While this morning I praised COMMUTE’s Bus Rapid Transit plan for the way it connects the city’s boroughs, not everyone believes this to be the best plan. Regular SAS commenter and fellow blogger Cap’n Transit offered up his issues with the COMMUTE plan. In short, he doesn’t feel that the COMMUTE plan brings low-income residents who don’t have nearby subway access to their jobs. These routes, he writes, “don’t seem to go to very many obvious low-wage job centers.” It is a valid argument and one that bears further scrutiny as New York heads toward an age of BRT. [Cap’n Transit Rides Again]
COMMUTE’s BRT system would unite boroughs in ways the subway system cannot. (Source: COMMUTE’s proposed BRT route map PDF)
One of the great casualties of the congestion pricing failure was the $112 million earmarked for bus rapid transit implementation. While the city missed out on this significant federal contribution, NYC’s Department of Transportation has not allowed that to deter their BRT plans, and they’ve already made significant strides this year with more planned for the next few months.
While the city’s BRT goals are admirable, many transit advocates feel they do not go far enough in supplementing subway service and providing smoother interborough travel. Last week, Joan Byron , director of the Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative at the Pratt Center for Community Development, discussed the Pratt Center’s COMMUTE and their bus rapid transit proposal. It is a far-reaching one that would revolutionize travel through and among the five boroughs:.
Byron writes:
A small but growing number of transit advocates and riders who know what BRT is are clamoring for more routes. COMMUTE!…wants the BRT routes to cross bridges and connect the boroughs, making buses a more serious complement to the subway system.
The pilot program confined each route to its respective borough, so that the Rogers Avenue/Nostrand Avenue route in Brooklyn would serve a dense and underserved slice of East Flatbush, Crown Heights and Bushwick – but then dump passengers at Williamsburg Bridge plaza, presumably to elbow their way onto already full J, M and Z trains to get into Manhattan. Since the transportation department is already planning to put a dedicated bus lane on the Williamsburg Bridge, it would be logical to connect the Brooklyn BRT route to the also-planned First/Second Avenue BRT.
With both the one-time shot of federal funding and the projected $500 million per year in net revenues from congestion pricing off the table for the moment, BRT may be more important than ever … As the rail and subway projects envisioned in [the MTA Capital Plan] recede into the future, BRT makes more sense than ever. It will not prevent us from building light rail or subways in the future, but for now it makes intelligent use of the infrastructure we already have – our streets.
Byron’s plan is shown in the map above this post, and you can see a side-by-side comparison of COMMUTE’s plan and DOT’s proposals in this map.
My initial reaction to the Pratt plan was one of skepticism. Why would the city need BRT lines running on streets above — or, in some cases, below — preexisting subway lines? Couldn’t these BRT routes simply dump their passengers at subway terminals?
As Byron notes, however, BRT could accomplish the noble goal of reducing or, at least, avoiding further overcrowding on the subway. If BRT lines originating in areas of the city that are not subway-accessible were to transport riders to subway hubs, the trains would just be that much more crowded. But if the BRT lines provided one-seat rides from, say, Starrett City to the West Side, the subways wouldn’t see a marked increase in ridership. Meanwhile, the BRT routes would keep cars off the road and would hopefully alleviate congestion. Prioritizing signals would hopefully discourage drivers as well.
The city is, as we well know, at a crossroads in terms of its transportation policy. The MTA is trying to find billions of billions of dollars to get a capital plan off the ground, and the city is trying to figure out how to solve a congestion problem. COMMUTE’s ambitious plan would go alone way toward providing public transit to those under-served areas while relieving the city streets of traffic. Considering the low costs of implementation, it certainly deserves a good, hard look.
Manhattan’s 34th St. could be a harbinger of transit-related things to come.
In a few short weeks, New York City will mark a milestone. June 29th will witness the debut of the city’s first true foray into Bus Rapid Transit. This first experiment into a program that could revolution New York’s bus system is called Select Bus Service and will run along the Bx12 corridor from 207th Street in Manhattan down Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx.
While this Bronx-based project is a start, New York’s BRT efforts seemingly took a huge hit last week when congestion pricing failed. Over $112 million of the $354-million federal grant heading New York’s way had congestion pricing passed was earmarked for BRT implementation along various corridors in all five boroughs.
But the city is plowing ahead anyway with their BRT plans. They think they can finagle some other funds from the funds, and this week, NYC Transit President Howard Roberts and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik Kahn announced the next round of BRT plans. These plans are centered around a complete repurposing of 34th Street from river to river. Brad Aaron at Streetsblog has more:
DOT will repave and restripe for five lanes between Third and Ninth Avenues by the end of this year, with painted bus lanes on the north and south sides and three auto lanes in the center. Service hours will also be extended. Phase 2 calls for a 34th Street Transitway, closing the street to cars between Fifth and Sixth and installing pedestrian plazas. On either side of that block, there would be two lanes for cars heading in one direction — toward the rivers — while on the other half of the street, buses would have two extra-wide lanes separated from traffic. In other words, buses would constitute the only through traffic on 34th Street. According to Sadik-Khan, 34th Street BRT will eventually tie in to new East River ferry service (details to be announced next week)…
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has pledged a unit dedicated to bus lane enforcement, Sadik-Khan said. But she added that the city needs Albany to approve bus-mounted cameras as well. Though the program lost $112 million in funding with the defeat of congestion pricing, Sadik-Khan said the city has applied for federal funds to expedite BRT build-out. While the timetable for some projects is still undetermined, Bx12 Select Bus Service will launch in June as planned, and Phase 1 of 34th Street will be completed this year.
To view Sadik-Khan’s 34th Street presentation, check out this PDF presentation.
I am a big proponent of this plan on numerous levels. First, the city is not giving in to the anti-congestion pricing advocates. We may not have won that battle, but we can still win the war against unnecessary car traffic and congestion by making it tougher for cars to get around the city. Thirty-fourth street, one of Manhattan’s busiest thoroughfares with the Javits Center and Hudson Yards on one side and Herald Square in the middle, will be a great testing ground.
From a transit perspective, any effort the city and NYCT can make to beef up bus service is a welcome addition to the transportation landscape in New York. Buses right now are insanely efficient; the Straphangers, after all, hand out awards for the slowest buses. Once the city can begin to implement a true Bus Rapid Transit system, bus service can emerge as a real, viable alternate to people looking to cover long distances via public transit.
While car advocates will not like these developments, BRT along 34th St. alone has the potential to impact commutes for tens of thousands of people. Imagine what this city could look like with viable BRT service all over.
Call it No Public Transit Left Behind. After receiving grades for its subways and express buses, New York City Transit is now turning its attention toward the sluggish local bus service that dominates our roadways.
Beginning this morning, bus riders in Staten Island will have the opportunity to fill out rider report cards for their local buses. The program will eventually make its way to the other boroughs as well.
Similar to the subway report card process, riders will be asked to grade the buses along 19 different criteria and issue an overall grade. These topics are bus-specific, but upon a closer examination, I believe NYC Transit could eliminate most of the categories and still receive thorough evaluations. Take a look at the categories:
1 Reasonable wait times between buses
2 Seat availability
3 Smooth handling of buses
4 Clarity of bus destination sign
5 Current schedule information at bus stop
6 Bus operates according to schedule
7 Cleanliness of buses
8 Lack of graffiti on buses
9 Lack of scratchitti on buses
10 Courtesy of bus operators
11 Courtesy of bus dispatchers
12 Comfortable temperature in buses
13 Ease of paying your fare
14 Bus announcements routinely made
15 Bus announcements that are informative
16 Reliability of kneeling buses (front of bus)
17 Reliability of wheelchair lifts (rear of bus)
18 Bus personnel properly secure wheelchairs
19 Overall performance
A lot of these categories — wheelchair use especially — are redundant and obvious. In fact, I’d say these surveys are redundant and obvious. Ask any New Yorker to critique the bus system, and no one will be too concerned with scratchitti or graffiti. Rather, they will complain about slow speeds through the city streets and unreliable schedules. They will complain about bus bunching and gruff bus drivers. They’ll complain about inefficient boarding procedures and stops — particularly on north-south routes — that are just too close together.
Instead of investing time and energy into a rider report card program that is designed to cover hundreds of bus lines across five boroughs, the MTA could implement a few simple measures to speed up and improve bus service. They could work with DOT to figure out a dedicated bus lane system. They should implement pre-board fare processing. They should work to eliminate stops on avenues. Do buses really need to stop every two blocks? Every three or four blocks would be more than sufficient.
“This survey will measure your experience with our service and help us direct our resources to the areas where they are most needed,” NYC Transit President Howard Roberts said in an introductory letter to the surveys.
Your areas, Mr. Roberts, are right here, and these surveys will simply confirm this post. Mark my words: These rider report card results will not contain any surprises.
Last week’s rather pathetic snow storm was a bit of a challenge for the MTA. At first, buses couldn’t handle the wet roads, and after the rain came, the buses were over-equipped for city streets. Chris, the East Village Idiot, noticed a few buses still equipped with snow chains nearly a day after the snow had stopped falling. If the streets are torn up along your favorite bus route, now you’ll know why. [East Village Idiot]
In the midst of the first snow storm this winter, an anonymous transit rider writes in to Second Ave. Sagas:
Did you notice the performance of MTA buses during today’s snowstorm? It was an embarrassment. The relatively new flexible buses had chains on the rear tires, but the fronts of the buses aren’t heavy enough to get traction on the snow, so they jackknife very easily. On 3rd avenue between 91st and 92nd, four buses got stuck in the snow for over two hours, blocking the entire avenue to uptown traffic for two hours.
You’d think the MTA would be better prepared to cope with a few inches of snow.
Anyone surprised?
According to a story in the Daily News, if you’re driving a New York City Transit bus and you have to pee, you better hold it in. William Torres was driving an overtime shift along the shuttle bus route mirroring the G train this weekend when, at the end of one ride, he had to relieve himself. The supervisor warned him against it and then sent him home when Torres made the pit stop anyway. The MTA is now investigating why a supervisor would not let a driver use the facilities at some point during a nine-hour shift. [Daily News]
Here’s an idea that should have been left on the drawing board: Howard Roberts, president of New York City Transit, wants the city’s bus riders to fill out rider report cards as well. With over 200 bus lines servicing the city, this seems like a colossal waste of money and resources.
“We plan to begin distribution of our report cards to the bus system sometime in the spring,” Roberts said at last Thursday’s City Council hearing.
I can understand why the MTA may want to have report cards for the subway lines. As the City Council noted, it certainly looks good as a PR move, and it helps the MTA prioritize the perceived problems with the system. But do we really need to grade the bus lines?
In an effort to save the MTA time and money, let me help them out with the New York City bus system: The New York City buses aren’t very good because they’re not reliable. Since the city hasn’t figured out that dedicated bus lanes are the way to go, buses are subjected to the whims of traffic. Right off the bat — and this is the number-one problem — they don’t really stick to the schedules posted in stations.
Next, they stop way too frequently. I can understand the idea that buses should provide transport for those who may not be able to walk to the subway, but is it really necessary for some buses in Brooklyn to stop four times in seven blocks? Is it really necessary for the M104 to stop at 82nd, 84th, 86th, 88th, 91st and 93rd Sts.? Buses seem to take forever because they stop everywhere. The MTA should either implement more express bus services along every north-south avenue in Manhattan or cut out half of the bus stops.
Third, buses seem to bunch. Waiting ten minutes for a bus to arrive only to find two of them at once, as is common on Madison and Fifth Aves. where multiple bus routes roam the streets, is annoying and inefficient. Loading passengers on buses should be more efficient, and bus spacing should be better maintained.
Finally, the MetroCard readers on buses are pretty confusing. Many people, used to swiping in the subways, don’t know what to do when confronted with a bus reader, and their inability to follow directions slows up the loading process. With a pre-board payment set up and dedicated bus lanes, the MTA could avoid this problem. With contactless smart card technology, as the buses in Washington, D.C., use, paying and board is as easy as a wave of the hand.
So there you go. I guarantee that every bus rider report card will come out with similar complaints. Does the MTA really need to spend more cash on a program that will just return results that we all know already?
Brooklyn Junction notes that the MTA’s plans for Bus Rapid Transit lanes may be changing. Originally planned for the Nostrand Ave. corridor in Brooklyn, BRT may be off the table for now. According to the blog, at a recent community meeting, the Department of Transportation said that the project is on hold for Nostrand Ave., and earlier this week, the Tri-State Rapid Transportation campaign noted the same thing. I have no new information, but I will try to get to the bottom of it. New York badly needs their BRT service; I hope it’s moving forward. [Brooklyn Junction]
Do you long for the days when olde timey buses roamded the streets of Manhattan? Well, pine no longer for days of yore. Much like they’ve done with the nostalgia train, the MTA will roll out old buses for your enjoyment this month. Five of the MTA’s 19 historic buses will ride crosstown along M34, M42 and M50 routes during the weekday rush hour through Dec. 28. Catch ’em if you can. [MTA New York City Transit]