Don't Believe the DOT

[BrooklynBus]

http://www.qchron.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/don-t-believe-the-dot/article_d8e68f97-b031-53c1-938b-fe03f5c13c64.html

[IAlam]

 

 

When I was in school you needed a 65 percent to pass. Using MTA and DOT methodology, if everyone rates a service at 60 percent, that means 100 percent are satisfied. So every SBS route has a near 100 percent satisfaction rating. And when local riders who have lost service due to SBS say they are unsatisfied, those results are not released.

preach

[MHV9218]

 

 "A two-minute savings in travel time on the M86 became a 10 percent reduction in travel time, omitting the fact that anyone now missing the bus because of having to prepay the fare has a longer trip."

 

 

That's a pretty silly critique. The 'trip' has never counted the walk from the bus stop; it only includes time spent on the bus. If I fall asleep at the bus stop and miss my bus, I also have a longer trip. Getting the receipt takes all of seven seconds. 

[BrooklynBus]

That's a pretty silly critique. The 'trip' has never counted the walk from the bus stop; it only includes time spent on the bus. If I fall asleep at the bus stop and miss my bus, I also have a longer trip. Getting the receipt takes all of seven seconds. 

Yes, the MTA only considers the time on the bus because it suits their needs since they are init interested in operating costs. The passenger, however is concerned about his trip time not the buses trip time. You have to realize that each select bus service route costs millions more to operate each year, supposedly to help the passenger. The M86 employs three features: articulated buses, prepaying your fare, and queue jump lanes. About 2 1/2 minutes is saved River th River using both techniques which means that prepaying your fare saves less than two minutes.

 

Since no one rides River to River, the average savings for the passenger is about one minute. So the question to ask is if it is worth spending several million dollars extra each year to save one minute from you trip. And it certainly is not silly if your trip takes you five or ten minutes longer if those seven seconds assuming the are no lines for the machines, causes you to miss a bus. Drivers are not supposed to wait. Buses are still bunching on the M86. That's where the MTA should be spending its money, to make better use of Bus Trek and its dispatchers to save you five or ten minutes, not saving you one minute which is negligible.

[BreeddekalbL]

don't they know that they can't measure a crosstown because people use the old addage that you can beat the crosstown if you have to go somewhere?