Jump to content

New York Times: Bus Service Is in Crisis, City Comptroller’s Report Says


GojiMet86

Recommended Posts

On 11/28/2017 at 7:32 AM, paulrivera said:

During the PM rush, they abandon like half the intervals on the Inwood end of the Bx12 through a combination of short turns at University or Sedgwick Avenue and deadheading from Inwood back to the Bronx via the Broadway Bridge.

As a result, you'll see literally hundreds of people waiting at 10th Avenue, with stop and go traffic approaching the bridge to boot.

And they are calling the Bx12 one of their best successes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


On 11/29/2017 at 9:44 AM, GojiMet86 said:

One can blame the DOT for traffic, but it just cannot be blamed for reducing the frequency of service, reducing the number of buses, or being the one ultimately in control of bus planning.

Exactly. The fact that Lhota believes they are doing everything right, calling the MTA just a victim, just shows their arrogance and refusal to change and start caring about their passengers instead of only caring about the budget and safety. And now that Trottenberg is now n the MTA Board he can't even rightly divorce traffic congestion entirely from the MTA. Wasn't that the purpose of putting her on the Board to provide done type of linkage between the two agencies? 

After Hurricane Sandy, Lhota took all the credit for procedures set up before he arrived which explained why the MTA handled the Sandy situation so well. He is just an opportunist who used Sandy to his advantage and ran for mayor. Now his true colors are coming out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Springer's report did a great job in summarizing and quantifying the problems with buses and brought attention to the matter. I was less impressed with his recommendations. 

This was what I wrote for the Queens Chronicle in the 800 words I was allowed. My comments were cut by 20 percent. 

http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/stringer-s-bus-report-often-misses-the-mark/article_e5ce6ad1-fe9f-5509-99a1-fa124e296a77.html

This was the piece on SBS that was on the same page.

http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/the-city-has-done-more-bad-than-good-with-sbs/article_73513e7d-9da7-53c7-9bf7-c4ae118c0f5e.html

And this is the RPA report that also came out this week: 

http://fourthplan.org/action/buses-streetcars

They have been recommending the Triboro Plan (which I support) for 40 years and it has gone nowhere. Has anything RPA ever proposed come to reality? I can't think of anything. 

It's been a busy transit week for news. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, BrooklynBus said:

I think Springer's report did a great job in summarizing and quantifying the problems with buses and brought attention to the matter. I was less impressed with his recommendations. 

This was what I wrote for the Queens Chronicle in the 800 words I was allowed. My comments were cut by 20 percent. 

http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/stringer-s-bus-report-often-misses-the-mark/article_e5ce6ad1-fe9f-5509-99a1-fa124e296a77.html

This was the piece on SBS that was on the same page.

http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/the-city-has-done-more-bad-than-good-with-sbs/article_73513e7d-9da7-53c7-9bf7-c4ae118c0f5e.html

And this is the RPA report that also came out this week: 

http://fourthplan.org/action/buses-streetcars

They have been recommending the Triboro Plan (which I support) for 40 years and it has gone nowhere. Has anything RPA ever proposed come to reality? I can't think of anything. 

It's been a busy transit week for news. 

I don't know why you're less impressed with his comments because I agree with them.  We need signal priority.  We need to retire these damn buses already that are running around here 15+ years already and people think that's great.  It isn't.  They're dated, they slow down service and they are not attractive in getting people to use them.  An RTS bus may look great if you're a bus fan, but if I'm a passenger I'm dreading using them during the summer because most of them have horrible AC, so the retirement process is going far too slow for my tastes.  In addition to that the (MTA) needs to be looking at their maintenance. They seem to think that every time they get new fleet in that they can just run them into the ground because the buses are new.  Aside from fueling them and some paint, a lot of these buses don't get much else and then they are short of buses. Well that shouldn't be a shock. You're not keeping the buses up as you should so that's what happens.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I don't know why you're less impressed with his comments because I agree with them.  We need signal priority.  We need to retire these damn buses already that are running around here 15+ years already and people think that's great.  It isn't.  They're dated, they slow down service and they are not attractive in getting people to use them.  An RTS bus may look great if you're a bus fan, but if I'm a passenger I'm dreading using them during the summer because most of them have horrible AC, so the retirement process is going far too slow for my tastes.  In addition to that the (MTA) needs to be looking at their maintenance. They seem to think that every time they get new fleet in that they can just run them into the ground because the buses are new.  Aside from fueling them and some paint, a lot of these buses don't get much else and then they are short of buses. Well that shouldn't be a shock. You're not keeping the buses up as you should so that's what happens.  

I am less impressed with his comments because what he reveals as revelations, I realized in 1972 when I wrote my masters thesis. I wrote about indirect outdated routes that do not serve job centers or connect neighborhoods well. I also received recommended symbolic bus renumbering and more of a grid system where it made sense. So none of this was really new to me.

What he did was prove what was already known with numbers and bring attention to this longstanding problem. Recommendations regarding more SBS, further bus stop spacing and too much emphasis on bus speeds disregarding passenger travel times were far too simplistic. Changing bus stops isn't as easy as he made it seem or as useful. Sure some can be eliminated without much of a problem to speed buses, but most of the time that us not true. 

Regarding bus maintenance I fully agree with you and Springer and that was a subject I did not investigate in my thesis. I really need to see how signal priority works before I draw any conclusions regarding its usefulness. I wouldn't believe DOT's 18% bus speed improvement for TSP alone on face value just because DOT makes that claim because I am skeptical of all their numbers. They claimed a 20 % time savings from exclusive lanes and paying before you Board. So are we to believe that the 5 routes with TSP are now operating 38% quicker than before? I highly doubt that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

With my experience on taking the bus has been luke warm. I live in the flatlands/mill basin area of Brooklyn and taking the bus to work is vital. I work in midwood Brooklyn and other areas around it and I could get there faster by the b6 or b82 but those routes are severely crowded during rush hour. I have to take the b100 which is better to midwood and either walk or take the train a few stops. These issues have been going on for a very long time and I personally feel the MTA just neglected the public. We need to enforce our exisiting laws so people can get to work faster. No reason why a truck on Kings hwy should be parked dead middle of the street backing up traffic. I also believe the MTA needs to cut out a lot of crosstown bus lines or have them terminate at major train stations. Like the b100, b2, and b31 works well because it just takes people to the train and back. But routes like the b6, b82 are so long that they just hurt travel time. My suggestion. I also believe we need more articulated buses in the outer boroughs to help with over crowding on routes. A passenger shouldn't have to wait for three to four buses to pass just to get on one that is packed. Hopefully there would be some changes in the near future.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Brillant93 said:

With my experience on taking the bus has been luke warm. I live in the flatlands/mill basin area of Brooklyn and taking the bus to work is vital. I work in midwood Brooklyn and other areas around it and I could get there faster by the b6 or b82 but those routes are severely crowded during rush hour. I have to take the b100 which is better to midwood and either walk or take the train a few stops. These issues have been going on for a very long time and I personally feel the MTA just neglected the public. We need to enforce our exisiting laws so people can get to work faster. No reason why a truck on Kings hwy should be parked dead middle of the street backing up traffic. I also believe the MTA needs to cut out a lot of crosstown bus lines or have them terminate at major train stations. Like the b100, b2, and b31 works well because it just takes people to the train and back. But routes like the b6, b82 are so long that they just hurt travel time. My suggestion. I also believe we need more articulated buses in the outer boroughs to help with over crowding on routes. A passenger shouldn't have to wait for three to four buses to pass just to get on one that is packed. Hopefully there would be some changes in the near future.   

The MTA needs more East-west service in Flatlands. The B11 should cntinue south on Flatbush  and east on Avenue J to the Georgetowne Shopping Center and return on Avenue K. 

In 1972 I proposed that the B9 take over the B41 Bergen Beach branch in my masters thesis. Now 45 years later the MTA is proposing it as part of the B41 SBS. 

I do not agree with you that crosstown routes should be shorter and then not serve a train station. Those routes are dead outside of rush hours. We need long multipurpose routes. As far as for improving reliability, there needs to get more short services to reflect demand with most buses traveling an entire long route operating at 20 minute intervals. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BrooklynBus said:

The MTA needs more East-west service in Flatlands. The B11 should cntinue south on Flatbush  and east on Avenue J to the Georgetowne Shopping Center and return on Avenue K. 

In 1972 I proposed that the B9 take over the B41 Bergen Beach branch in my masters thesis. Now 45 years later the MTA is proposing it as part of the B41 SBS. 

I do not agree with you that crosstown routes should be shorter and then not serve a train station. Those routes are dead outside of rush hours. We need long multipurpose routes. As far as for improving reliability, there needs to get more short services to reflect demand with most buses traveling an entire long route operating at 20 minute intervals. 

I didn’t say for the bus routes to not service train stations but for certain routes to just end the line there. I mean for me taking a bus route that just goes to the train station and back is more effienct to me because it has a better cycle. Unlike s long route that could make it harder for buses to return to the other run on time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Brillant93 said:

I didn’t say for the bus routes to not service train stations but for certain routes to just end the line there. I mean for me taking a bus route that just goes to the train station and back is more effienct to me because it has a better cycle. Unlike s long route that could make it harder for buses to return to the other run on time. 

But you shouldn't be thinking about what is best for you, but what is best for most people. As I said, just because a route is long does not mean that every bus must go from one end to to the other unless demand is so light that it doesn't warrant better than 15 or 20 minute headways. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.