Category:

Buses

Bronx bus driver assaulted over canine refusal

by Benjamin Kabak June 23, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 23, 2011

On my way home last night, I found myself on a 2 train at Nevins St. with an empty space next to me. The space was large enough for another person to sit down comfortably, and I was up against the pole trying to make sure any person room to sit down. At Nevins, a woman boarded the train, sat down nearly on top of me without saying excuse and then proceeded to blast music through her headphones at volumes loud enough for me sitting next to her to hear clearly. It was a lesson in inconsiderate behavior.

Earlier this week, something scary happened to a bus driver in the Bronx. It was on an entirely different level than my tale but shows the less-than-considerate behavior people on the buses and subways display. Here’s the story, per the Daily News:

Carrying a Chihuahua, [17-year-old Steangeli] Medina boarded the Bx9 bus on Fordham Road at Cambreleng Ave. in Belmont just before 6 p.m., police said. She became enraged when [bus driver Marlene] Bien-Aime said the pet had to be in a crate to travel. “She said, ‘I’m gonna hit you,'” Bien-Aime said.

The driver responded, “It’s not me, it’s MTA.” Seconds later, the first punch was thrown, said Bien-Aime, who spent Wednesday night at St. Barnabas Hospital. “I was simply doing my job yesterday,” Bien-Aime said.

Medina, a student at Richard R. Green High School in Manhattan, was released on her own recognizance last night after her arraignment on charges of assault, menacing and harassment. The dog was returned to her family.

Yesterday, Bien-Aime and union officials spoke out against the attack. While the MTA knows about the problem of bus driver assaults, they have been slow to better protect drivers. A five-bus pilot that includes a protective shield hasn’t yet moved beyond the initial stages, but the authority expects to equip 100 out of over 6000 soon. It’s not enough, and as the MTA gears up to confront and negotiate with its union, it must make personnel safety a key issue.

Now, as much as I don’t want to draw too many generalizations from a few bad isolated incidents — at least 27 drivers have been attacked this year — it’s hard not to. Medina felt entitled to bring her dog on board a crowded bus. Never mind the rules; never mind the passengers; never mind the drivers. She wanted the rules to apply to others and not her. When she couldn’t get her way, she attacked.

That, of course, is why people in the subway just roll their eyes at those who blast music through headphones, litter and drop food on the floors of subway cars. We don’t want to end up in Bien-Aime’s position with bruises and black eyes and a trip to the emergency room. Manners, it seems, are often missing from the subway system, and the best we can hope is that we’re not on the wrong end of a person with a few screws loose who are at the end of a long day.

Perhaps this is all just a part of the feelings of entitlement that fill our system. Many straphangers never want to wait for trains, always want a seat and will complain no matter how smooth their rides are. They want better and better, and when they don’t get their way, they attack. Bus drivers should be safer and better protected; people should be calmer. But we don’t live in an Eden.

June 23, 2011 8 comments

Asides Buses

Manhattan bus cuts and a downward spiral

by Benjamin Kabak June 22, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 22, 2011

DNA Info this morning has news of some bus cuts. Six Manhattan lines — the M5, M31, M42, M72, M98 and M104 — will see peak-hour reductions in service starting this September. According to their reports, wait times will increase by 1-2 minutes, and the cuts, driven supposedly by demand and not economics, are going to save the MTA $900,000 a year.

A few other buses in Manhattan will see service increase though. The M9 and M20 will see added buses while the M116 will receive a few more buses during nights and weekends. “We look at demand and ridership and take that into account and schedule headway accordingly,” an authority spokesman said to DNA info.

I’m always a bit skeptical when I hear of bus cuts like this because it’s part of the “death by 1000 cuts” approach I’ve worried about. If the MTA cuts bus service in small increments, eventually, they will make it so that the bus is an impractical and inconvenient mode of surface transit. The longer people wait, the less likely they are to use the bus or take transit. At some point, it because cost-inefficient to operate empty buses, but at some point, cuts lead to a downward spiral. It is a fine line between the two.

June 22, 2011 21 comments

Buses Queens

Turning to buses for better LaGuardia access

by Benjamin Kabak June 21, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 21, 2011

Initial DOT plans for bus access to LaGuardia have focused on five potential routes.

For an airport so close to Midtown Manhattan, LaGuardia often seems very far away. The N and Q trains terminate tantalizingly close to the airport, and the 7 train seems to skirt right on by. But with no direct subway access, one of the nation’s busiest airports remains trapped on the wrong side of a bunch of roads, accessible only by cars, taxis or buses that slowly wind their way through local Queens streets.

The dearth of adequate transit options for the nearly 24 million passengers who pass through the airport isn’t for lack of trying. As I’ve written in the past, many wanted to bring the subway to LaGuardia, but intense NIMBYism and a high pricetag killed the project. Now, we’re left with five local buses, an array of private operators and surface transit. That might change soon.

For as long as the New York City Department of Transportation has focused on its so-called “bus rapid transit” plan, the LaGuardia-Elmhurst corridord has sat atop the priority list. New Yorkers long identified it as an area in need of better access, and city planners know that the area is underserved. Finally, DOT is getting around to studying the corridor.

I learned today — via Cap’n Transit’s post to Twitter — of this DOT web page touting the LaGuardia Airport Access Alternatives Analysis. The snazzy map up on top of this post came from that page in fact. Right now, the website is bare bones. In addition to the map, it features three paragraphs of text:

LaGuardia Airport is the only major airport in the New York metro area without a rapid transit connection, and much of western Queens lacks easy access to the subway for local travel. The idea of providing rapid transit for the airport and the surrounding community has been studied many times over the years, but nothing has ever been implemented.

The LaGuardia Airport corridor was identified as needing shorter term, lower cost transit improvements by area residents as part of the Bus Rapid Transit Phase II study in 2009. In particular, the area generates a high density of transit trips that are a long distance from the subway. The corridor is currently served by the M60,Q33, Q47, Q48 and Q72 bus routes, but service on these routes is often slowed by narrow streets and long dwell times.

With this in mind, DOT requested and received funding from the Federal Transit Administration to conduct a LaGuardia Airport Access Alternatives Analysis. The Alternatives Analysis began in May 2011, and will focus on implementable recommendations. The study will look at both airport trips and trips made by the many residents that live close to the airport. DOT will work closely with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and other City and State agencies throughout the study.

Essentially, two years after residents urged DOT to explore improving access to LaGuardia, the department is finally ready to begin that study. The process is going to be a slow one, and it will likely be at least two years before we see any real transportation improvements. In fact, according to DOT’s schedule, although this month will play host to the first public meeting, the selection of the “Locally Preferred Alternative” won’t happen until next May, and the agency anticipates implementing the initial recommendations sometime in 2013. Obvious transit improvements happen very slowly in New York City.

What then should we anticipate? Although the plans are rough sketches based upon public input from 2009, DOT will have to find a way to overcome the narrow streets and long dwell times. To that end, we’ll see buses focused on wider corridors, and we’ll see Select Bus Service-like improvements implemented. Pre-board fare payment is an obvious one, and while a Manhattan-to-LaGuardia route would be ripe for a truly dedicated lane, the city has not been able to overcome small but loud complaints concerning those types of beneficial travel lanes.

Essentially, earlier studies identified five potential routes, and each should see travel upgrades. The city would like to connect LaGuardia to Willets Point and the 7 in Flushing, the Jackson Heights hub at Roosevelt Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, 125th St. via a stop along the N/Q in Astoria and into the Bronx via Third or Webster Avenues. That’s the easy part. Getting the right improvements implementing on the ground will not, but DOT now has a chance to improve travel to and from a popular urban airport that has never been connected to the subway. It’s an opportunity the city can’t afford to let slip away yet again.

June 21, 2011 87 comments

Buses

On SBS successes and meddling community boards

by Benjamin Kabak June 17, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 17, 2011

Now that the MTA and DOT have been offering Select Bus Service for nearly nine months, the agencies have a better picture of how it’s shaping up, and the early returns have been quite positive. This week, DOT presented its findings on SBS to Community Board 3, and DNA Info was there. According to DOT, trips have increased along the M15 by 30 percent since Select Bus Service debuted, and travel times by 15-18 percent.

Meanwhile, enforcement remains a key concern for the city. Enforcement officials had issued nearly 4700 fare-evasion summonses to riders through April, and lane enforcement cameras had resulted in 5800 ticketed drivers who were parked in the bus-only lanes. People too are safer as injury-causing crashes have dropped by 14 percent on both avenues between 34th and Houston Sts.

Yet, CB3 didn’t seem satisfied, and here we see the dangers of community boards in the transportation planning process. Community Board members say that gaps between local and express stops and the frequency of Select Bus Service stops “make it difficult for riders to choose between the two buses.” Their solution? More Select Bus Service stops. CB3 wants to see “regular and SBS bus stops be placed closer together or combined at locations to provide riders with more options,” and one rider asked for a stop at Allen and Delancey Sts.

If Community Boards had their ways, Select Bus Service stops would be just as frequent as local service, and that’s the problem. SBS works because the stops are far apart, and that sometimes means skipping busy locations. Already, there’s a stop at Houston and Allen and Grand and Allen. That’s only a distance of 0.4 miles. Adding yet another stop in there — two blocks away from Grand St. — is entirely unnecessary.

I’m happy to see Community Board consulted in the planning process. Neighbors should have a say on changes that will impact their lives. But at a certain point, the experts have to be allowed to run the service. Local and express stations aren’t closer together so that SBS buses aren’t stuck behind local routes. Station distances on the SBS route are far apart to allow buses to build up speed. That’s what makes the system work, and it shouldn’t be changed.

June 17, 2011 25 comments

Buses Manhattan

On 181st St. and being afraid of bus lanes

by Benjamin Kabak June 15, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 15, 2011

The DOT plan for 181st Street leaves much to desired.

For three years, the New York City Department of Transportation has been working with the Washington Heights community to address 181st St. Spanning from one bridge to another, the upper Manhattan thoroughfare plays host to two subway stations, five bus routes and a Hudson River Greenway entrance. A few blocks north of the cross-Bronx, this street would be ripe for a transit- and pedestrian-focused overhaul, and yet it’s not getting one.

When DOT unveiled its designs for the street less week, it presented what Streetsblog called a plan “far less ambitious than what could have been.” What was a road once under consideration for a fully protected bus lane has turned into yet another compromise in which a loud but vocal minority with trumped up concerns over access have triumphed over the safety and mobility of pedestrians and transit riders.

Noah Kazis has more:

For bus riders, the curbside parking on the south side of 181st Street would be replaced with a dedicated eastbound bus lane from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., improving reliability by clearing the way for Bronx-bound buses at the very beginning of their routes. On the block between Audobon and Amsterdam Avenues, which a DOT spokesperson said was where buses suffered the biggest delays from congestion, the bus lane would be in effect from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The entire project is part of DOT’s Congested Corridors program, and the plan includes left-turn bays to help traffic move more smoothly. Curb parking will be replaced with loading zones during designated times, intended to minimize the rampant double parking along 181st. By keeping the through lanes clear, said the DOT spokesperson, these features will also keep buses moving smoothly…

That’s a fair number of changes to a stretch barely over half a mile long, but it’s much less than what was on the table in October. One option, for example, would have built New York City’s first physically separated bus lanes on 181st. With one in each direction and a raised bus stop mid-street, that plan would have provided one fewer traffic lane and one fewer parking lane than the current plan, but done much more for transit riders.

Another option was an approach that would have made 181st a real multi-modal street. With large sidewalk extensions on the whole corridor, a buffered bike lane and a bus lane, this discarded option would have redistributed space from drivers to every other user of the street.

A glimpse at what should have been.

So why did DOT compromise at the expense of the many? According to Kazis, Denny Farrell, an Assembly representative known for his personal collection of convertibles and corresponding windshield perspective, but the heat on the Department of Transportation. He claims some locals expressed concerns over a one-way street while others wondered how buses would turn into a protected lane — a concern that doesn’t exist in the myriad locations around the world with dedicated and physically separated bus lanes.

To make an omelet, one must break eggs, but unfortunately, NYC DOT has pulled back from that approach. Instead of angering small but powerful people who don’t represent the demographics and needs of the community, DOT has decided to build slowly on the status quo. There’s no harm in incremental improvements, but at some point, those incremental improvements need to take the next step. The 34th Street plan, more ambitious than this one, fell to NIMBYs, and the 181st St. plan has seemingly fallen to those who live to drive around Upper Manhattan in their cars.

For New York City to become a more mobile area, buses will need to become a priority. Someone will be inconvenienced; someone else won’t like the buses. But more commuters and more New Yorkers will benefit from faster surface transit and travel. After all, cities are about people, not their cars, and while cars do have a place in an urban environment, road space should be prioritized appropriately. Right now, the people are losing the fight.

June 15, 2011 9 comments

Asides Buses

Veolia chosen for LI Bus contract

by Benjamin Kabak June 10, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 10, 2011

Veolia Transportation will take control of operations for Long Island Bus beginning in 2012, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano announced today. The Illinois-based subsidiary of a French company bested MV Transit and First Transit in the bidding, and they have promised to “keep existing fares and levels of service through the end of 2012,” Newsday reports. After 2012, it’s anyone’s guess what Nassau County’s bus service and fare structure will look like.

The decision, of course, is not without controversy. While transit advocates and local politicians do not believe that Veolia will be able to maintain service levels and fares, the company apparently has close ties to Nassau County’s politicians. As Newsday notes, “Veolia hired D’Amato’s firm, Park Strategies, as consultant during the county bidding process. Park Strategies vice president Robert McBride, a well-known GOP lobbyist who hosted a fundraiser for Mangano in McBride ‘s home in January, headed the effort locally.”

Meanwhile, Veolia does not have a stellar safety record, and Nassau Country representatives do not believe that the company can provide the same service as the MTA without a greater subsidy from the county or higher fares. “This is going to end up costing us so much more money,” County Legislator Kevan Abrahams said. “One way or the other, we’re going to have to put money into this. And I hate to think that it’s going to come from the riders.” What a mess.

June 10, 2011 12 comments

Asides Buses

LI Bus fate to be determined tomorrow

by Benjamin Kabak June 9, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 9, 2011

As the MTA has already voted to withdraw funding from Long Island Bus by the end of the year, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is moving forward with a plan no one thinks will succeed. According to Newsday, Mangano will unveil the private company picked to operate the popular Nassau County bus service. The winning bidder will be Veolia Transportation, MV Transit or First Transit and will have to be approved by the county legislature before it can begin to operate the buses next year.

The MTA and Mangano have been at odds over Long Island Bus funding for a while. Despite funding agreements fund the transit network, Nassau County contributes just $9.1 million to the bus system’s operations, and the MTA has asked for upwards of $26 million more. Mangano has refused to do so and has insisted that a private company acting without increased subsidies and turning a profit will be able to offer the same service for the same fares.

Transit advocates are rightly skeptical, but the county executive is moving forward with the plan anyway. “Financially, it doesn’t make sense,” Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said. “They’ll have to contribute a lot more money if they want it to function even remotely like it does now.” For more on this long-simmering dispute, check out my archives. I don’t think Nassau Country commuters are going to think too highly of the entity that emerges from this move.

June 9, 2011 16 comments

Buses Staten Island

BRT Battlegrounds: Hylan Boulevard

by Benjamin Kabak June 7, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on June 7, 2011

From the MTA press office:

MTA New York City Transit and the New York City Department of Transportation invite the public to discuss transit service, traffic conditions and pedestrian safety on Staten Island’s Hylan Boulevard during an Open House that will be held on Wednesday, June 8, at The Renaissance Conference Center in the Grant City section of Staten Island beginning at 7 p.m.

The study will examine ways to improve safety, traffic flow and ease congestion along this major thoroughfare. The scope of the study will extend from the Staten Island Mall on Richmond Avenue to the 86th Street (R) subway station in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It carries several express bus routes and is served by the S78 and S79 with a combined average weekday bus ridership of more than 30,000.

The MTA and NYC DOT have already started to work on bringing Select Bus Service to Hylan Boulevard following its successful introduction in the Bronx (Bx12) and Manhattan (M15). In addition to concepts for Select Bus Service, the Hylan Boulevard Transportation study team will develop two or three different proposals for transportation improvements to be evaluated and discussed with the community.

The public is invited to learn more about the objectives of the study, examine display boards, and offer comments regarding transit, traffic and curb use on Hylan Boulevard with project team members. The event begins with a formal presentation at 7:15 p.m. but the general public may stop by any time between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the Regency Room of The Renaissance at 2131 Hylan Boulevard (at Bedford Avenue) in Staten Island.

For more on the Hylan Boulevard proposal, check out NYC DOT’s project page.

So why does Hylan Boulevard matter? Well, lately, the MTA and DOT’s joint Select Bus Service efforts have not been met with arms wide open. The plan to turn 34th Street into a Transitway that would have benefited commuters, pedestrians and businesses alike was shot down by a small but stridently vocal group of NIMBYs. Hylan Boulevard, though, is the perfect place for a bus lane.

Staten Island is a tricky area for transit improvements. Because it has so long been disconnected from the subway map and enjoys some express bus service, it is by far the most car-dependent area of the city, and its residents are skeptical of anything that takes road space away from autos. Yet, this SBS proposal — which connects to the R train in Bay Ridge but should continue deeper into Brooklyn if not Manhattan — could be the first step in speeding up bus service and improving transit in and out of Staten Island.

I won’t be able to make the meeting tomorrow, but hopefully, Staten Islanders will take this chance to voice their support for better bus service and more transit options in an underserved borough.

June 7, 2011 54 comments

Buses Public Transit Policy

The not-so-lofty goals of tomorrow’s transportation

by Benjamin Kabak May 31, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 31, 2011

As we survey the New York City transportation landscape, nothing very big is happening. The MTA has its so-called megaprojects churning as the Second Ave. Subway, 7 line extension and East Side Access Project all inch toward completion dates later this decade, but there is nothing in the works that will reshape or revolutionize transit in the area. Instead, we have clogged roads in desperate need of repair, traffic that needs mitigating and a subway system that needs significant investment.

Meanwhile, the Transportation of the Future is on the minds of a few folks lately, and the topics are less than exciting. In a multi-story package last week, The Wall Street Journal delved into Tomorrow’s Transportation and determined that monorails and, uh, buses are the future of transportation. Pardon me if neither of those modalities make me jump for joy. The price tags may be more alluring that deep-bore subway construction; the offerings may be greener than massive road expansion plans; but somewhere along the way, we forgot to think big.

The Journal’s article about buses focuses on tried-and-true BRT with pre-board fare payment, dedicated lanes and the works. It’s not really about the sub-par BRT imitation New York is laying down because our transit policy folks are brow-beaten by a bunch of NIMBYs. It is full of the typical over-the-top love of bus lanes as the article calls BRT a “modern transit system that combines the flexibility of buses with the speed, comfort and reliability of rail.”

The article reads as something out of the Walter Hook Manual for BRT, and a recent release from the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy sounds familiar themes. BRT, says the release, “combines the flexibility of buses with the speed and priority of light rail, but at a fraction of the cost of rail.”

There is no denying that bus rapid transit is the popular modality these days. “BRT projects can be put in place quickly, and integrate well with other transportation modes, from subways to cycling and walking, while fitting today’s often constrained budgets,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, said. “Now more than ever it is important to find creative solutions to provide affordable transportation options that meet the needs of our communities and residents and keep our economy moving forward.”

And yet, BRT can’t approximate rail. For a BRT lane to deliver the capacity a subway can — and particularly in New York — the operator would have to run something on the order of 40 buses an hour. BRT may be cheaper than building out a subway line or light rail, but you get what you pay for. As Yonah Freemark noted, there’s nothing wrong with that.

In dispensing with the Rail vs. BRT fight, Freemark noted that the two modalities should not be pitted against each other. Rather, they should be used in concert to form a better overall transit network experience. He writes:

The real divisions between bus and rail are political: For those who would fight for improved transit systems in their cities, the truth is that rail projects do certainly have more appeal among members of the public. Thus a billion-dollar rail project may be easier to stomach for a taxpaying and voting member of the citizenry than a quarter-billion BRT line. While the former is qualitatively different than what most car drivers are used to, the latter mode is too easily lumped in with the city bus, which car users have already paid to avoid.

Better transit can come in many forms, but in a country in which the vast majority of people have no contact with public transportation this side of Disney World, making the argument for investments in more buses is difficult, to say the least. BRT is just not sexy until you’ve experienced it. Which is why the considerable success of BRT in South America has not convinced many U.S. cities to abandon their ambitions for more rail.

Articles like those in the Journal and the Globe and Mail, despite their positive assessments of the potential for BRT, nonetheless reinforce the sense that BRT is inferior to rail by putting the two in contrast to one another, rather than focusing on the relative benefits of each. By continuously describing BRT as an economical way to get something like light rail, all that comes across is that it’s cheap.

What do we do then in an area in which our politicians aren’t willing to do anything for any form of transportation? City officials haven’t stood up for their modified Select Bus Service — or BRT Lite — plans, and rail expansion is a non-starter because of the price tags. The status quo can’t keep up with demand under or above ground. So let’s just throw everything out and start building monorails instead. If it works in China and Mumbai, it can work here, right?

May 31, 2011 23 comments

Buses

On the causes of the decline in bus ridership

by Benjamin Kabak May 27, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 27, 2011

When the MTA cut service last year, they made subway travel slightly less convenient. Waits were a minute or two longer as trains were somewhat more crowded, but by and large, other than those who took the M to lower Manhattan or relied upon it along 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, the subway cuts went largely unnoticed. In fact, ridership has continued to climb despite the service reductions.

The bus cuts, on the other hand, produced some rather dramatic results. Take a look below at the chart showing bus ridership since March 2009. This is not a trend which we should be applauding.

On the most basic level, the cause of this slowdown in bus ridership can be traced to the service cuts. The MTA eliminated numerous high-cost routes that, despite low ridership levels, served a good number of people in the aggregate, and it cut back other service on nights and weekends. If there are fewer buses, there will be fewer bus riders. That’s just a basic lesson in transit economics.

Yet, on a more advanced level, the MTA says more is at work here. That bus ridership declined by 13.2 percent while subway ridership increased by 12.6 percent can’t just be explained by the service cuts, and in the Wall Street Journal this week, Andrew Grossman tried to find out just what’s going on here. The authority is blaming everything from the economy and socioeconomic makeup of bus riders to increased surface congestion. “We don’t know exactly why, but we’re seeing a decline in the inner portions of the boroughs,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to The Journal. “One thing that is contributing to that is traffic congestion. The buses just are not traveling at optimal speeds. Other than that, we can’t really pinpoint why ridership is declining on portions of these routes.”

Grossman pinpoints a number of other potential causes:

Some of the decline is by design. When the MTA eliminated dozens of bus routes last summer to save money, it focused on places where buses ran along subway lines. The B39, for example, used to run over the Williamsburg Bridge—right next to the J, M and Z trains. The authority also reduced the frequency of certain bus routes. At the same time, subways have gotten some high-profile improvements, such as digital clocks that tell straphangers when the next train is coming…

Another factor: Buses are breaking down more often. MTA data show the average distance a bus travels before it needs repair has been decreasing as the bus fleet ages…Then there’s a city economy in which some neighborhoods are thriving while others struggle. That’s one of the causes MTA Chairman Jay Walder pointed to when asked about the decline Wednesday. “Some of it may also have to do with the ways in which the economic recovery is taking hold and the ridership in different parts of the city,” he said.

Neighborhood farthest from subway routes have some of the city’s worst joblessness, according to data compiled by the James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank. In places such as Flatlands and East Flatbush in southern Brooklyn, which have subway lines only at their edges, the unemployment rate was around 13% in the third quarter of 2010, Mr. Parrott said. People without jobs have fewer reasons to travel. Meanwhile, they have to pay more for trips they do take since the fare went up at the end of 2010.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t sound as though the situation is going to improve any time soon. With the onslaught of 328 new articulated buses, the MTA will scale back bus service even further in the coming years. It might just be the perfect storm of economic factors, service cuts and unreliable service. Maybe the buses will gain in popularity when the MTA’s BusTime tracking program has spread throughout the city. But maybe, if the authority doesn’t support bus service, ridership will continue to bleed away from an important piece of the surface transportation puzzle.

May 27, 2011 14 comments

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