Buses

Once more unto the buses we go. Today’s bus story comes to us via the old reliable Straphangers Campaign. The transit advocacy group has released a report accusing bus service of lagging behind ridership demands, and the MTA isn’t happy about it.

In short, the Straphangers believe that bus riders are getting short-shrifted. “Crushed by crowds? Have to wait for more than one bus to go by? It’s not your imagination, transit officials have never caught up to the waves of new bus riders,” Gene Russianoff, Straphangers Campaign lawyer, said.

Their findings — with raw data available as a PDF table and map — were as follows:

Gains in service lagged behind increases in ridership in three boroughs, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens: In Brooklyn, the gap was more than triple, with ridership increasing 26% since 1997, but service only 8%. In Queens and the Bronx, the gap was 10 percentage points. Ridership was up 24% in the Bronx, but service only 14%. In Queens, ridership increased 30%, but service only 20%.

Gains in service outpaced increases in ridership in two boroughs: In Manhattan, gains in service were slightly more than increases in ridership (15% to 13%). On Staten Island, gains in service outpaced increases in ridership overall (23% to 18%).

Russianoff used the Straphangers’ findings to warn against the possible service cuts the MTA faces in light of budgetary issues. “It makes no sense to cut service that’s already lagging behind ridership and new riders are flocking to transit service as the price of gasoline heads toward $5 a gallon,” he said.

But while the Straphangers leveled their criticisms, New York City Transit swung back. Says their press office:

The Straphangers assertion that our bus customers are being “crushed by crowds” or that customers are “having to wait for more than one bus to go by” does not systemically occur on NYC Transit bus routes. It is equally untrue that NYC Transit has not kept pace with the increase in ridership which resulted from free bus-to-subway transfers and discounted fares. The fact of the matter is that the increase in bus ridership, most of which occurred by the end of 2001, was met with unprecedented increases in bus service.

At the heart of the matter is an assertion by the MTA that bus ridership levels are well within Board-adopted loading guidelines. While NYC Transit stresses this claim, the Straphangers claim that the MTA has long kept these numbers a secret and that their independent research doesn’t jibe with the MTA’s claims. “If New York City Transit’s own checks of ridership show it is providing enough matching levels of bus service, it should publicly release the crowding information on a regular basis,” Russianoff said.

The truth, much like the next bus, is out there somewhere.

The New York buses are, for better or worse, a begrudgingly accepted part of the transit landscape. Their schedules are unreliable and service is painfully slow on a good day. But as buses go, the last few weeks have been rather momentous.

First, we saw the roll-out of the MTA’s new Select Bus Service. With pre-boarding fare-payment schemes and dedicated bus lanes, New York’s form of bus rapid transit could revitalize a much-maligned mode of transit. The early returns are promising.

Last week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Mobilizing the Region blog featured an early test-run of the BRT system. Veronica Vanterpool, TSTC’s associate director, noted that the BRT measures shaved 17 minutes off of her cross-Bronx commute. While enforcement efforts and pre-boarding confusion plagued the ride, Vanterpool believes that, as the system matures, it will become even more efficient. Score one for the good news.

Concurrently, Streetblog’s Brad Aaron pondered how New York City should beef up BRT enforcement. While we have blamed David Gantt for shooting down camera-enforced lanes, Aaron argues that New York should follow Europe’s lead and implement dedicated lines by way of concrete dividers. As these dividers have done with the 9th Ave. bike lane, permanent concrete structures will keep drivers out for good, cameras or not. Sign me up.

And then, on Friday, New York City Transit sneaked out another bus-related story while no one was paying attention. The agency released the Express Bus Rider Report Cards, and as riders were wont to do with the subways, bus service received a C grade. As you might expect, bus riders were most critical of the wait times between buses, the accuracy of schedules and seat availability. If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty, all the details are availabe here as a PDF.

I don’t believe these bus grades can come as a surprise. Bus service across the board is unreliable in the city at best. Buses run at the whim of traffic, and the posted schedules are reliable only as a tool to help potential riders determine how long it should be between buses. The Express Bus service is supposed to be more reliable than the local service, and when the regular bus line report cards hit, I’m sure riders will have similar complaints.

Right now, New Yorkers could use a good bus service, but it seems that buses are viewed as a measure of last resort. If it’s raining, take the bus but only if it’s there. Friends of mine who are new to the city never really learn the bus system, and even life-long New Yorkers use the buses reluctantly. The Select Bus Service is a start, but as the rider report card results show, MTA Bus, now under the umbrella of NYC Transit, has a long way to go.

Rochester, New York, is so far away from New York City that a search for directions on Google offers up flight information before it provides driving instructions. Rochester, New York, is so far away from New York City that Google recommends a three-state drive that covers 333 miles and would take nearly six hours without traffic.

So it’s just another indication of how horribly inept New York State politics are that a Rochester representative to the New York State Assembly is now responsible for the fact that this city won’t be getting a viable method of enforcing bus rapid transit lanes any time soon. Gantt’s committee defeated a bill passed by the City Council with a home-rule endorsement that would have allowed the city to use cameras for BRT lane violation enforcement efforts.

Streetsblog’s Ben Fried has the skinny on this outrageous story:

Legislation central to New York City’s implementation of Bus Rapid Transit died in Albany yesterday, when the State Assembly transportation committee, chaired by Rochester Democrat David Gantt, defeated a bill authorizing bus-mounted enforcement cameras by a narrow 14-11 vote. Another traffic enforcement bill, which makes it easier to issue tickets for blocking the box, did make it through the committee.

“It’s really outrageous that after a year of pretty unanimous agreement about New York’s congestion problem, that all we’re left with is don’t block the box,” said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. “It’s pretty sad when that’s the best Albany can do.”

Without bus-mounted enforcement cameras, which have proven successful in London, getting transit up to speed on DOT’s five planned BRT routes faces significant hurdles. “It’s going to make it a lot harder to move buses faster through the city, without camera enforcement of the lanes,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. “It’s going to hurt this experiment with Select Bus Service.”

While Gantt hasn’t — and probably won’t — return calls to Streetsblog, his own logical reasoning is being torn apart in the New York press. As Fried notes, the NYCLU had already addressed civil liberties concerns. And as the Daily News opined today, Gantt’s efforts show a clear personal bias: “Gantt is lead sponsor of a bill tailor-made to promote the technology of his pal’s client – while blocking Bloomberg and elected officials in other jurisdictions from using cameras provided by different vendors.” His faux concerns over civil liberties are, in other words, a load of garbage.

More infuriating however is that, much like the doomed congestion pricing bill, the committee did a quick show-of-hands vote before killing this bill. Yet again, some upstate politician so far removed from the reality of life in New York City has affected our roads, our public transportation policy and our quality of life.

In the end, New York City is at the mercy of people who have other interests and don’t live in the city. These are people who don’t know why we need bus rapid transit and aren’t content to let New York City’s own Council determine the appropriate courses of action. Instead, they’re happy to reap the economic benefits of New York City while utterly depriving the residents of much-needed transportation solutions such as bus rapid transit lanes. Last time, we had Sheldon Silver — a Manhattan-based representative — to thank; this time, we’ve got David F. Gantt.

At some point, these shenanigans have got to stop. As I’m just left annoyed and wondering when some real leadership will land in the state of assembly, can New York City secede in the meantime?

MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander’s efforts to overhaul MTA management wrapped up this week when 37-year-old agency vet and MTA Bus President Thomas Savage retired.

Savage’s retirement came just a little over a week and a half after the MTA announced an extensive overhaul of the management at their bus company holdings. As with all things MTA, however, it is not without controversy. Pete Donohue, transit beat writer at the Daily News, notes that Savage will get a full year’s salary despite voluntarily stepping down:

The cash-strapped MTA will pay a former top-level executive $200,000 to do nothing.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority veteran Thomas Savage will receive a full year’s salary as if he was still reporting to work as president of the MTA Bus Co. – even though he stepped down from the executive post last month, the authority said.

Spokesman Jeremy Soffin described the $200,000 as a necessary cost of a larger initiative to consolidate management positions, which the authority expects to lead to financial savings down the road. Savage retired despite having one year left on his multiyear contract, Soffin said.

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign had kind words for Savage and the MTA’s efforts to streamline operations – but said he believed the MTA is “too generous” when crafting packages for executives.

Savage, for his part, wouldn’t talk about the deal. His only comment to Donohue was to note that it wasn’t a buyout. Of course, when someone leaves his job — and isn’t the first MTA division head to do so under the new CEO — and is paid a full year’s salary for not working, well, you know what they say: If it smells like buyout and quacks like a buyout…

Under the new leadership structure, the MTA stands to save upwards of $150,000 annually. While that figure is small beans compared to the billions the MTA needs for its various capital projects, Savage’s departure and the bus consolidation is another sign that Sander has a set plan in place for streamlining the MTA’s bureaucracy. Overly generous buyout or not, it’s tough to argue with that.

The MTA runs three different regional bus companies. NYC Transit Bus offers service in the five boroughs; Long Island Bus does exactly what you would expect; and MTA Bus runs the express bus routes formerly controlled by NY DOT and run by private companies. Up until this week, these three bus companies were run independent of each other with little intra-agency coordination. No wonder the MTA is a mess of bureaucracy.

Within the next 60 to 90 days, according to an MTA press release issued on Wednesday, the transportation authority will begin to overhaul and streamline their bus operations. Internally, this move is part of the MTA’s efforts at cutting down on its cumbersome bureaurcracy while at the same time improving service through cooperation and coordination.

The MTA’s release has more:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced plans to begin integrating the operations of its three bus companies to create the more seamless and efficient Regional Bus Operations. New York City Transit Bus, MTA Bus and Long Island Bus will each maintain its individual identity and funding, while a managerial restructuring will increase accountability and ensure consistency in serving the entire MTA region.

“By streamlining the management of our bus companies we will eliminate redundancies, improve efficiency and service, and save money,” said Elliot G. Sander, MTA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer. “This initiative builds on the early success of our subway general manager program, and we will continue to identify and implement ways to become more efficient and improve service for our customers. Unifying bus operations is also a big first step toward creating a truly regional transportation network and is a critical part of our institutional transformation agenda.”

Over the next few months, the MTA will focus on internal restructuring. The agency plans to, among other measures, implement an integrated bus command center that provides a single point of contact for emergencies. These measures will also help the agency prioritize many internal needs — such as emergency shuttle buses — as well.

While a bureaucratic restructuring is all well and good for those of us interesting in the behind-the-scenes minutiae of the MTA, these changes will also affect services levels for the better. According to the MTA, they agency will be able to better coordinate regional bus service. Resources will be centralized; schedules will be available in one place on the Internet, for example. And more importantly, this consolidation should allow for better and more comprehensive bus service throughout the region.

Now if only the city would really take the bull by the horns and implement a dedicated Bus Rapid Transit system. That will be the day to truly celebrate the city’s bus service.