BusesStaten Island

BRT Battlegrounds: Hylan Boulevard

by Benjamin Kabak
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.

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Public Transit Policy

Musings on the traffic in New York City

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 7, 2011

A photo I took in March shows just how poorly maintained New York City's roads are. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Every now and then, I’ll volunteer to help some friends move. I grew up driving in New York City and don’t find myself fazed by the traffic and manic drivers as out-of-towners often are. Still, driving around the city is no easy task, and yesterday, I saw first-hand just how bad conditions have become.

My route was a fairly straightforward one yesterday. We started in Park Slope, had to make a pick-up in Midtown Manhattan and then had to travel a few miles into Queens before circling back to Brooklyn. I was tasked with driving the U-Haul van, and while these Ford vehicles don’t have great shocks, we felt every single pothole around. On the BQE and at Tillary St., rutted roads create hazardous conditions; in Manhattan and on the side streets of Brooklyn, potholes are everywhere.

As I drove, I reflected on the state of the roads and how indicative they are of the general transportation policy in the city and state right now. At its most basic level, the purpose of a government is to fund, maintain and repair things we deem to be common goods. Because of free-rider problems, that has always included roads. After all, if my neighbors want to pay for road improvements, why should I contribute anything and not just free-ride onto their efforts?

Right now, though, the government seems to be failing at even simple road maintenance. At a time when municipality spending is tied up in health care and pension costs, the roads — that most basic element of government responsible — are falling apart. In New York City, at least, one might argue that the subways should replace roads because a much higher percentage of the city’s population rely on subways than rely on the road, but the point remains the same. The city and state cannot afford to fund the subways either. After driving around three boroughs today, I’m almost inclined to say that the subways are now in better shape than the roads, and that’s saying a lot.

But beyond the condition of the road, something else jumped out at me: From around 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a Monday, the roads were absolutely clogged with people. Our full route required three legs, none of them smoother than the other. We had to travel around 9 miles from Brooklyn to Midtown, and that took an hour. We had to go from Midtown into Queens, and that took an hour. We had to go from Queens to Brooklyn, and that took only around 40 minutes. That doesn’t count the time I spent circling blocks in Park Slope looking for a final parking spot.

Everywhere in Manhattan, the roads were crammed with cars. Across the Manhattan Bridge, up to Houston, west to Sixth Ave. and north, traffic was stop-and-go. I’d hate to have to make this ride at Midtown, and it’s no stretch to say that the subway would have been faster. The ride east out of Queens to the Ed Koch Bridge was just as bad. Wall-to-wall delivery vans and trucks, taxis and passenger cars mar the roads.

All of this brings me to a simple conclusion: For the sanity of its drivers, for the sake of its roads, for the quality of its air, for the ability to drive around the city when necessary, New York needs a congestion pricing plan. Had we needed to pay an additional fee to drive through Manhattan yesterday but with the promise of fewer cars on the road, I gladly would have made that trade-off. If I knew, trucks weren’t going to back up on Canal St. from one end of the island to the other, if I knew getting across 59th St. to the bridge would be a faster ride with fewer one-person cars hogging up precious space, I would pay.

Ultimately, maintaining control over the quality of the roads involves significant investments. The city has to keep the roads in good repair, but it also must figure out how to prioritize the use of those roads. Right now, things have run amok in New York City, and the inmates seem to control transportation policy. No one is winning that battle.

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Subway History

Video of the Day: Harry Nugent on the 1 train

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 6, 2011

On the same day I discussed intrusive MTA announcements, allow me to present Harry Nugent, one-time conductor on the 1 train.

Gothamist dug up this video over the weekend, and it provides an interesting counterpoint to the MTA’s automated announcements. They may be easier to hear, but there’s a certain charm to a conductor who’s willing to inject personality and information into the PA calls. It’s funny too how these complaints come full circle. We have automated announcements because the PA systems weren’t up to par, but now the PA systems with their pre-recorded messages are grating as well. You can’t win ’em all.

For more on Nugent, check out this 1993 article The Times ran to commemorate his retirement.

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AsidesMTA Technology

Cell phone signals as subway countdown clocks

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 6, 2011

A few months ago, I spoke with Alex Bell, an engineering student at Columbia and the brother of an old friend of mine, about his transit app. His idea was simple: crowdsource train locations through user-submitted messages. Unfortunately, the app never reached the critical mass of users it needed to br successful, but Bell isn’t giving up.

As The Times reports today, Bell has signed up with Densebrain, a mobile company that wants to use passive cell signals to triangulate train locations. With the approval of each user, Densebrain’s app reads when the cell signal is lost and notes when and where service is restored. For instance, if someone loses signal just south of 161st St. in the Bronx and resurfaces at Grand Central, the app knows that this user took a 4 train, and it can provide real-time info on that train’s location. With over 600,000 users of its free NYCMate subway map app, Densebrain thinks it has the user base to support such a project.

Of course, concerns over privacy remain to be tested. Will users consent to anonymous location tracking? And how will the app distinguish between different trains that run the same route? For now though, Densebrain’s plan is another in the effort to tell us just where our trains are and when, and that sounds promising to me. [New York Times]

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View from Underground

The Way We Ride: Noisily

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 6, 2011

The New York City Subways are not a quiet place. Noise filters into our rides from nearly every source. People lost in their music forget how loud their cheap headphones are; kids coming home from school laugh and joke with their friends; subway car brakes squeal; metal-on-metal sparks fly.

While the outside noise is impossible to contain, the MTA’s own announcements aren’t helping. The new countdown clocks make waiting for trains far less stressful but also far more bothersome. Every two minutes the loud pre-recorded announcements let us know that the next Brooklyn-bound 2 train is two minutes away while the next Bronx-bound train is 4 minutes away and over and over and over again.

The on-board announcements are even worse. We are bombarded with messages from the New York City Police Department that haven’t changed in nearly 10 years. We are told not to ride on the outside of the train. We are urged not to litter. But the worst, says Juliet Lapidos in this weekend’s Daily News, are those exhorting us to be patient when unavoidable delays arise. In fact, she absolutely hates it.

Nearly every day, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority asks me, quite insistently, to “please be patient.” On the F line, which I use to commute to work from Brooklyn, I’m often held up at Jay Street-MetroTech. There, a pre-recorded message explains that it’s necessary to wait for a connecting train: “please be patient.” At West Fourth Street, I’m told there’s been a signal malfunction in midtown: “please be patient.” Stalled at Second Avenue due to trouble with the closing doors: “please be patient.”

..Well, to those who run the sprawling MTA bureaucracy, I’ll say this: Thanks but no thanks. New York’s subway system is vast, constantly in operation and perennially underfunded. It serves some five million people every weekday. Delays are unavoidable. But just skip the “please be patient,” or the PBP. It’s presumptuous and condescending – and, most of all, counterproductive.

Anyone with a basic understanding of psychology knows that when you request patience, you draw attention to the passage of time. It’s comparable to that tired trick your uncle trots out at barbecues: “Don’t think of an elephant.” “Please be patient, you say? Come to think of it, I’m feeling pretty impatient. How long have I been on this train, anyway?” The more they ask, the worse it gets.

According to Lapidos, the MTA says the messages were “introduced to soften messages that contain useful yet unwelcome information.” They were not tested on a focus group though who could have noticed how annoying they are. The messages, Lapidos writes, “irritate and inflame. She says, “The worst is when a computerized message delivers the message – which is becoming increasingly common as the system automates many of its operations. The computerized voice is annoyingly unflappable; it most assuredly does not feel my pain.”

Of all of the complaints about customer relations underground, I find Lapidos’ gripe to be spot-on. These prerecorded messages do nothing to inform straphangers of the cause of the delay or the amount of time the train will be waiting. On the B train every morning, the conductor asks us to be patient before we cross the Manhattan Bridge, and the delay is inevitable five or ten seconds longer than the announcement. In that case, the announcement simply draws attention to a delay that isn’t.

So what’s the solution? Lapidos offers a great one: “The MTA would do well to give its riders more and more useful data. Tell us about how long we should expect to wait…Announcing that the connecting train should arrive within two minutes, or that the signal trouble should be cleared up within three, will go much further than a PBP in encouraging docile acceptance.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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Service Advisories

A weekend without interborough L service

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 3, 2011

It is a doozy of a weekend for folks who live along the Canarsie Line. Due to upgrades along the L, there is no service from 8th Ave. to Broadway Junction, and all of the Williamsburgians and Bushwickites are stuck with shuttle buses and alternate routes including weekend M service. On the bright, the new Court Square Station should come in handy this weekend.

As always, these come to me via New York City Transit and are subject to change without notice. Listen to on board announcements, check signs in your local station and be prepared for longer than usual rides this weekend. Subway Weekender has the map.


At all times beginning until June 2011, the Manhattan-bound platform at 238th Street will be closed for station component work. For Manhattan-bound service, customers should take the Bx9 bus or walk to the 242nd or 231st Street Station.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, there are no 1 trains between 14th Street and South Ferry due to Port Authority work at the WTC site and no 1 trains between 168th Street and 242nd Streets due to station component work between 242nd and Dyckman Streets. 2, 3 and A trains, free shuttle buses and the M3 bus provide alternate service.

Free shuttle buses replace 1 service at three locations:

  • Between Chambers Street and South Ferry
  • Between 168th Street and 191st Street (also the M3 bus)
  • Between 207th Street A station and 242nd Street 1 station

2 and 3 trains operate local in both directions between Chambers Street and 96th Street, 1 service runs express between 14th and 34th Streets.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, Brooklyn-bound 2 trains skip Bergen Street, Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway due to platform edge rehabilitation at Bergen Street and Franklin Avenue and cable installation at Franklin Avenue.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, June 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 5, Bronx-bound 2 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, Brooklyn-bound 3 trains skip Bergen Street, Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway due to platform edge rehabilitation at Bergen Street and Franklin Avenue and cable installation at Franklin Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, Brooklyn-bound 4 trains skip Bergen Street, Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway due to platform edge rehabilitation at Bergen Street and Franklin Avenue and cable installation at Franklin Avenue.


From 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday, June 4 and from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, June 5, Bronx-bound 5 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street. Note: During this time, trains run every 20 minutes between Dyre Avenue and Bowling Green.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, Manhattan-bound 6 trains skip Morrison Avenue-Soundview and Whitlock Avenue due to station rehabilitations at Elder and St. Lawrence Avenues.


From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, June 5, Manhattan-bound 7 trains skip 111th, 103rd, 90th, and 82nd Streets due to completion work on elevated structure.


During the overnight hours, from 11 p.m. Friday, June 3 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 4, from 11 p.m. Saturday, June 4 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, June 5, and from 11 p.m. Sunday, June 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, uptown A trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th, and 116th Streets due track work south of 110th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, uptown C trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th and 116th Streets due to track work south of 110th Street.


During the overnight hours, from 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 3 to 5 a.m. Saturday, June 4, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4 to 6 a.m. Sunday, June 5, and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, June 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, Manhattan-bound E trains skip 65th Street, Northern Blvd., 46th Street, Steinway Street and 36th Street due to track work north of 36th Street.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 6, there is no L trains service between 8th Avenue (Manhattan) and Broadway Junction (Brooklyn) due to CBTC track and signal work. The M train, M14 bus and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. Free shuttle buses operate in three section:

  • Between Broadway Junction and Myrtle-Wyckoff Aves.
  • Between Myrtle-Wyckoff Aves. and Lorimer Street (L)/Metropolitan Avenue (G)
  • Between Lorimer Street (L)/Metropolitan Avenue (G) and Marcy Avenue (J, M)

The M train is extended to 57th Street-6th Avenue. The M14 bus replaces L train service between 1st and 8th Avenues. Note: Manhattan-bound customers should transfer to the A or J at Broadway Junction or the M at Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues.


From 6 a.m. to midnight Saturday, June 4 and from 8 a.m. to midnight Sunday, June 5, M service is extended to 57th Street-6th Avenue due to work on the L line.


From 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, M trains skip Fresh Pond Road in both directions due to platform edge repairs. Customers should use the Forest Avenue station instead. There is a free bus connection to the Q58, B13 or B20.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, June 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 5, Brooklyn-bound N trains skip 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue and 39th Avenue due to structure painting.


From 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, N trains run local in Brooklyn between DeKalb Avenue and 59th Street in both directions due to structure painting.


From 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., Sunday, June 5, Brooklyn-bound R trains skip 65th Street, Northern Blvd, 46th Street, Steinway Street and 36th Street due to track work north of 36th Street.

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Queens

Months late, Court Square entrance finally opens

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 3, 2011

The new connection between the 7 and G at 23rd Street and Jackson Avenue opened this morning. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

With 7 trains clanking past on its elevated tracks, Transit officials and local politicians gathered in Long Island City this morning to celebrate a long-awaited station opening. Shortly after 10:30 a.m., state Assembly member Catherine Nolan cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of the Court Square Station and the new ADA-compliant and fully covered connection between the 7 and G trains. The long rumored dispute between Citi and the MTA has finally been resolved.

Noting that the connection should see 20,000 passengers per day who can now avoid an out-of-system transfer, Transit President Thomas Prendergast spoke of the ways in which the authority is connecting key station. “The creation of this complex will facilitate travel for customers heading to and from Queens and give choices in the case of a disruption on any of the lines,” he said. “This is very similar to our project in Downtown Brooklyn, where we linked two stations, Jay Street and Lawrence Street into the Jay Street-MetroTech complex and improved travel options for thousands of subway riders from day one. There is also a project underway to provide a free transfer between the Sixth Avenue Line to the uptown 6 at the Broadway-Lafayette and Bleecker Street stations.”

A glimpse down the walkway connecting the G platform to the elevated 7 tracks. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

The new transfer area features a variety of upgrades for customers. There are two protected escalators, three elevators and a new staircase and passageway. The entire station complex has also been renamed as Court Square.

Overall, the project cost a total of $47.6 million, and Transit picked up $13.9 million, most of which went toward ADA compliancy. Later this month, the TA will award a contract that will overhaul the 7 platform as well. That work will include full platform replacement, new windscreens and ADA-compliant boarding areas. For now, the saga of Court Square has come to an end, then, many months later than it should have.

After the jump, a full slideshow of photos from the ribbon-cutting.

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AsidesPANYNJ

Crain’s: Ward’s PA job is safe

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 3, 2011

It appears that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going to keep Christopher Ward in charge of the Port Authority after all. Despite a report yesterday of a chilly relationship between the new New York executive and the well-regarded head of the Port Authority, Crain’s Insider says today that Ward will remain atop the PA for now. Says Crain’s, “Foes of Ward in New Jersey are believed to have planted the rumor.” The governor, meanwhile, issued a perfunctory statement in support of the executive director: “There are no plans to replace Chris Ward at this time.”

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ARC Tunnel

The rising costs of disputing ARC dollars

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 3, 2011

The fight for ARC dollars has long outlasted the project.

It’s been nearly nine months since the ARC Tunnel met its untimely demise, and still New Jersey and the Feds are fighting over the money. Gov. Chris Christie wants to keep the earmarked dollars and apply them to the state’s other underfunded transportation projects while the Feds, unhappy that the Garden State unilaterally pulled the plug on the largest public works project in the country, just want the dollars back.

The legal fight, which isn’t over yet, is starting to cost the state, and while the numbers are ticking ever upward, there is a rationale behind the battle. In a fairly nuanced piece from The Star-Ledger, Salvador Rizzo looks at the economics behind the legal challenges. Of the costs, he writes:

Gov. Chris Christie’s fight with the federal government over abandoning a train tunnel under the Hudson has already cost New Jerseyans more than $1 million in legal fees and interest, records show.

For a month, Christie has been vowing to appeal a decision from the Obama administration ordering the state to repay $271 million for abruptly pulling out of what was the largest public works project in the country.

In the meantime, interest on New Jersey’s debt is adding up at the rate of $225,000 a month. In addition, bills from Patton Boggs, the Washington law firm hired by Christie in December to fight his battle, have averaged another $300,000 a month, invoices obtained by The Star-Ledger show. The interest on the $271 million, which began accruing on April 29, could be frozen by a federal judge once an appeal is filed, but neither the governor nor Patton Boggs has said when the case will be brought to court.

New Jersey’s transit advocates aren’t quite sure what to say about the expenses and mounting interest. “Christie is not arguing about dollars and cents. He’s saying they don’t owe anything, and he’s on unsound ground,” ARC advocate Martin Robins said. “I suggest we should be talking in terms of collaboration and reduction in the debt that he owes and that he caused by the stomping of this project.”

Yet, even if there’s a small chance — say ten percent — that New Jersey could keep the money, it’s a fight worth pursuing for some time. As with the MTA’s dispute over the TWU raises, if New Jersey believes it has a fighting chance, it could spend dollars on lawyers up to the point of recovery. So if there’s a 10 percent chance of keeping the entire $271 million, legal economics would dictate expenses of $27.1 million.

In fact, some advocates think the state may be able to keep some of the money. As the former head of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said to The Star-Ledger, attorneys from Patton Boggs are making “some persuasive arguments.” Some — but not all — of the stimulus money going into the tunnel project had been awarded before the ARC-specific grants were signed, and Christie might be able to keep those funds.

Ultimately, though, this still feels like wrangling over a missed opportunity, and as one former Port Authority official said, Christie was awfully quick to cut bait. “Only the governor felt that the entire burden would have fallen on the state of New Jersey,” David Widawsky, the PA’s one-time lead on the ARC Tunnel, said. “Over the course of the many years of construction ahead, these kinds of things could have been worked out.”

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AsidesSEPTA

Dispatches from Philly: SEPTA bus tracking goes live

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 2, 2011

While folks within the MTA are working off of the B63 pilot to deliver real-time bus tracking to Staten Island (and eventually, the entire city), Philadelphia has, after ten years of work, finally flipped the switch on its on GPS-based real-time bus tracker. The project — called TransitView — follows 116 bus routes, 3 trackless trolley and 8 trolley lines, and the data is updated every three minutes throughout the day. The service also includes SMS notifications for bus arrivals. For more information, check out Technically Philly and the TransitView website. It’s certainly fun to poke around on the live map as well.

Ideally by the end of this year, Staten Islanders will enjoy this feature, and the rest of the city’s buses will follow suit as well. It should help revolutionize bus travel within the city too. As buses become less reliable and more prone to delays, ridership has dropped over the past two years. If riders know when the bus is coming, how far away it is and how long their rides should take, they can better plan their bus trips. It’s all about customer convenience in an age of technology.

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