Queens Bus Redesign Discussion Thread

[7-express]

15 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I actually agree with taking the Q44 away from Union Street and Parsons Blvd. The route goes all the way from Merrick Blvd, Archer Ave to the Bronx Zoo or Fordham under the proposal, let it bypass Whitestone and have other bus routes serve it. Most of the people who get on along that stretch (14th street to Roosevelt Ave) mostly are heading to and from Flushing anyways. This would decrease the run time for those heading to the Bronx and believe me there are tons of people who ride the Q44 from Jamaica all the way to the Bronx. The MTA just needs to bump up service on whatever local routes serve Union Street and Parsons Blvd and not be so quick to eliminate stops.

 

I’m still pissed off that the MTA had the nerve to propose that the new rendition of the Q64 go non stop from Main Street to Queens Blvd, ignoring the fact that the stops in between get heavily used. So they are already inconveniencing many and deterring ridership.

The issue I see with the Q44 alignment is that Linden Place and the intersection with the Whitestone Expressway aren't very forgiving to articulated buses.  There might be issues running it on that alignment that the planners didn't forsee.

For the folks along Union, I think they need to find a way to augment the QT16 route with a short-turn version that goes from Flushing to the old Q20A alignment to help smooth things over and increase destination options.

[RailRunRob]

21 minutes ago, Union Tpke said:

The thing is, there is no reason to needlessly confuse people. For most routes, a majority of it consists of an old route. For instance, either have the QT14 be the Q10 or Q64. Have the QT17 be the Q12. The QT38 is almost the same as the Q2. The QT40 could be the Q4. The QT16 the Q25 or Q34.

The goal should be to confuse people as little as possible.

Just playing devils advocate for a second and approaching it from a planning standpoint. I can psychologically understand why someone would just create this shock and awe by renaming everything. This forces every rider from day one to forget everything thing they knew about the old network and start over.  For example if I keep the Q10 and now it doesn't go to JFK and also runs via Jewel Ave it's not the Q10 peoples mind plus the Q64 riders. Years and years of habit is hard to break easier to just start over you odn thave Expectations from the old setup. It's really the lesser of two evils but in the long run people should adapt. Notice most of the routes that have the same exact routing do keep there numbers 24,37,56,58 etc which makes sense from a riders perspective it's the same route they've always known. All in IMO of course working in the UX field I can visualize  the process of understanding the rider and some of the exercises the designers might have gone through. There probably other internal organization and area plus the 4 different route types guided the numbering structure as well. Interesting none the less. Your point is taken going to be a mess for abit.

[7-express]

32 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I knew the Q34 would be eliminated because it heavily duplicates the Q25, whatever resources the Q34 had will probably go to the Q25 or the new “QT16”. I don’t think it’s elimination is bad either because the Q25 and the Q20/Q44 is no more than a block or two away from the part that is exclusively served only by the Q34. Plus the route has no weekend service so residents have to rely on alternatives anyways. From what I know I don’t recall anyone fighting for weekend Q34 service either.

 

The Q50 going to LGA I don’t have too much of a problem with, but why via the Q48 route? Just have the Q19 cover that portion to Astoria Blvd. The Q50 should get on the Grand Central after it passes the Citi Field. That would make the route even more useful. Of course another thing that I worry about is Flushing traffic because it can still get really bad. 

The replacement QT48 should at the very least have a service span extension because the current proposals only cater to the 9-5 worker.  I would argue that the QT48 route should remain in Mitchell-Linden with the old Q34 routing because it doesn't drastically slow down the run times much vs the Q20, since that entire area is stop-sign controlled with less dwell time at signals and reduced traffic.

[Union Tpke]

6 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

- I hate what they've done to the Q49... One of the most reliable routes in the city, essentially going to pot..... I'd say 35th needs the coverage (to the subway) more, than having the thing extended down to backtrack to the hospital....

Let's go through the supposed limitations of the existing system:

Quote

LIMITATIONS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM
• Existing routes meander through much of the borough.
• The most productive routes are mostly short and straight. They also tend to traverse through high-activity areas and make connections with subway lines and other key bus routes.

They have come to believe that ALL PRODUCTIVE ROUTES must be straight. So then they look at a map, and say, oh, the Q49 must not be doing well. Then they go about through-running local buses through areas. LOL at the QT18!
• Close bus stop-spacing hinders high-ridership routes by slowing down the bus.

So they slash bus stops for all routes, high and low ridership.
• Many bus routes try to serve several different purposes at once, serving none of the individual purposes well.

Tell me how the QT11 or QT18 are not serving different purposes at one. I will take advantage of the QT11 if I need to go somewhere in Corona, or if subway service is screwed up and I don't want to transfer from the E or F to the 7. Anyway, expect heavy turnover in Kew Gardens and Forest Hills. It seems like they want to slash the number of bus operators. By having longer routes, B/Os can be more "productive." No need for turnaround loops, no need for breaks.

• Even with bus routes covering most of the borough, there are opportunities to improve system connectivity and provide easier access to places in the borough that customers want to go.

By eliminating all service off-peak on some routes, requiring people to take advantage of 15-20 minute headways on grid-routes, so instead of getting to Flushing or Jamaica in a straight line, people will have to take a tour of Queens to get where they need to go, 90° at a time. There better be bus shelters at each stop. Otherwise, this plan is literally going to be stranding the borough's disabled and elderly. Oh, how nice, the subway will be 50% accessible. Do these planners consider that most of the borough is nowhere near an accessible stop, never mind any subway stops? People will have to walk longer to stops, will have to wait twice as long, and will require one or two more transfers to just get to the subway. If the gridded routes ran FREQUENTLY AROUND THE CLOCK, and if there were bus shelters, then this might be a worthwhile trade-off. I am going to be contacting my electeds about this garbage, and will urge them to get the Legislature to add about $5 million in operating funds to Queens so this is not a zero sum game.

More rants to come.

[Union Tpke]

Quote

Northern Boulevard
NYCDOT is currently developing plans for multimodal safety improvements on Northern Boulevard from Broadway to 114th Street, in conjunction with the Queens Bus Network Redesign plan for an improved bus route. NYCDOT is evaluating the inclusion of bus boarders at key locations to help speed up bus operations on the corridor. Locations will be finalized prior to the release of the final plan in spring 2020, subject
to technical analysis and customer feedback. Permanent infrastructure improvements will follow the installation of temporary bus boarders for many of the stops in the summer of 2020.

Great. No plans for a busway.

Quote

Queens Boulevard
Since 2015, NYCDOT has engaged in an extensive redesign of Queens Boulevard
to improve safety for all road users along this dangerous corridor. The installed operational projects provide a footprint for forthcoming capital workthat will
further enhance safety and beautify the boulevard. This work includes bus improvements for the Queens Boulevard local route and moving the bus from theservice road to the mainline (center) roadway between Roosevelt Ave in Sunnyside and Union Turnpike in Forest Hills. Stops along the route will be relocated to the newly expanded service road medians and will receive upgraded boarding conditions and new bus stop amenities.

I am not sure how they are going to manage to move stops to the center to Union Turnpike. I will believe it when I see it.

Quote

JFK Airport
At JFK International Airport, this proposal includes a route, the QT14 Lefferts Boulevard route, which is proposed to terminate at the Lefferts Boulevard AirTrain station. This proposal includes two additional routes, the QT20 Sutphin Boulevard and QT68 Farmers Boulevard routes that enter the airport. Their ultimate terminal is yet to be determined.

Yeah, right. The terminal is yet to be determined. They will save money by cutting as much milage as possible.

Quote

Some express routes will be discontinued, and others will have adjusted service spans and frequencies. These changes will accommodate existing ridership patterns and redistribute service where it is needed. Express bus customers specifically asked for trips into Manhattan to begin earlier in the morning, and several proposed express routes will answer that request. Midday service will run on three of the express routes, and these same routes will also provide Saturday service. Much like service within Queens, we redesigned all express routes from scratch with different bus stop locations, frequencies, spans, and travel paths. We do not propose any Sunday express bus service in this Draft Plan due to low ridership and the high cost of running service with so few passengers.

Yeah, accommodate existing ridership patterns. Time to kill express bus service in Queens. I bet the congestion pricing outer borough money is graciously being used to provide ANY service at all. Thanks so much.

Quote

I now must make an additional transfer to complete my trip. Will I have to pay an additional transfer fee?
Passengers that will need to make an additional transfer to complete their trip should not have to pay an additional fare.

I wonder how they are going to do this. They better not add more random three-legged transfers no one understands.

Quote

Why do I only see one dot for a bus stop?
For the Draft Plan, stop locations are generalized at intersections. We did this
to help make it easier to understand the new network. As we receive feedback
on our proposed network, staff will work to evaluate the placement of stops to ensure connections between routes and other modes of transit are safe and easy. More information about generalized stop locations is provided on page 66.
Bus stop location proposals will be included in the proposed Final Plan.

The final stop locations proposed, including whether the stop is on the near or far side of a street, and whether or not there are any amenities, will be released as part of the proposed Final Plan in the spring of 2020.
For illustrative purposes, the map below shows a bus stop on Northern Boulevard and Bell Boulevard. However, the actual bus stop locations (one in each direction) will depend on field conditions and your input.
 

More like they haven't had time to decide them yet.

 

[RailRunRob]

They seem to running this directly off the Remix platform. There's is a decent amount of data in here that can be used to check on decisions made in this plan. So if there's something maybe you don't agree with you can at least check on it here.  Interested in hearing comments once we go through some of the data.

  https://platform.remix.com/map/4ee65d6/line/5dcb5db?latlng=40.68584,-73.79061,12.5&dir=0&jane.latlng=40.69288,-73.76257&jane.hour=17&jane.day=weekday&jane.mode=frequency&jane.stat=population&jane.transfer=walking&jane.duration=60&jane.direction=from

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by RailRunRob

[paulrivera]

7 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

Gone, like the QM36.

Just looked at the interactive map, and it looks like under the new system, the QM15 (QM168) is losing the last inbound and outbound trip on Saturdays 

MTA seems to be eager to leave the express bus business. Might as well sell off its express bus fleet to NJT so they can replace their commuter trains with bus bridges.

The MTA makes a quick buck, and NJT can actually make service with buses better than their trains anyways, so win-win. /s

 

All kidding aside, I just thought of something regarding the Q44 and Q50 that I wanted to point out (I ain't using that QT stuff because that's too much typing for nothing.) The Q44 being extended to Fordham is going to be a cost-neutral move because they're going to take the mileage on the Jamaica end and tacking it onto the Bronx end, and the Q50 going to LGA will be pure cost savings because in addition to it already not going into Co-op City during off-hours, the Q48 portion of the route is going to have less frequent service (30 minute off-hours Q50 vs. 20 minute off-hours Q48)

I'm predicting the new Q50 will be like an / situation, where to the bean counters it's technically a service cut that saves money, but once people find out about it, it's going to attract some new riders. Plus, there's a potential benefit to not having two routes laying over in Flushing clogging up the streets.

Fordham Plaza's gonna be a circus with the Bx15,17, Bee-Line 60/61, and now the Bx34 and Q44 all turning and laying over within a block of each other tho...

Edited December 31, 2019 by paulrivera

[Union Tpke]

There will be cuts in late night Lefferts Boulevard bus service:

Between 12 AM and 1 AM, service will run every 30 minutes instead of every 12-18 minutes.

Between 1 AM and 5 AM, service will run every 30 minutes instead of every 20 minutes.

[Lawrence St]

19 minutes ago, RailRunRob said:

They seem to running this directly off the Remix platform. There's is a decent amount of data in here that can be used to check on decisions made in this plan. So if there's something maybe you don't agree with you can at least check on it here.  Interested in hearing comments once we go through some of the data.

  https://platform.remix.com/map/4ee65d6/line/5dcb5db?latlng=40.68584,-73.79061,12.5&dir=0&jane.latlng=40.69288,-73.76257&jane.hour=17&jane.day=weekday&jane.mode=frequency&jane.stat=population&jane.transfer=walking&jane.duration=60&jane.direction=from

 

 

 

"Every 300 minutes" lmao

[RailRunRob]

12 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

Fordham Plaza's gonna be a circus with the Bx15,17, Bee-Line 60/61, and now the Bx34 and Q44 all turning and laying over within a block of each other tho...

Yeah going to be abit tight looks like 189th might lose some more parking slots. Do think the Q44 would get good usage from Fordham with a direct connection to the 12,15 and 41 and Metro North.

[RailRunRob]

8 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

"Every 300 minutes" lmao

Yeah they need to update that. I'm sure we can assume that's 30mins.

[N6 Limited]

3 hours ago, NY1635 said:

I was thinking it was going to DH up to Hempstead Turnpike and Layover there. IIRC, people living in the area walk into Queens to catch the Q4 and X64 on 234th Street. They want to make a safe connection between the n1 and city transit.

 

That's kind a long dead head isn't it? I was thinking of them looping around using Linden/Central, Stuart Ave and Elmont Rd. But doing that may actually be a similar distance.

3 hours ago, NY1635 said:

The only route active during overnight hours is the n6. n22/24 is mostly for reverse peak commuters trying to get out of Nassau before Midnight.

 

Isn't the N4 2/47 now? 

Some of the QT Purple routes are proposed to end earlier, I wonder if they'll have an agreement with NICE to allow open door after 10PM or so. (For example the QT38 (Q2) is proposed to end around 10PM, will they allow NICE to drop off at Springfield Blvd and 225th after 22:00? Actually the N22, and N4 run along with purple routes which are scheduled to end earlier.

3 hours ago, limitednyc said:

who needs a route like the qt62 from east new york to cedarhurst?

Crosstown route with connection to  , 5 towns, and various buses.

51 minutes ago, Future ENY OP said:

..... Taking notes. Commentary later. However, Astoria to Downtown Brooklyn, Steinway to Williamsburg is also interesting.

I’m a bit lost with this Brownsville to Jamaica route. (From a Brooklyn perspective it’s a bit long and 101 Avenue is also a drag) 

A normal  to  trip from Brownsville to JAM is about 40 mins. and this route is a pre-requisite to whats going to happen with the Brooklyn portion of the B15 which means no JFK and Spring Creek. 

Yes, 101 Ave is a drag, but the QT5 a blue route, looks like they're going to remove a lot of stops.

15 minutes ago, RailRunRob said:

Yeah going to be abit tight looks like 189th might lose some more parking slots. Do think the Q44 would get good usage from Fordham with a direct connection to the 12,15 and 41 and Metro North.

I think it will.  It provides much better connections, there were times I wished it did, because getting to the Q44 from places not near the  sucks.

[GojiMet86]

I wish they could be more specific about the frequency. Most of the lines say something along "20 minutes or better" for the peak frequency. If the max peak is something more like 5-8 minutes, than it really should be included.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, GojiMet86 said:

I wish they could be more specific about the frequency. Most of the lines say something along "20 minutes or better" for the peak frequency. If the max peak is something more like 5-8 minutes, than it really should be included.

It's 20 minutes or better for a reason... It's not by chance that they didn't provide more particulars, trust me. If the frequencies were that good, they would mention it.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Future ENY OP]

..... still taking notes. However, I’ve discovered something with Southeast Queens service. 
The QT41 pretty much eliminates service between Springfield Boulevard and 238th Street- Cross Island Parkway via 120th Avenue. Although most of Laurelton is car centric eliminating the 238th street service is a slap in the face. That should of went into Rosedale LIRR with the QT43.  

EDIT: I’m noticing this QT73 and its really a drag down Fran Lewis and addresses the 120th Avenue situation. However, that should of been for the QT41 for faster service. 

QT 34: Jamaica to Manhasset. The service is excellent and I could see that working for both Hospital workers and Queens patrons. I see the  trying to tap in slowly back into the Nassau network by providing service inside NSUH.  
 

... more to come

Edited December 31, 2019 by Future ENY OP

[danielhg121]

A lot of these local bus routes end up in stubs, they just run to the bumblef**k nowhere. I do acknowledge the fact that some of these are built to obviously serve neighborhoods and thus may end in suburbs, but exactly who will benefit from riding the QT86 north of Flushing? It just runs to the Whitestone Expwy unless they just want people going to that Stop N Shop mall, or movie theater or hell it might be a convenient place to start the bus from CP depot. The whole Whitestone Expwy/Linden Pl corridor is over served IMO. People would rather take the QT44, it makes fewer stops and just runs more frequently. And the QT84 Flushing-Bayside, who would ride that, it starts at Flushing and goes to Bayside via the outskirt of College Point and Francis Lewis, they definitely tried recreating the 76 but like that? There are faster options like the more direct QT17 to substitute that and as far as I'm concerned, not everyone wants to get off the bus at Northern and Francis and get the QT73 down to continue their journey, it's not like there's a huge amount of turnover there either.  Quite frankly the QT84 chose a place to run with very little ridership, it runs in the sticks and suburbia 20th Avenue if you will, not the nitty gritty College Point and gets its feet a little wet. 

Another issue I see is they have the QT16 doing a Q20/25 variant running every 1,861 min...whatever lets just go with the 6 min peak. They do know the Q25 runs more frequently than that, right? They have the local's and limited's running together as scheduled but this 6 minute peak isn't going to hold its own. How do they even know riders will stay on the bus anyways? They haven't studied ridership patterns and only going solely off the numbers and that is not a way to redesign a bus network. Many former Q25 riders who stayed on the 25 for college point service now have to get off at Flushing and transfer to QT15, they basically mixed and matched the Q65 truncated and the Q25 together and hoped it works. Do they want a lot of people to transfer at Flushing? I foresee that happening. 

Some of these proposals are probably being set up for failure so they can use it as an excuse to cut service later on or truncate or just eliminate the bus route with no substitute.

[Future ENY OP]

1 hour ago, N6 Limited said:

Crosstown route with connection to  , 5 towns, and various buses.

Yes, 101 Ave is a drag, but the QT5 a blue route, looks like they're going to remove a lot of stops.

The QT62 is somewhat duplicate of the  train going to Far Rockaway. Akin, you have a Q111, Q113, Q114 variants that terminate or have service into Far Rock and cedarhurst.  From a Brooklyn perspective i see this dead on arrival to the fact that there’s too much Rockaway Boulevard service. Unless they trim the stops I don’t see this going to fruition. 
 

QT5: Again, I’m not 100% on this at all. However, I do see it’s a blue route but this only helps hospital workers. I mean most take the B8, B35, B15 or drive. That 101 is something else. But we will see. 

[ViaWaterViaChurch]

Some thoughts about the Express Buses:

General thoughts: 

1. AM Downtown buses should keep their current routing from the LIE to the FDR.  There's very little traffic on these roads in the morning and any time saved from having a more direct route via the BQE and WBB will be quickly erased by the crawling traffic to merge onto the BQE and go over the Kosciuszko bridge. Don't even get me started on that appalling Delancey to Bowery route. 

2.Getting rid of the downtown loop is just a way to make overall run times look faster on paper.  Thames and Vesey Street get a lot of usage and eliminating these stops means 10-20 minute walks for anyone who works West of Nassau Street.  Anyone who works west of Broadway might as well just take service to Midtown and jump on the subway.

 

QMT100 Eliot Ave-Downtown The split makes sense, the majority of ridership on the QM25 comes from Eliot Ave. Absolutely terrible routing though. This is some pathetic attempt to bring service to areas that will never use them and will make run times even longer. This route already had the gold standard of service in the morning, it literally took 30 minutes to get from its last pick up to its first drop off on an average day.  Metropolitan Avenue has a drawbridge that could potentially cause a multitude of delays if a bus is ever unlucky enough to get caught when that bridge is about to open. Grand Street is one traffic lane in each direction.  Who thought this would be a good idea?

QMT101 Glendale-Downtown I don't see them having ridership to support this line.  People already opt for the M train in the afternoon because of how much faster it is, and nothing will be different here.  People will quickly learn that they can take a much quicker subway train that doesn't have to crawl over the WBB and down Metropolitan Avenue to get to virtually the same areas downtown.  Riders can wave to the M Train as it flies past them while the bus is sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the WBB.

QMT102 Briarwood-Downtown I don't mind this. The route makes more sense and is a true Queens Blvd downtown route.  Downtown express routes are pretty much the only routes in Queens where you truly can save some commute time, so hopefully this will work out. 

QMT103 Bay Terrace-Downtown It's weird that Midtown service along 26th and Utopia is axed and replaced by this downtown route. It might be better to just have buses stay on the BQE in the afternoon and go via Astoria Boulevard.  There's a reason the super express drivers opt for this route as opposed to staying on the LIE to the Van Wyck. 

QMT104/QMT134/QMT165 Glen Oaks-Downtown/Midtown I like this routing and these people deserve to endure less pickups and drop offs, but I'm concerned if getting on the LIE will be faster than just taking Union Turnpike and Queens Boulevard.  I've been looking at QM7 and QM8 regular runs around the same time the super express bus in the morning runs to see if the LIE is faster and the few times I've looked, it appears that the Union Turnpike/QBlvd runs get to Woodhaven/LIE faster.  Traffic on the LIE is really bad between Main Street exit 23 and Queens Center Mall exit 19, it can take 30 minutes just to go this distance in the morning.  Anyone getting on these buses should be prepared to lose 2 hours of their day to get to Glen Oaks in the PM rush.

QMT105 Fresh Meadows-Downtown Pretty much no changes to this route, I would have gotten rid of the stops on 188th Street and just kept this bus on Union Turnpike. A lot of people get off at Utopia or Chevy Chase to take a local bus further down Union, and they are leaving PM ridership on the table because I know for a fact that people will opt to take the E/F to Union Turnpike and just get on the local bus there because they'll have to get on it later eventually anyway.

QMT106 Belmont-Downtown Having this bus take the Clearview and LIE is just begging for a 2+ hour ride each way.  This seems like a troll bus in the same vein as the BxM17.  Two trips each way? I wouldn't be surprised if this bus doesn't make the final cut.

QMT112/QMT115/QMT116/MT117 Hudson Yards Is there a real demand for Hudson Yards at this time? No connecting service to any subways until 7th Avenue is just ridiculous.  Put stops back at Park and have it stop between 6th and 7th instead of just at 7th.

QMT130/QMT160 Eliot Ave-3rd Ave/6th Ave The interactive remix map makes it seem like buses will be taking the LIE via Van Dam street.  If this is the case, buses should exit at 69th Street and turn onto 69th Street and do the stops instead of staying on the LIE only to double back toward 69th Street.  Eliminate the LIE/Woodhaven Blvd stop, I don't know where they would even put this stop, there's way too much going on over there with cars fighting to get onto the LIE in both directions. If you look at the actual route maps though, it looks like the bus will be going over the Queensborough bridge and then staying on Queens Boulevard to Woodhaven Boulevard.

QMT131/QMT161 Glendale-3rd Ave/6th Ave This is a good idea if the ridership is there.  It's a shame to make Ridgewood and Glendale residents have to sit on the LIE to Woodhaven when the bus can just make a right turn at 69th Street and save about 20 -30 minutes in the afternoon.  I'm concerned about the loss of the HOV lane for these riders in the morning, but not having to go down Eliot Ave to the LIE will save some of that time.

QMT133 Bay Terrace-3rd Ave I don't really know how much time it will save running this bus to the LIE instead of staying on Northern Boulevard.  You'd be better off syncing the lights so buses aren't stopping every 10 blocks and actually enforcing the no standing zones for the eastbound PM rush to speed up service on the Northern Blvd corridor.  The majority of traffic issues are from standing or double parked cars on Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights and Corona .  Step up enforcement and sync the lights and Northern Boulevard can go back to the glory days of taking 15 minutes to get from the bridge to the Whitestone Expressway.   

QMT163 Beechurst-6th Ave A strange realignment, Utopia Parkway and 26th Avenue will lose midtown service and now they will merge Powells Cove which has two huge coop complexes with another two coop complexes, Clearview and Mitchell Gardens.  Let's not forget that a lot of people use the Willets Point stops between 149th and 154th as well.  It seems like overcrowding might be an issue.  I think they should have left the Powells Cove people on the QMT133/QMT164 (QM2). And same deal with the LIE vs Northern Blvd, I think the only way this might be faster is if someone waves a magic wand over the LIE and makes traffic better.

QMT166 Fresh Meadows-6th It seems ridiculous to make this the off peak bus when it would be a better use of resources to just keep the bus on Union Turnpike to serve more neighborhoods (QMT167Union Turnpile-6th Ave).  This is purely a cost cutting maneuver.

 

[Lawrence St]

Why are the express routes in the 100 range? Or is that temporary?

[Lex]

I feel like those express routes passing through Williamsburg are really for the sake of Williamsburg connections.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

13 minutes ago, Lex said:

I feel like those express routes passing through Williamsburg are really for the sake of Williamsburg connections.

They are stupid. Those people already have subway connections to reach Downtown. No need for an express bus running through there.

[Cait Sith]

47 minutes ago, ViaWaterViaChurch said:

QMT100 Eliot Ave-Downtown The split makes sense, the majority of ridership on the QM25 comes from Eliot Ave. Absolutely terrible routing though. This is some pathetic attempt to bring service to areas that will never use them and will make run times even longer. This route already had the gold standard of service in the morning, it literally took 30 minutes to get from its last pick up to its first drop off on an average day.  Metropolitan Avenue has a drawbridge that could potentially cause a multitude of delays if a bus is ever unlucky enough to get caught when that bridge is about to open. Grand Street is one traffic lane in each direction.  Who thought this would be a good idea?

Grand Street also has bus lanes. This would be the perfect time for them to both use and enforce the bus lanes that were laid down on Delancey Street and along Grand Street for the L Shutdown.

No express route has any business going via Bowery, Allen Street would be a far suitable fit as traffic flows much better along Allen Street.

[bobtehpanda]

A lot of headways stop "all-day" frequency at 7pm, which is a bit odd and early IMO.

Looking at routes that I've ridden on the regular:

Old Q27

• QT15 (7 minutes weekday/9 weekend) - Q65 routing in College Point, through-routing to Q26 routing on Sanford before taking over Q27 routing to QCC/HHE.
• QT31 (15/20 weekday, 20 weekend) - Q26 extended via HHE to Springfield, taking Q27 path to Jamaica Av. I dislike the frequencies, but this actually isn't the worst idea given that QCC is a major timesink.
• QT71 (21 weekday/24 weekend) - Springfield Blvd, running from Bay Terrace to JFK via QCC.

Old Q88

• 73rd Av - QT87 (18/30 weekday, 30 weekend) - south end of Q23 to Queens Blvd to Jewel to Main, running up 73rd, jogging over to HHE via Springfield, and then using LNP to get to Little Neck LIRR. Huh?
• HHE - QT12 (10 weekday, 15 weekend) - HHE straight through to QCC.

Old Q64/Q10

• QT14 (7/15/30 weekday, 15 weekend) - Q10 shortened to Federal Circle + Q64. Huh?

Main St

• QT86 (every 22 am/midday, every 15 pm peak, every 30 evening weekdays; 20 minutes weekend) - Q20, but swing south on Union Turnpike, take Queens Blvd, go south on Yellowstone and Cooper to end at Atlas Park.
• QT44 (every 6 weekday, 8/15 weekend) - like you gave the current Q44 a bunch of steroids and meth.

Union Turnpike

• QT32 - every 10 minutes. The current Q46 to LIJ, but it looks like it makes no stops between Parsons and 188th? Basically a big middle finger to St. John's.
• QT11 - every 8 minutes. When a Q23 and a Q46 short turn love each other very much, I suppose this is what you get. Q23 to Forest Hills, Queens Blvd, after Kew Gardens it's a Q46 to 188/HHE.
• No Glen Oaks branch.

Hillside

Two branches running every 13/24/60 weekdays, every 20/60 weekends.

• QT34 - 165 St Bus Terminal to NUSH via Hillside, Winchester, Douglaston Pkwy and HHE
• QT36 - 165th St to LIJ via Q43 and Lakeville Rd.

This'll be great for folks west of Winchester, but east I see the N22 suddenly becoming a lot busier.

Q36

• QT67 (15/30 weekdays, 25 min weekends) - Q112 + Q36. Estimated during the day to have a whopping 143 minute runtime.

Overall thoughts:

• Crack is wack. Like this is what I would expect if you gave a certain old transitmaster crack, that he would give this to me. 
• The Bronx bus stop eliminations were nothing to write about. This is the goddamn Texas Bus Stop Massacre. It looks like every route on Hillside makes limited stops west of Springfield. 
• Winners: Atlas Park won. There's a lot of buses on Queens Blvd between Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, too. 
• Losers: the MTA just basically said "f**k you" to everyone east of the Clearview. Particularly for the eastern Queens routes, I'm worried because it doesn't look like they specify the peak-of-peak headways, and when you have buses full on Union Turnpike every 2 minutes during that rush and the MTA is saying 10 for the entire morning that worries me.

TL;DR

I really hope this is fake because if I still lived where I did I'd buy a car, immediately.

[RailRunRob]

1 hour ago, Future ENY OP said:

Again, I’m not 100% on this at all. However, I do see it’s a blue route but this only helps hospital workers. I mean most take the B8, B35, B15 or drive. That 101 is something else. But we will see. 

What about the direct connection to the B35? It's hard to give opinions when you don't have a rider matrix. Very long ride indeed but you technically would have a 2 bus ride from Sunset Park to Jamaica.

Edited December 31, 2019 by RailRunRob

[Future ENY OP]

6 minutes ago, RailRunRob said:

What about the direct connection to the B35? It's hard to give opinions when you don't have a rider matrix. Very long ride indeed but you technically would have a 2 bus ride from Sunset Park to Jamaica.

I’m not concern with the 35. If you read my comment carefully you would notice I’m only talking about riding patterns in and around Brookdale. I live near the hospital and the 8, 15 and 35 all run there. 
 

But, actually who wants to take a bus from Sunset Park to Jamaica. I sure don’t, and I sure won’t take a bus from Brownsville to Jamaica if I have the  LIRR which could get me there within minutes.