When the MTA had to shutter 570 bus stops last week due to service cuts, the move created an odd occurrence of empty space on New York’s streets. Because NYC DOT maintains the bus shelters, no one knew what to make of the out-of-service bus stops all marked with prominent No Standing signs. Following the MTA’s signage, some brave folks tried to park in these spaces only to find a $115 ticket awaiting their return. DOT had a bunch of disgruntled New Yorkers on their hands.
This past weekend, to clear up the confusion, the NYPD has told its parking enforcement agents not to issue parking tickets for those cars parked at bus stops the MTA has designated out of service. This move is an unofficial one as DOT is still trying to determine the future for the 30,000 feet of unused curb space it now has at its disposal. I’m holding out hope for some combination of bike storage areas, mini green spaces and market-rate on-street parking spots.
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bike storage would be a great use of space for at least some of these old bus stops
Yes! However all $115 tickets should stand until then. After all it wouldn’t be New York without a gotcha parking ticket, right?
So no one at the DOT, MTA or NYPD thought about this in the months between when the bus changes were announced and the day they were implemented? Of course not.
Of course not. That’s just another example of how New York treats buses as a second class mode of travel.
Of course not. That’s just another example of how New York treats buses as a second class mode of travel.
Not only does that need to change, so does the type of busses the MTA puts out on the streets. The best ones I’ve sene are Alexander Dennis Envero 500 double deckers wich run along the Las Vegas Strip.
The red open top tour busses you see around Manhattan are Envero 500’s.
The nicest regular city buses I’ve seen are newer models made by Gillig. They feel more like long-distance coaches than city buses because they have highback seats, but are designed for local city bus routes. They also come in hybrid flavor, apparently. Spending the summer in Buffalo, I was surprised to find this small city’s transit system to have nicer vehicles (mostly Gilligs) than the large systems – New York, Chicago, etc.
Double decker buses make sense in some cases, but you need to be careful of skyrocketing dwell times. And, of course, of low-hanging trees, traffic signals, and tunnels.
But the issue is whether cars can legally park there! Buses have nothing to do with it (anymore).
The lack of coordination between the MTA and DOT is staggering. They just today got around to removing “M104” signs along the portion of 42nd St where the bus used to run. I must have told 25 people over the last week that the M104 doesn’t run there anymore.
At the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island, the S78 bus was moved to a different platform and starts its run next to a sign reading “S67 to Port Richmond.” Unfortunately, the S67 was cancelled last weekend, yet they moved the S78 bus to its terminal slot and didn’t feel the need to change the signage. Your average commuter has about 3-4 mins to get off the ferry and run for the bus before it leaves, yet the DOT didn’t feel the need to get ahead of the curve and change the signs. This has been repeated hundreds of times all over the city, and really boggles the mind.
It has nothing to do with coordination. The MTA has told DOT exactly which bus stop signs have to be changed or removed, but DOT wasn’t adequately staffed to replace thousands of bus stop signs at the stroke of midnight on June 27. Which makes sense, considering that the MTA has never before implemented nearly this many bus changes all at once.
What’s there to think about? There’s a posted parking restriction. It was enforced. That buses no longer stop there isn’t relevant as far as the law is concerned.
I do think the red notices (“This is no longer a bus stop”) should have included a sentence on the bottom explicitly informing motorists that parking restrictions will remain in effect until the sign is removed, and, in its absence, the city probably did the right thing in dismissing the summonses.
But… What about the buses with limited service? The M8 now has absolutely no service over the weekend. Is it okay to park there over the weekend? Should it be?