As a little kid riding the New York City buses in the late 1980s, nothing would bring me more joy that the “Stop Requested” bell cord. With the cord hanging just above my head, I would have to restrain myself from yanking on the cord until my mom gave me permission to produce the familiar “ding” of the Stop Requested sign. As buses have grown more modern, that cord gave way to pushable yellow strips and now buttons in the newest hybrid vehicles. The bell cord was phased out of city buses unceremoniously in 1992.
Now, though, New York City Transit is reversing course to save money. The push buttons are being phased out and bell cords are back in. Charles Seaton, a Transit spokesman, told The Times that all new buses will feature the pull cord. Currently, 270 buses are equipped with a cord, and the whole fleet is set for this nostalgic retrofitting. According to Seaton, the reintroduction of the bell cord is a cost-saving measure. The yellow strip and button system costs $1056 per bus while a bell cord costs $293 and is easier to repair. In other words, if it ain’t broke and costs too much, don’t fix it.
Bus history buffs like the retro move too. For these bus aficionados, pushing a button never felt as real as a cord. “When you pulled the cord, you had a general feel — the cord in your hand, you heard the buzzer — of contacting the driver,” Stanley I. Fischler said to The Times’ A.G. Sulzberger. “You feel like you were doing something.”
10 comments
I’ve got nothing against the bell cords, but retrofitting the whole fleet? That sounds like a more expensive proposition than it is worth.
(I keep chucking at the reference to Stanley I. Fischler. This must be the well-known subway aficionado and “hockey maven” Stan Fischler, going incognito under a more formal name).
Meh. I grew up in Tel Aviv and Singapore, where you push “Stop” buttons on buses, and didn’t feel deprived of any meaningful bus experience. Personally I’m grated by this New York nostalgia. Just because New York’s been in relative decline for 60 years doesn’t mean you have to imitate the old days to get better.
1. I heard only new buses are coming with the cord, but even if they’re retrofitting old buses, it sounds like a cost-cutting measure that will be worth it anyway.
2. Nostalgia is a powerful human emotion that should not be discounted so easily. If bringing back the cord brings a little extra joy to people, it’s worth mentioning.
They still have bell cords on some MTA Bus busses in Queens (and they’re not new). Either the Q64 or th Q39 (or both) has them.
Yes I’ve seen them on the QBx1 (old Queens Surface Co) buses up here, too. And the new Hybrid Buses all have them. It’s easier for the elderly who are numerous up here and for kid who take so much pride out of requesting the stop. I know I did and now I’d rather that little squirt do for me.
It should also be noted that the newest fleet of Hybrids and the last fleet had stop request buttons/cords accessibility in mind. No matter how crowded the bus is or where you’re standing you can easily request the stop. And at such a low cost, this is progress.
… or maybe they are new, and what I always thought were hold-overs are actually new.
Great, you will never be able to reach the cord up against the windows without invading someone else’s personal space on overloaded bus lines, the red buttons on the Orion 7s are long over due. If your sitting, or want to brush someone’s hair, and you do pull on the cord, it will never work because of the cord being torn from vandalism/abuse/deferred maintenance. I remember the cursed Queens Surface/Triboro/Jamaica RTSes with their pull cords that were ripped 25% of the time, and not responding on that side of the bus the other 25% of the time.
I don’t agree that this is a good move. a mix of buttons and cords is a better idEa. and yes I am not a fan of the broken cords.
I believe the new Orion hybrids have both cords and red buttons on the poles. More importantly, though, is a major innovation on these buses which has been largely unmentioned — the rear door handles incorporate the opening mechanism within them, instead of along a separate tape. This means that exiters who are incapable of following directions (“touch tape to open door”) no longer cause the door to slam behind them.
[…] plan to restore a nostalgic aspect of bus riding to the city’s fleet. Pull cords, they announced, were coming back in style. Gone would be the hard-to-find and expensive-to-repair magnetic […]