Comments on: Straphangers pushing for bus improvements

By: Crosstown buses: How slow can you go? :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:07:08 +0000

[...] Campaign hands out its Pokey award to the city’s slowest bus, and this year, the M42 took home the honors. It achieved, they said, an average speed of 3.7 miles per hour at noon on a weekday. For many of [...]

By: Musings on the role of buses in cities :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:13:12 +0000

[...] the Straphangers Campaign released their latest takedown of the MTA’s bus system last week, something about it bothered me. While the Campaign doled out its usual Pokey and [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:03:04 +0000

I don’t see the point of the Trekkie. Nobody rides a long local bus route like the M4 from start to finish. If you want to go from Penn Station to Fort Tryon, take the A train.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:18:43 +0000

The experience in London is that CP increased bus speed. Bloomberg already tried to sell CP in New York with that, and failed. Walder, who is as politically tone-deaf as Bloomberg, won’t be able to add anything to this discussion.

And I won’t be surprised if the M42 statistic comes up again for Vision42, either. The fact that in previous years the winners have often been other crosstown buses, such as the M96 or M14, will naturally be absent from those debates.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:16:31 +0000

The slowest crosstown street isn’t 42nd – it’s probably 125th. The reason the M42 won is that it runs only on 42nd, whereas no bus runs only on 125th. The buses that serve 125th all continue on to faster streets, such as the M60 through Astoria to LaGuardia or the M101 through Lex/Third.

By: Alfred Beech

Alfred Beech — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:13:02 +0000

The Portland transit mall (the one on 5th and 6th avenues) also have light rail tracks in the mix. I assumed the multiple lanes for transit were needed to allow busses to pass trains, and vice versa.

I think NYC would see congestion pricing before it saw a streetcar in Manhattan, but a 42nd street streetcar would be an interesting opportunity for the federal Small Starts Grant, which recently funded Portland’s streetcar extension. Surely the need and the opportunity for farebox recovery could be easily demonstrated.

Regardless of the solution, anything on street level is going to require a dedicated right-of-way.

By: SEAN

SEAN — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:44:04 +0000

As seperating the bus lane from general purpase lanes goe, the adition of a rumblestrip could help.

In Portland OR the “Transit Mall” has rumblestrips seperating the auto lane from the transit lanes. This includes both bus &light rail trains along the mall. To be most effective where possible two lanes maybe required. One for boarding & the other for passing. This allows for speedier service.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:24:17 +0000

It’s a mix. The mayor via DOT can really help with dedicated lanes and priority signaling. MTA has to supply the equipment. There’s really no reason why these improvements can’t be made relatively quickly.

By: Building 11

Building 11 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:47:07 +0000

I meant Mayor, obviously.

By: Building 11

Building 11 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:46:44 +0000

How much of this is in the MTA’s power to accomplish, and how much of this is the city’s (I’m talking about you, Mator Bloomberg)?