then they compared the tables and used the terms interchangeably, calling everyone customers. Of course, their conclusions were off-base.

 

Now that I think about it, I should've probably told them that (regarding the calculations that said that the service shouldn't be cut) at the public hearings, but that thought didn't come to me at the time.

[B35 via Church]

Truth be told from my own personal observations, service along that portion of the B4 was increasing, certainly wayyy more than it was back in the 90s.

 

So someone else sees this... and it's not even a current Brooklynite.

((I forget the bastard's name back on RD... but so much for my so-called Brooklyn Bias...))

 

Anyway, I never bought into the BS reasoning they gave for cutting back B4's to that bumf**k endpoint over there next to that elementary school on Av Z/Coney Island av... Out of all the cuts/alterations/whatever, this past June, that one stuck out to me as the most stupidest (idc if that's a double negative either... lol)...

[Via Garibaldi 8]

So someone else sees this... and it's not even a current Brooklynite.

((I forget the bastard's name back on RD... but so much for my so-called Brooklyn Bias...))

 

Anyway, I never bought into the BS reasoning they gave for cutting back B4's to that bumf**k endpoint over there next to that elementary school on Av Z/Coney Island av... Out of all the cuts/alterations/whatever, this past June, that one stuck out to me as the most stupidest (idc if that's a double negative either... lol)...

 

Well you see I used to use the B4 for many years going back to when I went to IS43 over on Shore Blvd and Emmons and always found the frequencies to be lacking at 15 minutes. The problem was service was terrible, especially when Ulmer Park had the line. The bus was either late, or a no show especially in the Sheepshead Bay portion and there just wasn't any real supervision in general. In Bay Ridge around the start of the route it wasn't too bad. I noticed an increase in ridership back when Jackie Gleason took over the B4 and I may add that part of it I think was due to better reliability, so it makes you wonder if the service was so sh*tty because they wanted to kill that segment of the line or what, but something was definitely up.

[BrooklynBus]

Good point. I mean someone here in the forums (an worker I believe) said that having additional staff to help with posting the proper directions when detours occur isn't necessary, even though they give out the wrong directions consistenly, so I can only imagine how they f*ck up other things.

 

When they had the B68 detour for a few months during the day when CIA was closed between Oceanview and BBA, most buses went up West End which was fine. But one bus I was on went up Corbin Place. It is a narrow two-way street and if a school bus would have come in the other direction, both buses would have been in trouble. I saw the driver looking at pencil notes when turning onto Corbin Place and knew someone screwed up.

 

Is it me though or do the folks in the offices not have that much work to do? I don't know, maybe it was because it was the summertime, but I got the feeling when I worked there at 370 Jay St. that the is set up sort of like the U.N. Everyone has their position and they don't do anything outside of that.

 

That's pretty much the definition of bureaucracy.

 

The thing is they don't need all of that staff to do some of the things that they do. In sum, they have too many people in some areas, and too few in others.

 

You hit the nail on the head. There are people there with little or no work to do and others who can't keep up with the workload even if they work 10 hours a day.

 

Anything is possible, but the numbers they come up with make sense to me. It's the conclusions they draw from those numbers that don't always make sense.

 

For example, I calculated (using their numbers) that the cost of running the B4 along Emmons Avenue was about $2.57 per person, which isn't great (it is a little under double the system average of $1.44), but it certainly warrants keeping the service around. I did the B64 portion in Coney Island and got an even lower number (I believe it was something like $1.50), which definitely means that the service shouldn't have been eliminated.

 

One thing the MTA is famous for is lack of consistency. I believe they discontinued the B64 in order to pay for the B82 Limited, so they had their mind made up beforehand and just ignored the cost per rider when looking at the B64. Same thing with the B71. They showed a 29% increase in ridership for the past 5 years, but just ignored it when they made their decision to discontinue it.

 

Anyway, I never bought into the BS reasoning they gave for cutting back B4's to that bumf**k endpoint over there next to that elementary school on Av Z/Coney Island av... Out of all the cuts/alterations/whatever, this past June, that one stuck out to me as the most stupidest (idc if that's a double negative either... lol)...

 

What's worse is that the terminus isn't at the elementary school which would have maintained the transfer with the B68. It's at the Hospital where there is a 20 minute layover, making it impossible to transfer from the B68 to the B4. (But you can still transfer the other way.) The Director of OP promised to look into the matter for me last October, and has ignored a half dozen e-mails since. The layover is great enough for the route to terminate at Sheepshead Bay Station without any added cost which is what I told them.

[BrooklynBus]

The B4 runs mainly through the districts that Senator Golden serves, but that strip there along Emmons Avenue belongs to Kruger. I was going to press the issue and write back to the Director of Community Affairs and say that he should take on the B4 because there are folks that do use it from Sheepshead Bay to Bay Ridge. ... The more pressure put on the from different sources, the more difficult it will be for the to not give in.

 

Looks like Golden's Office might be doing a reversal. Check the comments to this article. One is from Senator Golden's office.

 

http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2011/05/golden-restoring-b4-service-is-not-my-responsibility/#more-17088

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Looks like Golden's Office might be doing a reversal. Check the comments to this article. One is from Senator Golden's office.

 

http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2011/05/golden-restoring-b4-service-is-not-my-responsibility/#more-17088

 

 

LMAO... You are too much... I'm shocked that Joan Byrnes replied too... Nice way to embarass some folks...

[qjtransitmaster]

The thing is checkmate swears by the stats. Who says it isn't possible for them to fudge the numbers so that they can cut certain lines? That's also another problem. Granted some lines don't carry well, but the also does try to kill some lines as well by providing sh*tty service and inaccurate stats on the actual number of passengers on some lines. Truth be told from my own personal observations, service along that portion of the B4 was increasing, certainly wayyy more than it was back in the 90s. Think about all of the new stores and restaurants that have opened up of late along Emmons Avenue and I'd be very surprised if no one was using the B4 to go to these places, especially with the population in Sheepshead Bay, not to mention the Marinas and such during the warmer months.

 

this post however makes sense

[qjtransitmaster]

So someone else sees this... and it's not even a current Brooklynite.

((I forget the bastard's name back on RD... but so much for my so-called Brooklyn Bias...))

 

Anyway, I never bought into the BS reasoning they gave for cutting back B4's to that bumf**k endpoint over there next to that elementary school on Av Z/Coney Island av... Out of all the cuts/alterations/whatever, this past June, that one stuck out to me as the most stupidest (idc if that's a double negative either... lol)...

 

they had to be under the influence when that decision was made