Second Ave. Sagas

Category: Buses

  • MTA vows to speed up bus service as M23 takes home a dubious award

    Oh, the New York City buses. They’re great for getting around the city unless you’re actually trying to get somewhere fast. Today, the Straphangers Campaign, the public transportation riders advocacy group, reinforced that age-old New York stereotype in awarding its annual Pokey and Schleppie Awards.

    This year, the M23 took home the Golden Snail, the award for the slowest local bus route in New York. The M23, according to Straphangers, averages about 4.0 miles per hour as clocked at noon on a weekday. That’s not much faster than walking, as the East Village Idiot pointed out when his M14 took home the Snail last year.

    New for 2007 is the Golden Schleppie award. This one goes to the least reliable bus as based on official transit stats and looks like a parade of elephants. The M1, one of the various buses that head up an down the East Side, took home the inaugural trophy. According to the Campaign, nearly one in three M1 buses have gaps in service or are off schedule.

    Of course, the M23 and M1 aren’t alone in providing painfully slow and staggered service. As the Straphangers Campaign noted, numerous crosstown buses in Manhattan seem to crawl across the city, and bus service overall in the city suffers from oppressive traffic numbers and few dedicated bus lanes.

    Now, after the Straphangers issued their findings today, the MTA reminded us of a few key initiatives aimed at speeding up bus service. Because bus service is so dependent on surface travel conditions, it’s tough for the MTA to push out 100 percent accurate schedules, but the Authority is trying to work with the Department of Transportation to make travel easier:

    NYC Transit is working closely with the NYC Department of Transportation to improve bus service for the city’s 2.5 million daily bus customers. The joint initiatives include signal light prioritization, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and the identification of traffic congestion “hot spots,” where effective strategies can be developed in cooperation with NYCDOT to increase the speed of bus service operating through those areas.

    I wrote about these BRT lanes in July, and my feelings still hold today. If the MTA is going to improve bus service through the use of BRT lanes in the city, they will have to ramp up traffic enforcement measures.

    How many times are buses delayed because cars are double-parking in bus stops or in the right line? How many cars have opted to ignore laws surrounding the new bicycle lanes popping up on streets across the city? The answers, in both cases, are too many to count.

    Buses equipped with the equivalent of red light cameras and more patrol cars looking out for BRT violations is a good place to start. But until buses are afforded the space on the road that they deserve, the Straphangers Campaign will continue to have Pokeys and Schleppies to dole out to motionless buses.

  • MTA goes greener with 850 new hybrid buses

    The MTA hopes to win a Nobel Prize for its efforts in combating greenhouse gas emissions. (Photo courtesy of flickr user mss2400)

    In the spring of 2004, around the time that the global warming/hybrid car craze really took off, for a class about automobiles, I wrote a paper proposing that taxi cabs in New York City should all be converted to hybrids. My argument focused around the economics of gasoline and cab drivers as well as the environmental impact this move would have on New York City.

    This was, by no stretch, a very creative argument. With so many cabs patrolling the streets of New York, it made sense to turn these polluting vehicles into greener hybrids. An abridged version of my essay ended up in my ultimately unsuccessful application for the New York City Urban Fellows program, and I like to joke today that my essay kicked off the currently ongoing effort to convert the taxi fleet into one of hybrids.

    This was my first real exposure to urban transportation politics, and two and a half years later, Second Ave. Sagas was born. Today, we revisit that original topic: hybrid automobiles. In this case, we’re talking about buses. The MTA announced this week plans to add 850 new hybrid electric buses to the fleet.

    “The MTA’s transportation network makes the entire region sustainable and we are committed to making the system itself a sustainable model,” Elliot “Lee” Sander, Executive Director & CEO of the MTA, said. “Along with the sustainable commission that we launched this fall, the continuing purchase of environmentally-friendly vehicles illustrates this commitment.”

    In effect, this new purchase is a contract extension of a 2005 deal between the MTA and Daimler AG. The original deal between the transportation authority and the German auto maker called for 500 buses, 284 of which were to go to MTA Bus and the other 216 to New York City Transit. The MTA picked up a 389-bus option on that contract and negotiated a 461-bus extension. No word if Daimler AG was insulted when the MTA wanted to add a World Series incentive to the contract.

    This new order allows for NYCT to take on most of the new buses. Of the 850, 105 of them will go to MTA Bus. The other 745 will end up in the hands of New York City Transit. According to the MTA, these buses will be employed to meet ridership and equipment demands brought about by Bus Rapid Transit lanes. Hallelujah.

    “The ability of being able to expand our fleet will help us to increase capacity as we look forward to the implementation of Bus Rapid Transit,” NYCT President Howard Roberts said.

    I, of course, love this idea. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the MTA is, by virtue of its public transportation mission, is a green organization looking to go greener. Its trains use energy-conserving breaks similar to those found in hybrid cars, and now the Authority is adding a whole fleet of green buses.

    I – and Al Gore – wholeheartedly support this move. More hybrids for everyone.

  • Welcome to the 21st Century, NYC buses

    No, that’s not a Wachovia ad; it’s a hyrbrid bus. (Photo by Librado Romero/The New York Times)

    The New York City buses are the under-appreciated and oft-maligned part of the City’s vibrant public transportation network. Some people swear by the bus system, especially those that run crosstown, while others bemoan the slower-than-walking speeds and unreliable service as evils of the bus system. Still others would like to see the MTA be more aggressive with the buses by working with the Department of Transportation to set up dedicated Bus Rapid Transit lanes.

    Love ’em or hate ’em, buses serve as a great complement to the subway system, and this morning, I’ve got two bus stories for you. Both of them involve technological upgrades to the bus system. We start with state-of-the-art hybrid automobile technology.

    Yesterday, William Neuman wrote about the new hybrid buses the MTA is testing. While the city already has hybrid buses — 600 hybrids out of a fleet of 4400 — that run, as hybrid cars do, with a mix of battery and diesel power. The new bus, a product of Design Line International, looks different than any current New York City bus and runs on 100 percent battery power. Take it away, Cityroom:

    The test bus is different in that it runs on battery power all the time. It has a diesel engine, but that is used only to charge the battery, although the bus also uses the brakes for that purpose. The diesel engine is different too. It is a turbine engine.

    Jerry Higgins, the director of new bus technology for New York City Transit, said the manufacturer predicts the bus will get about seven miles per gallon, which is about double the fuel efficiency of the transportation authority’s current hybrid bus fleet.

    Wow. I had no idea that hybrid buses got just 3.5 miles per gallon. I can only wonder what the 3800 non-hybrid buses are doing to our air, and I have to believe that those empty buses running late at night aren’t doing the environment any favors. For that reason alone, I’m in favor of a more fuel efficient bus, but this bus may just be a one-time test. According to the MTA, they will test this bus in various boroughs for two months before deciding whether or not to place an order.

    Meanwhile, as the MTA looks into technology that would improve our environment, they’re also gearing up to implement bus signs telling riders just how many more minutes they’ll have to wait for the next bus. While other countries have enjoyed this technology for years, the MTA hasn’t figured out how to implement GPS bus tracking yet. A recent report on WNYC talks about the ways in which the MTA is using GPS technology to keep bus schedule regular and let riders know how long they’ll have to wait.

    Beth Fertig, at our excellent public radio station, reports:

    So far, only 7 bus routes are taking part in the 7 million dollar pilot study – all in midtown and the Upper East Side. There are only 15 display signs in the bus shelters, not all of which are working. New York City Transit acknowledges there are still a few glitches. Officials wanted to experiment in the busiest parts of Manhattan because that’s where GPS encounters the most interference from tall buildings and the traffic is heaviest.

    If it all goes right, the MTA will expand this program to the rest of the city at a cost of $78 million. They will also attempt to integrate real-time bus information into their Website. But that just sounds like we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

    It’s hard to like these bus upgrades. For years, riders have bemoaned the lack of arrival information at bus shelters, and now we’re finally getting them. If the GPS timeframe is any indication, we should see those hybrid-turbine buses arrive at the same time as the Second Ave. subway.

  • Express buses don’t stop there. Ever.

    The MTA should have put their old bus fleets back in service last week.

    Yet another story on the MTA’s utter inability to coordinate communications during an emergency came my way this afternoon. This time, the Daily News reports on Express Bus drivers who didn’t stop at local stops during last Wednesday’s flood because no one at MTA headquarters told them to.

    What you hear now is the sound of millions of people smacking their foreheads at once. Pete Donohue has the gory details:

    Hundreds of empty MTA express buses didn’t stop to pick up subway riders stranded by Wednesday’s torrential rains because no one told bus drivers to alter their routes.

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s NYC Transit division has about 600 express coaches, and the MTA Bus Company, another division, has several hundred more. Combined, they could have moved thousands who were stranded by crippled subways and unable to board jam-packed local buses. But the MTA, which was caught offguard by the storm’s severity, didn’t issue an emergency directive for express bus drivers to make additional stops, even though the deluge crippled the entire underground system, union and transit officials said yesterday.

    Here we have yet another salvo in the call for the MTA to adopt a better communications system. For his part, MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander thinks he could have asked express bus drivers to change their routes. “I believe that I have the authority under an emergency situation to ask all employees to do different things than they normally would do,” Sander said. “It’s in their contract.”

    Coming not a moment too soon to the MTA: Common sense. I hope.

  • Probably, you should give up that handicap seat

    Giving up a seat is more than just a suggestion sometimes. (Photo by flickr user ggtavo.)

    So, you know those priority seats on the bus? Yeah, it’s probably a good idea to give them up. Or so one Queens passenger discovered on Friday.

    In a story The Post reported yesterday, a bus driver in Queens took exception to a young passenger who refused to give up his seat to another elderly rider. I’ll let the details tell the story:

    A Queens bus driver smashed a passenger over the head with a phone when he refused to give up his handicap seat to an elderly woman, police said yesterday.

    The bus driver, Larry Woods, 44, and the allegedly inconsiderate rider, Christian Custis, 22, were both arrested and charged with assault after a brawl erupted over the seat on the Q43 bus in Jamaica.

    Police said the fight began when Woods asked Custis to give up his seat to the frail woman with a cane who boarded at Hillside Avenue and 164th Street at 11:16 a.m. Friday. Things turned ugly when Custis, who is not disabled, refused to relinquish his spot, cops said. Woods then clobbered Custis in the head with the bus’ onboard phone as stunned passengers looked on, police said.

    There ain’t much left to say. If you are young and healthy, give up your seat to an elderly passenger. Otherwise, the driver will get all phone-wacky up on your head.

    This is why I love public transportation in New York City.

  • NYCT looking to improve bus rapid transit service

    Parts of the bus rapid transit plan shown here in Ecuador may soon come to New York. (Photo courtesy of Transportation Alternatives)

    Let’s leave the tunnels of the subway for a brief foray onto the busy, crowded streets of Manhattan. The straphangers among us used to the relatively high-speed subway service think of Manhattan’s intricate bus network with little more than disdain. The buses, maddeningly inefficient, combat gridlock, cab drivers, double parked cars and inept MetroCard users as they crawl through the City.

    But if all goes according to the MTA’s new plan, bus service in New York could rapidly improve. Bobby Cuza, NY1’s transit man on the street (and apparent NYC heartthrob, if you ask some of the right people), reports on a pilot program designed to improve bus transit that the City will implement with or without congestion pricing. While bus rapid-transit service has been a major selling point with the congestion fee plan, it’s a relief to see the MTA’s willingness to move forward with BRT plans while the fate of the congestion pricing is still up in the air.

    Cuza sat down with Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan to hear more about a plan already in place in many cities across the globe. He reported:

    Imagine how much faster buses could move without the long, slow procession of riders waiting to dip their MetroCards. On at least one bus route by this time next year, that’ll be a thing of the past with bus stops configured to allow riders to pay before they board …

    The city had originally planned to implement bus rapid transit along two routes by this fall. But they’re now going back and looking at ways to revamp the program using even more dramatic measures to increase bus speeds. One of those measures is signal prioritization, which uses technology to alter traffic lights.”When a bus hits an intersection, it gets a green light, when the rest of the traffic is given a red light. So it goes through an intersection first,” says Sadik-Khan.

    Since this plan would benefit mass transit in New York City, as you could guess, I’m all in favor of it. In terms of enforcement, the MTA and the city want to install license-plate cameras on the front of buses to capture the IDs of those who would dare to block the BRT lanes. While, as you can see from the photo above, other countries have used concrete barriers to protect BRT lanes, the NYC lanes would be painted a distinct color to warn drivers of their importance.

    Currently, the city plans to test these new measures along five routes, one per borough. The biggest beneficiaries would be the Manhattan routes up and down 1st and 2nd Aves. If BRT lanes were to speed up bus service along these traffic-choked streets, I think, it would work anywhere.

    So be prepared for a time in the not-too-distant future when you swipe your MetroCard while you wait for the bus. Be prepared for a time when buses get the right-of-way they deserve along the City streets. Be prepared for traffic enforcement in dedicated bus lanes, enforcement sorely missing now. Seeing as how Sadik-Kahn’s DOT gets things done quickly, there’s every reason to believe we will be seeing these BRT improvements soon.

    As Sadik-Kahn said to Cuza, “Every day, over two million New Yorkers are using the bus system, so we are trying to find ways to improve that service.”

  • MTA to bring smart cards to buses

    The WMATA in Washington, DC, never bothered with MetroCard technology. They went from fare cards straight to SmarTrip cards, an RFID-powered chip that allows for contactless payment. You don’t have wait to swipe the card.

    On buses, these SmarTrip cards are particularly useful because the technology allows for a one-touch fare pass-through. No more waiting for someone to figure out how to dip a MetroCard into the reader. (Hint: Follow the arrows, genius.)

    Well, the MTA is finally hopping on board the smart card technology train. After a successful pilot program on the Lexington Ave. line incorporating the Mastercard Blink technology, the Authority is ready to try out smart cards on buses. amNY has more:

    Rides would be automatically deducted from credit or debit cards, but MTA officials are still figuring out how to incorporate existing MetroCard features, such as monthly passes and transfers, onto the smart card…

    “It works on the Lexington line,” said MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin. “The purpose of the extension is to learn how it would work in a wider usage. There is still a lot to be learned.”

    No word yet on which buses are going to be adopted this technology first, but the more, the merrier, I say. There’s nothing quite so irritating waiting on line at a bus stop as someone attempts to put a MetroCard into the reader backwards and upside-down.

  • MTA, congestion tax encourages public transportation use during Earth Day weekend

    These hybrid-electric buses are designed to help the environment, two blocks at a time. (Photo Courtesy of NYSERDA.)

    So it’s Earth Day weekend. After a year of increased awareness about the environmental changes confronting our globe, this weekend marks a time of year where the MTA highlights its latest and greatest efforts at cutting gas consumption and pollutant emissions.

    Once upon time, Earth Day Weekend would be the only time of year when the MTA focused on its cutting-edge environmentally-friendly technology. But now, with Al Gore’s film and weird weather patterns all around us, more people are paying more attention to eco-friendly public transportation technology. Still, the MTA plans to pull out some stops this weekend during the EarthFair Outside festival.

    According to the press release, MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander will be on hand at Grand Central Terminal this afternoon at 12 noon to distribute free MetroCards and discuss the new buses — the hybrid-electric vehicle that roam the streets of New York.

    Meanwhile, the MTA is hard at work (rightfully) promoting themselves as an environmentally friendly transportation alternative. They toss out some interesting numbers: Every full subway car keeps 75 to 125 cars off the road; full buses keep about 40 cars off the road. Public transportation cuts fuel consumption by a whopping 1.33 billion gallons yearly.

    And here’s a kicker: Without the MTA’s services, 1.5 million more cars would enter Manhattan each day during rush hour, contributing to a whopping increase in pollution well above federal standards. Can you imagine that many more cars into the already crowded streets of the city? It would be a disaster of epic proportions.

    Which brings me to today’s other news: According to reports, Mayor Bloomberg’s much heralded PLANYC2030, a plan to build a sustainable New York City within the next 23 years, will include a call for congestion pricing for cars south of 86th Street in Manhattan.

    I love the idea of Congestion Taxes. The liberal environmentalist and pedestrian in me wants to see no cars other than essential vehicles in Manhattan. But I would settle for a tax where the money would go into providing better and more frequent subway service in a modernized system.

    SUBWAYBlogger does an excellent job dissecting the pros and cons of Congestion Pricing as it would affect us straphangers. And Streetsblog, the home of pro-pedestrian, anti-car sentiment on the Internet, tackles the fight that will erupt over this plan and notes how groups are already resorting to falsehoods about Congestion Taxes to battle the Mayor’s soon-to-be-announced plan.

  • In need of dough? How about delinquent bus fares?

    So the MTA may need some money for that whole Second Ave. subway thing. Maybe they should start enforcing bus fare collection.

    According to reports released on Monday, bus fare hopping is becoming a growing problem in the City. The Post tracked down some delinquent bus riders and interviewed their drivers on Monday.

    Grandparents, baby boomers and even mothers with carriages are becoming the city’s new scofflaws by using the rear exit doors on buses to get a free E-ZPass aboard. “It’s out of control!” said one 44-year-old Brooklyn driver who operates the B41 bus along Flatbush Avenue…

    The Post recently saw dozens of kid-toting, shopping-bag-carrying folks aggressively hopping onto crowded buses through rear doors at the busy Fordham Road and Webster Avenue stop – sometimes preventing passengers from getting off.

    One well-dressed, 57-year-old office worker and grandmother of two told The Post as she sneaked onto a bus that she does it because “everyone else is doing it.”

    So, grandma, if everyone jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do that, too?

    The MTA had little information about the problem because they can’t really track the fares they don’t collect. The NYPD is in the same boat. While the police have stopped over 205,000 turnstile jumpers since 2005, the Boys in Blue have ticketed a whopping 21 people for ducking out on their bus fare.

    According to Transit Spokesman Charles Seaton, fare-cheaters are common at busy stops and on the long accordion buses where the driver doesn’t have a very good view of the back door.

    While any effort to ticket fare-jumpers on the bus system would probably cost more to implement than it would draw in, it’s just not cool to avoid paying for the bus. So don’t do it. Pay up, man. The MTA, after all, needs that money to build a new subway line.

  • Bus schedules often wrong, Captain Obvious reports

    At every bus stop is a schedule, and people waiting for the buses in New York take that schedule to be the gospel truth. I don’t know why.

    It comes as no surprise then that the New York City Transit Riders Council has issued an indictment of the bus schedules. The buses, you see, don’t really run on time. From amNY:

    A survey by the New York City Transit Rider Council found buses are an average of 5 minutes and 15 seconds behind their published schedules.

    Many of the delays are caused by “bunching,” when one, two, or even three buses arrive at the same stop almost simultaneously, the survey concluded.

    The report was quick to blame conditions out of the hands of the MTA such as traffic, the weather and alien abduction. It’s certainly not the MTA’s fault that they publish schedules that do not reflect the reality of driving around New York City.

    The report also had a great stat about bus signs:

    The report also found that 5 percent of all bus destination signs had some sort of problem that “did not correctly reflect the route to be traveled.” Some buses displayed wrong signs, such as “Not in Service,” “Subway Shuttle” and even “Evacuation Center.”

    So the next time you see an M104 incorrectly labeled as an Evacuation Center bus, don’t worry; we’re not under attack.

    In other bus news, the MTA will roll out a new $7 million GPS tracking system on seven bus lines that will tell riders when the next bus will arrive at their station. This service will be available on the M15, M31, M35, M57, M66, M72 and M116 bus routes with plans in the works to expand it. Hopefully, this fancy system will be a little more accurate than the current schedules.