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41 minutes ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

It took me over 4 hours to get home, and from what I've read on social media that was the norm lol

The one major thing that could've been done was reroute the "via NJ" buses through Brooklyn because (from what I heard), that was about an hour faster because there were accidents on both the Gowanus and NJ Turnpike.

Personally, I took the SIM25 and had a relative pick me up in Travis (my normal route is the SIM4/8). Normally I wouldn't care about standing, but with traffic being the way it was, I was expecting the SIM buses to take longer than the ferry and I figured being on the bus that long I could actually get a good nap lol (so I let a SIM25 pass and waited for one that was a block away but spent 15 minutes sitting at the traffic light at 42nd & 8th). Insane that a few inches of snow can cause such a delay, but at that exact moment you have to make the best of the situation.

Same here, 4.5 hours. (I knew it was going to take forever but I didn’t want to take the subway, ferry and train. And if something went wrong I would rather be stuck on the express bus than the SIR.) My SIM25 around 5:30 filled up at 6th and didn’t stop at 7th or 8th. It was a complete standstill and there were no buses nearby (plus moving a single block took like 20 minutes) so the people waiting at those stops were never going to get on a bus. It took us a whole hour to get from 6th to the tunnel. Then we got out of the tunnel and got stuck, so the driver slammed on the gas and smoke went everywhere outside and the whole bus reeked of burning rubber but we managed to get moving. An NJT artic was jacknifed on the helix blocking several lanes. Turnpike was insane.

My friend sat on a BxM1 for 8 hours (!!!) on the Deegan. 3:00-11:00. The passengers were going insane he said. Another friend stood in a giant mob in Port Authority for 3 hours before getting on a bus. One of my teachers did the same but eventually decided to walk to the river to catch a boat.

Two of my friends walked across the GW Bridge in the snow, 3 or 4 miles to their homes.

Around 9:30pm I decided to check BusTime and I saw a SIM25 at 6th Ave (the last one is scheduled to leave 57th at 7:00). Those buses so incredibly late would have been so much more useful on routes where there were actually people waiting and expecting a bus (SIM1C, etc). Ridiculous. The whole express system just collapsed because buses couldn’t get to their starting points and the gridlock was so insane.

Staten Island was complete gridlock partially because someone must’ve told the local buses to stop where they were. Buses just stopped, put their flashers on and were blocking one lane arterial streets like Victory Blvd all over the north shore. No one could get through, the buses didn’t pull to the curb or move to a wider portion of the street. Ambulances couldn’t even get through. Someone should be held accountable for this decision. 

Another friend of mine spent 5 hours (!!) on an S74 going from St. George to Arden Heights.

This morning there were tons of missing trips. A friend of mine who takes the SIM23 said the SIM23 and 24 weren’t even running because Academy couldn’t get drivers (but I’m not entirely sure that’s true).

 

 

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18 minutes ago, SIMplicity said:

This morning there were tons of missing trips. A friend of mine who takes the SIM23 said the SIM23 and 24 weren’t even running because Academy couldn’t get drivers (but I’m not entirely sure that’s true).

The SIM23 and SIM24 were running with very limited service because many drivers overworked last night and were required by law to take a break.

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On 11/15/2018 at 11:17 PM, Coney Island Av said:

I wonder how the notorious SIMs did in this snowstorm...

Can't speak for the SIMs, but I can speak for the S93, and in the famous words of Simon Cowell (describing all of the Victory Boulevard services through Castleton Corners - S61/62/66/93 and SIM3/34)...absolutely dreadful because of stuck vehicles on Victory Boulevard. It took 3 hours to get from CSI to Clove Road---which normally takes 18 minutes. I ended up walking from Manor Road to Little Clove Road with a drag bag, where a bus that made it through came and I rode it down the hill, coasting with the driver riding the brake.

Then, there was no S53 tracking. However, an S93 had been sent around (not the one I was on) and picked up on Clove Road. There were also major icing issues in Grymes Hill and Tompkinsville, with Cebra Avenue definitely closed (because the S52 detoured around Grymes Hill and Tompkinsville).  That bus that I got on at 5:40, pulled into Bay Ridge at around 9:05.

 

5 minutes ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

So were those Academy bus drivers given the entire day off? Or did they have to report during the PM rush?

They were given at least the morning off because they were not legal to drive. Many SIM23/4 drivers didn't pull into the Perth Amboy garage until after midnight. Here are the FMCSA rules for legality to drive: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/summary-hours-service-regulations 

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@SIMplicity  On the radio, they were specifically telling the drivers "Don't pull into the stops, pickup in the street" and I guess the reason was that they didn't want the drivers to get stuck pulling out of the stop. 

The thing with those last trips is that with the system being a mess overall, you don't know if cancelling those trips would leave people stranded (if the trips that left 57th around 7pm ended up being overcrowded, then people are going to wait until the next available bus, however long that takes). The other thing is, at least on 42nd Street, there's the SIM8, so some riders might've hopped on even if they were intending to catch the SIM8 so it wasn't a total waste (I mean shoot, with the PABT being closed, you never know if somebody will hop on a SIM bus and take an Uber or something across. As you know, there's a lot of NJ plates at the Huguenot SIR station). I do see your point, though.

37 minutes ago, aemoreira81 said:

Can't speak for the SIMs, but I can speak for the S93, and in the famous words of Simon Cowell (describing all of the Victory Boulevard services through Castleton Corners - S61/62/66/93 and SIM3/34)...absolutely dreadful because of stuck vehicles on Victory Boulevard. It took 3 hours to get from CSI to Clove Road---which normally takes 18 minutes. I ended up walking from Manor Road to Little Clove Road with a drag bag, where a bus that made it through came and I rode it down the hill, coasting with the driver riding the brake.

Then, there was no S53 tracking. However, an S93 had been sent around (not the one I was on) and picked up on Clove Road. There were also major icing issues in Grymes Hill and Tompkinsville, with Cebra Avenue definitely closed (because the S52 detoured around Grymes Hill and Tompkinsville).  That bus that I got on at 5:40, pulled into Bay Ridge at around 9:05.

When something like that happens, it might be a good idea to get off at the CSI entrance, walk over to Richmond Avenue, and take the S44 to the ferry or S53 (the S53 has the risk of getting caught in the Verrazanno Bridge traffic and the traffic in the surrounding area). The North Shore route it takes is much less congested than Victory Blvd (sometimes it does get congested, but if you see traffic on Post Avenue, guaranteed it's 10 times worse on Victory). 

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Just now, checkmatechamp13 said:

@SIMplicity  On the radio, they were specifically telling the drivers "Don't pull into the stops, pickup in the street" and I guess the reason was that they didn't want the drivers to get stuck pulling out of the stop. 

The thing with those last trips is that with the system being a mess overall, you don't know if cancelling those trips would leave people stranded (if the trips that left 57th around 7pm ended up being overcrowded, then people are going to wait until the next available bus, however long that takes). The other thing is, at least on 42nd Street, there's the SIM8, so some riders might've hopped on even if they were intending to catch the SIM8 so it wasn't a total waste (I mean shoot, with the PABT being closed, you never know if somebody will hop on a SIM bus and take an Uber or something across. As you know, there's a lot of NJ plates at the Huguenot SIR station). I do see your point, though.

When something like that happens, it might be a good idea to get off at the CSI entrance, walk over to Richmond Avenue, and take the S44 to the ferry or S53 (the S53 has the risk of getting caught in the Verrazanno Bridge traffic and the traffic in the surrounding area). The North Shore route it takes is much less congested than Victory Blvd (sometimes it does get congested, but if you see traffic on Post Avenue, guaranteed it's 10 times worse on Victory). 

The S53 was just as problematic as well, because Narrows Road North was handling detoured traffic that might normally have used Targee northbound. Had I know how bad it would have been, I might have tried the S57 (itself detoured because part of Rockland Avenue was closed) to the SBS79 in New Dorp.

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1 minute ago, aemoreira81 said:

The S53 was just as problematic as well, because Narrows Road North was handling detoured traffic that might normally have used Targee northbound. Had I know how bad it would have been, I might have tried the S57 (itself detoured because part of Rockland Avenue was closed) to the SBS79 in New Dorp.

Nah, the S79 would be a mess because between the Hylan traffic itself and the fact that buses going in the peak direction would be delayed getting down in time for their reverse-peak trips. Despite the circuitous route, the ferry would've likely been the best bet. At least that and the subway were running fairly reliably. 

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