BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[Lex]

11 hours ago, Deucey said:

And the VP-elect dropped out before the first primaries and caucuses...

Because she was losing favor and money well before Iowa.

[checkmatechamp13]

25 minutes ago, B35 via Church said:

Alright, what is that orange icon supposed to denote? A bus that's supposed to be at that location (which is this case, is a NB B41 at Flatlands)? Like, wtf is "estimated" supposed to mean here....

* Just looked at bustime right before I clicked the 'submit reply' button to this post... Right now, that orange icon in question is at the junction.

I think it means that somehow they verified that the bus left the depot, but the transponder is broken so they're assuming where it is based on its scheduled run.

[Trainmaster5]

2 hours ago, Deucey said:

Yes he would. Just like Obama did. Just like Clinton did (with Cuomo as assistant HUD secretary then as HUD secretary as a 'thank you' for Mario Cuomo not getting on the plane to New Hampshire to register and run in '92).

Just like Trump and Bush and Bush and Reagan did. Just like Prime Ministers and opposition leaders in parliamentary systems do.

Do you really expect Biden to reward "progressives" for calling him all types of insults just because for once they showed up to stop a shit show from continuing?

Which other two of these red States that aren't Arizona and Georgia do you think would've flipped by convincing a conservative majority population to vote for a progressive:

Especially with a record turnout of voters that gave Donald Trump 12 million more votes than he had in 2016, and Biden 19 million more votes than Hillary Clinton. And why would you think that Biden getting the most votes in history was a missed opportunity for progressivism and not a repudiation of Trump - especially since Democrat incumbents in toss-up/marginal districts lost to Trump-aligned Republicans?

You're sounding as delusional as Trump & Co claiming he won the election despite all the evidence and legal proceedings.

I agree. That's what Kamala Harris and AOC will be doing.

But while you're rightly tripping over weak ass Schumer (in a 50/50 Senate, he'll be Majority Leader, but because Kamala will be the tiebreaker, like with Dick Cheney and Trent Lott she'll have the megaphone), and split-decision over Pelosi, what AOC & them really should be doing is fighting to get the whip positions so they can keep the rank and file in line.

But that's not something you thought of.

Instead you're upset that the TranspoSec designate "doesn't have experience in transportation" but ignore that one of the few areas he wasn't pissing Dem constituents off in - after his redevelopment and police chief firing were shown to be racially insensitive - was his Safe Streets program doing traffic calming and bike lane expansions in South Bend - which are Democrat and Progressive priorities...

It's patronage, yes, but Butti Butti Butti will be rocking everywhere in this because he's already done it at the mid-size city scale.

I consider myself somewhat progressive but I'm looking at this debate from a different perspective. Many people have framed the argument with changed parameters over the last 40 years. FDR vs. Reagan.  The one track Republicans are united to a degree while Democrats fight amongst themselves and shoot each other instead of the other party. Except for party labels and a few decades Nixon,  Bill and Hillary Clinton,  Prince Andrew,  and Barack and Biden could have all been considered mainstream Republicans or Democrats pre 1980. I happen to like Bernie and Elizabeth and I think that AOC is going to have a lot to say in the future.  BUT.... I think that folks like Obama hit the nail on the head with his perspective. You've got to be a dumb SOB to either utter the words or espouse the slogan "defund the police". Talk about sabotaging your own candidates. Trump and the Republicans got a big boost from that although it wasn't enough for the Donald. Looked like something from the Roger Stone,  Roy Cohn playbook to me. This petty infighting cost the Democrats any chance of changing people's minds this election cycle.  I'm oversimplifying the argument to get to my point.  Just my opinion.  Carry on. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Trainmaster5
Additional content

[Lex]

3 minutes ago, Trainmaster5 said:

I consider myself somewhat progressive but I'm looking at this debate from a different perspective. Many people have framed the argument with changed parameters over the last 40 years. FDR vs. Reagan.  The one track Republicans are united to a degree while Democrats fight amongst themselves and shoot each other instead of the other party. Except for party labels and a few decades Nixon,  Bill and Hillary Clinton,  Prince Andrew,  and Barack could have all been considered mainstream Republicans or Democrats pre 1980. I happen to like Bernie and Elizabeth and I think that AOC is going to have a lot to say in the future.  BUT.... I think that folks like Obama hit the nail on the head with his perspective. You've got to be a dumb SOB to either utter the words or espouse the slogan "defund the police". Talk about sabotaging your own candidates. Trump and the Republicans got a big boost from that although it wasn't enough for the Donald. Looked like something from the Roger Stone,  Roy Cohn playbook to me. This petty infighting cost the Democrats lose any chance of changing people's minds this election cycle.  Just my opinion.  Carry on. 

Thing is, few actually ran on that, and to make matters worse for people like Obama and Biden, the Democrats who lost reelection were all of their ilk (not saying that all of those Democrats lost reelection, but of those who did, they were all more aligned with the Republicans than with progressives).

Honestly, Biden only stood a chance because Trump has no crisis management skills, which only became painfully obvious with COVID. He essentially ran on the same platform as Hillary in 2016 ("I'm not Trump"), and without the severe effects of the pandemic (either by Trump taking steps to actually address the problem or by the problem simply not existing), would've ended up in exactly the same position.

[MHV9218]

Yeah, as much as my personal politics are further left than most of the elected Democratic party, I'm with @Deucey on this – looking at the math, and looking at the consistent underperformance of downballot Dem candidates relative to Biden (i.e., when constituents voted for a candidate rather than voting against Trump), I cannot see any way that the further left flank of the party would have done that well. The only exception would be a broadly working-class platform, which is something Sanders/Warren gestured towards. We saw that even Trump strongholds like Florida voted for policies that are decidedly leftist in nature, like an increase in minimum wage. I happen to also agree with @Trainmaster5 that defund was a really bad slogan for all the ideas that it served to encompass. Nobody could agree on what it meant (did it mean abolish? did it mean reform?) and a number of good policies that should have been done anyway (removing police from mental health calls, for example) got caught in the mess. It was polarizing, and by the polling data it ended up more popular with white voters than black voters. There are many necessary, important ideas within that platform, but the noise of it and lack of clarity did a lot of damage to Democratic candidates across the board.

Fwiw, I've also never liked the decidedly conservative phrasing of the slogan. Republicans convinced the public that public services are either-or; you get school funding, or you get police. If we had a more progressive tax structure, we would, in fact, get both. The true change that decreases crime has nothing to do with police: it's about education, social services, youth employment programs, getting lead out of public housing, a whole bevy of things. I'm more interested in additive solutions. Police are the flawed (and, in my view, temporary) solution to the problem those many social ills have created. I've always been much more interested in tackling those real issues, which will eventually reduce the need for police in the first place.

By the way – best thing that the NYPD could do tomorrow? Fire the ~5% of officers responsible for a hugely disproportionate number of CCRB complaints. Yesterday. A huge number of cops have never had a substantiated complaint, whereas a small pocket commit offenses over and over again. And then they cost about $200-250mil a year in lawsuits to the city. Fire them. You could give all the rest of the cops a raise with the money saved from the lawsuits, for all I care. It's a simple solution with immediate moral and fiscal benefits.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

42 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

Yeah, as much as my personal politics are further left than most of the elected Democratic party, I'm with @Deucey on this – looking at the math, and looking at the consistent underperformance of downballot Dem candidates relative to Biden (i.e., when constituents voted for a candidate rather than voting against Trump), I cannot see any way that the further left flank of the party would have done that well. The only exception would be a broadly working-class platform, which is something Sanders/Warren gestured towards. We saw that even Trump strongholds like Florida voted for policies that are decidedly leftist in nature, like an increase in minimum wage. I happen to also agree with @Trainmaster5 that defund was a really bad slogan for all the ideas that it served to encompass. Nobody could agree on what it meant (did it mean abolish? did it mean reform?) and a number of good policies that should have been done anyway (removing police from mental health calls, for example) got caught in the mess. It was polarizing, and by the polling data it ended up more popular with white voters than black voters. There are many necessary, important ideas within that platform, but the noise of it and lack of clarity did a lot of damage to Democratic candidates across the board.

Fwiw, I've also never liked the decidedly conservative phrasing of the slogan. Republicans convinced the public that public services are either-or; you get school funding, or you get police. If we had a more progressive tax structure, we would, in fact, get both. The true change that decreases crime has nothing to do with police: it's about education, social services, youth employment programs, getting lead out of public housing, a whole bevy of things. I'm more interested in additive solutions. Police are the flawed (and, in my view, temporary) solution to the problem those many social ills have created. I've always been much more interested in tackling those real issues, which will eventually reduce the need for police in the first place.

By the way – best thing that the NYPD could do tomorrow? Fire the ~5% of officers responsible for a hugely disproportionate number of CCRB complaints. Yesterday. A huge number of cops have never had a substantiated complaint, whereas a small pocket commit offenses over and over again. And then they cost about $200-250mil a year in lawsuits to the city. Fire them. You could give all the rest of the cops a raise with the money saved from the lawsuits, for all I care. It's a simple solution with immediate moral and fiscal benefits.

I'm sorry but you are not changing people to believe in education in certain areas when they see that they can get everything they want the fast way. Look at these sports players. They are getting these ridiculous contracts. $200+ million for five years. Kids in the hood see this and they don't care about hitting the books. They want to be that next NBA player.

The other big issue in this country is generational wealth. Until that is fixed, I don't see much changing, regardless of party. This is going to be an interesting next four years. Obama had eight years and not much changed for those with less despite all the promises and great speeches - of course Obama made a lot of money over those eight years and afterwards too. No one says much about that though, so in short, having the "evil" Republicans out and the "good" Democrats in... I don't expect much to change except for taxes to go up. 

My taxes have gone up under just about every Democrat that's been in office. One reason I have stopped voting for them and switched from an Independent. I don't care much about social policies aside from things like law and order (this defund the police has been a disaster and law reform has also been a disaster for NY - too many people out that are repeat offenders for serious crimes). I care about my pockets, and the Democrats... Too much taxing and spending.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, Trainmaster5 said:

I consider myself somewhat progressive but I'm looking at this debate from a different perspective. Many people have framed the argument with changed parameters over the last 40 years. FDR vs. Reagan.  The one track Republicans are united to a degree while Democrats fight amongst themselves and shoot each other instead of the other party. Except for party labels and a few decades Nixon,  Bill and Hillary Clinton,  Prince Andrew,  and Barack and Biden could have all been considered mainstream Republicans or Democrats pre 1980. I happen to like Bernie and Elizabeth and I think that AOC is going to have a lot to say in the future.  BUT.... I think that folks like Obama hit the nail on the head with his perspective. You've got to be a dumb SOB to either utter the words or espouse the slogan "defund the police". Talk about sabotaging your own candidates. Trump and the Republicans got a big boost from that although it wasn't enough for the Donald. Looked like something from the Roger Stone,  Roy Cohn playbook to me. This petty infighting cost the Democrats any chance of changing people's minds this election cycle.  I'm oversimplifying the argument to get to my point.  Just my opinion.  Carry on. 

The Republicans have definitely changed over the years. I voted against Bush twice. I didn't care for his policies. I voted for Nader one year and a Libertarian another time. People focused so much on Trump but have not thought about why he got so many votes. What resonated with many people was he connected with middle class people who have been alienated by the Democrats. Forget about social policies. I know some people will say that's part of it and it is, but really just focus on JOBS and TAXES. The Democrats are out of control. Let's see what Biden does... He came in talking about raising taxes in the middle of a pandemic... Doesn't matter on who... That's not the first thing that should be focused on with millions of Americans suffering, but there he goes. It's sickening...

Edited December 17, 2020 by Via Garibaldi 8

[R10 2952]

Replies in red:

4 hours ago, Deucey said:

Yes he would. Just like Obama did. Just like Clinton did (with Cuomo as assistant HUD secretary then as HUD secretary as a 'thank you' for Mario Cuomo not getting on the plane to New Hampshire to register and run in '92).

Just like Trump and Bush and Bush and Reagan did. Just like Prime Ministers and opposition leaders in parliamentary systems do.

I disagree that Sanders would've resorted to the same level of horse-trading as those you mentioned above, but considering he never even made it to the finish line I guess it's pointless for me to speculate on that particular topic any further.

 

Do you really expect Biden to reward "progressives" for calling him all types of insults just because for once they showed up to stop a shit show from continuing?

I expect Biden to get it through his head that he won't win without them; people were told to vote for the 'lesser evil' in 2016- didn't really work out, did it? The danger in 2024 is the Republicans will probably run someone just as bad policy-wise as Trump, but smarter; I don't want the GOP to win in 4 years, and centrist wishy-washiness is not going to defeat them- having a spine like FDR and LBJ did will.

 

Which other two of these red States that aren't Arizona and Georgia do you think would've flipped by convincing a conservative majority population to vote for a progressive:

 

Maine, Iowa, North Carolina, off the top of my head.  The fact that they failed to oust Susan Collins, of all people, I'm going to let that speak for itself.

 

Especially with a record turnout of voters that gave Donald Trump 12 million more votes than he had in 2016, and Biden 19 million more votes than Hillary Clinton. And why would you think that Biden getting the most votes in history was a missed opportunity for progressivism and not a repudiation of Trump - especially since Democrat incumbents in toss-up/marginal districts lost to Trump-aligned Republicans?

You're sounding as delusional as Trump & Co claiming he won the election despite all the evidence and legal proceedings.

Sure, I sound just as delusional as the people who are advocating armed insurrection and sending death threats to poll workers...

 

I agree. That's what Kamala Harris and AOC will be doing.

Agreed on AOC, disagree on Harris.  Refusing to go after white-collar criminals like those at OneWest Bank while going full Robocop on blue-collar folks for three strikes or marijuana tells me all I need to know about Kamala's ideas of fairness.

  

But while you're rightly tripping over weak-ass Schumer (in a 50/50 Senate, he'll be Majority Leader, but because Kamala will be the tiebreaker, like with Dick Cheney and Trent Lott she'll have the megaphone), and split-decision over Pelosi, what AOC & them really should be doing is fighting to get the whip positions so they can keep the rank and file in line.

But that's not something you thought of.

Actually, it is something I've been thinking about, for years now actually.  Schumer's got to go, agreed, but he's just the tip of the iceberg.  Folks like Durbin, Feinstein and Kaine aren't exactly inspiring, either.  If AOC can oust Crowley, and Jamaal Bowman can oust Engel, then surely someone can step forward and oust at least some of the hacks in the Senate. 

As to the House, AOC's head is in the right place, for sure, but folks like Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn have got to go.  Looking forward to seeing more people like Cori Bush step up and challenge the status quo.

 

Instead you're upset that the TranspoSec designate "doesn't have experience in transportation" but ignore that one of the few areas he wasn't pissing Dem constituents off in - after his redevelopment and police chief firing were shown to be racially insensitive - was his Safe Streets program doing traffic calming and bike lane expansions in South Bend - which are Democrat and Progressive priorities...

It's patronage, yes, but Butti Butti Butti will be rocking everywhere in this because he's already done it at the mid-size city scale.

I'm saying they could have nominated someone competent directly from the field.  Someone like Andy Byford, Kevin Corbett, Richard Ravitch, David Gunn.  Compared to them, Buttigieg's nomination begs some questions.

 

[Deucey]

18 minutes ago, R10 2952 said:

I expect Biden to get it through his head that he won't win without them; people were told to vote for the 'lesser evil' in 2016- didn't really work out, did it? The danger in 2024 is the Republicans will probably run someone just as bad policy-wise as Trump, but smarter; I don't want the GOP to win in 4 years, and centrist wishy-washiness is not going to defeat them- having a spine like FDR and LBJ did will.

 

But he did. Record Black and Latino turnout won him the election - not ramen cafe and cereal bar visiting Williamsburg hipsters.

You really think we ran entire GOTV efforts beating the GOP by twisting their voter suppression rules/laws and we're expecting folks who didn't show up in '16 to show up in 2020?

Puhleeze.

Same reason we won't rely on them to show up in 2024 when another Nader or Jill Stein shows up to spoil the vote - we can do it with out the "principled progressives who'll talk ish about us everyday and then won't show up because we have the nerve to feel some type of way about them talking ish about us."

insert Obama gif here

18 minutes ago, R10 2952 said:

Maine, Iowa, North Carolina, off the top of my head.  The fact that they failed to oust Susan Collins, of all people, I'm going to let that speak for itself.

Maine - Collins won by 8%. The race wasn't close. Even if the two independent candidates votes went to Gideon Collins still won by 17k.

NC - Tillis won by 2%, and without the Libertarian candidate taking 171k votes that would've gone to Tillis, Cunningham still lost.

Iowa - Joni Ernst won by 6.6%. 

As I said, name two red states "you think would've flipped by convincing a conservative majority population to vote for a progressive" and you picked three lily white states that have long been happy with the status quo of conservatism - one of which successfully suppressed the Black and Latino vote. 

If "progressives" wanted a seat at the table, maybe they should've shown up and voted in NC. And that's why the party won't listen to them but listens to everyone else especially Black and Latina women - they show up EVERY TIME.

43 minutes ago, R10 2952 said:

Agreed on AOC, disagree on Harris.  Refusing to go after white-collar criminals like those at OneWest Bank while going full Robocop on blue-collar folks for three strikes or marijuana tells me all I need to know about Kamala's ideas of fairness.

So District Attorney Harris was supposed to not do the job according to California law and California Attorney General directives? And that most of those mandated marijuana convictions were required by state law and few went to jail?

Coolstorybro

[R10 2952]

20 minutes ago, Deucey said:

But he did. Record Black and Latino turnout won him the election - not ramen cafe and cereal bar visiting Williamsburg hipsters.

You really think we ran entire GOTV efforts beating the GOP by twisting their voter suppression rules/laws and we're expecting folks who didn't show up in '16 to show up in 2020?

Puhleeze.

Same reason we won't rely on them to show up in 2024 when another Nader or Jill Stein shows up to spoil the vote - we can do it with out the "principled progressives who'll talk ish about us everyday and then won't show up because we have the nerve to feel some type of way about them talking ish about us."

insert Obama gif here

Maine - Collins won by 8%. The race wasn't close. Even if the two independent candidates votes went to Gideon Collins still won by 17k.

NC - Tillis won by 2%, and without the Libertarian candidate taking 171k votes that would've gone to Tillis, Cunningham still lost.

Iowa - Joni Ernst won by 6.6%. 

As I said, name two red states "you think would've flipped by convincing a conservative majority population to vote for a progressive" and you picked three lily white states that have long been happy with the status quo of conservatism - one of which successfully suppressed the Black and Latino vote. 

If "progressives" wanted a seat at the table, maybe they should've shown up and voted in NC. And that's why the party won't listen to them but listens to everyone else especially Black and Latina women - they show up EVERY TIME.

So District Attorney Harris was supposed to not do the job according to California law and California Attorney General directives? And that most of those mandated marijuana convictions were required by state law and few went to jail?

Coolstorybro

Go ahead, blame the progressives for all the bad things that have happened.  I'm curious when corporate shills like Biden, Schumer and Pelosi will deliver much-needed solutions for ordinary working people in this country, things we needed 1, 2, 5, 10 years ago: where's single-payer healthcare, $15 federal minimum wage, affordable housing that goes beyond mere topical solutions, rewriting labor laws to strengthen the rights of employees? 

How long do we have to wait? 2050? 2100? The year 3000? At that point we'll all probably be living in shacks in the Rockies because global warming will flood everything else.

Look, we could argue back and forth about this for days, but instead here's some food for thought: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/democratic-party-blame-the-left-lackluster-election-results-down-ballot

So you know where I stand on the issues.

Edited December 17, 2020 by R10 2952

[NBTA]

10 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

When I'm not in NYC all these foam worthy snow swaps happens. Dammit.

 

 

Theres a freaking 3rd gen Orion on the M60...

There were two actually, one was constantly behind an XD40, changing his sign between NIS and M60 (I guess he didn't wanna be tracked by fans, respect), and there was 2 on the M14, one on the M42.

 

[Deucey]

1 hour ago, R10 2952 said:

Go ahead, blame the progressives for all the bad things that have happened. 

I didn't blame. I said "progressives" weren't as big a factor as they claim since the traditional Dem constituencies made this victory happen.

Huge difference, that.

[B35 via Church]

8 hours ago, R10 2952 said:

As to the House, AOC's head is in the right place, for sure...

If by that you mean up her ass, then sure.

I don't give a shit what beliefs she espouses, there is simply something quite.... off.... with that creature.

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

One of the Fresh Pond OG's (6836) is running on the M101 which is interesting.

I didn't post this on the transfers forum because its not a move.

[QM1to6Ave]

16 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

 

Alright, what is that orange icon supposed to denote? A bus that's supposed to be at that location (which is this case, is a NB B41 at Flatlands)? Like, wtf is "estimated" supposed to mean here....

 

* Just looked at bustime right before I clicked the 'submit reply' button to this post... Right now, that orange icon in question is at the junction.

I was wondering the same thing...feels like the Bustime team is playing around with things. 

 

And how are the passenger counts being done? Its more specifc than the old ones where it showed a green bar to denote approximate ridership. 

[Calvin]

I heard that the XDE-60s are capable of running through the snow.  From the middle point of the bus, there is a drive axle, something that other artics do not have (or be installed). 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Calvin

[Mtatransit]

16 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

People focused so much on Trump but have not thought about why he got so many votes. What resonated with many people was he connected with middle class people who have been alienated by the Democrats. Forget about social policies. I know some people will say that's part of it and it is, but really just focus on JOBS and TAXES. The Democrats are out of control. Let's see what Biden does... He came in talking about raising taxes in the middle of a pandemic... Doesn't matter on who... That's not the first thing that should be focused on with millions of Americans suffering, but there he goes. It's sickening...

This is what really pissed me off about some of the Dems). They oversimplify the reason why people voted for Trump. No its not because they are racist or misinformed, its usually because of JOBS JOBS JOBS. NYC and California has a completely different priority than Michigan, WV, and Ohio. These states couldn't care less about the social issues. What they care about is JOBS and bring their cities economy back, yet for too long we let progressives run their mouths which makes the democrats look extremely out of touch and elitist.

If progressives want to keep pushing this country faster than it is comfortable moving, then the Dems will NEVER win the senate again, and may literally NEVER win the electoral college as well. 

 

[Iron Valiant]

A lot of politics here.

[MHV9218]

1 hour ago, Calvin said:

I heard that the XDE-60s are capable of running through the snow.  From the middle point of the bus, there is a drive axle, something that other artics do not have (or be installed). 

This would explain why they've kept the XE60s out there on the M14 (and without chains). On the other hand, they took them all of the M60, so maybe they weren't that confident.

[Cait Sith]

33 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

This would explain why they've kept the XE60s out there on the M14 (and without chains). On the other hand, they took them all of the M60, so maybe they weren't that confident.

Regardless of the drive axle, they would get stuck uphill, and the climb on the Queens Side of the Triborough is killer.

[Deucey]

1 hour ago, Mtatransit said:

No its not because they are racist or misinformed, its usually because of JOBS JOBS JOBS. NYC and California has a completely different priority than Michigan, WV, and Ohio. These states couldn't care less about the social issues.

Lest we forget, until black women in Alabama showed up in 2018, these “JOBS JOBS JOBS” folks were set to elect a judge with multiple accusations and proof of attempting statutory rape as Senator because in his courthouse he posted a monument to the Ten Commandments.

And those same folks showed up to protest the first Black POTUS with nooses on their protest signs.

And despite all evidence that child sexual abuse happens most often by a child being victimized by a male relative, they used that crime as reason to deny trans people using public restrooms matching their current gender.

They care about social issues - it’s just they want to stop them from making their prejudices shunnable and irrelevant. It’s got nothing to do with reopening coal mines when industry that would use coal moved on to other options to stop having to pay into the Black Lung Fund.

[OrionVIIonM79]

GUYS I JUST SAW A 2008 ORION ON THE M72, #4136

[MHV9218]

I'd say this was one of the more interesting snow loan years in recent memory. To me one of the best was probably 2015, which was the first time SI got pulled to cover runs, and the S79 SBS fleet came up to Tuskegee to cover everything in full SBS colors. Quill pitched in too with RTSes on the 101-103, which was great. All those 40-footers and they still had a bus get stuck on the 103rd St. hill and screw the whole line up. The later years when we got the TwinVision RTSes on the M14 were great too, since some of those buses still had 1999-era codes for the M14 via AV A (and probably had the M14 via AV C in there too, but nobody tried it).

I still remember when this business of getting 40-footers from the boroughs started, which was after the 2010 blizzard. It was pure carnage out there – D60s jackknifed everywhere, and maybe 35 buses stuck on 5th Ave from 8th St. on up. Nothing had chains on, and all the artics stayed out. That was the end of that...lot of heat from the MTA brass after that. 

1 minute ago, OrionVIIonM79 said:

GUYS I JUST SAW A 2008 ORION ON THE M72, #4136

Welp, some dispatcher's gonna get in trouble for that one...transverse you can get by for deadheading, but never supposed to go out in service.

Edited December 17, 2020 by MHV9218

[OrionVIIonM79]

2 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

I'd say this was one of the more interesting snow loan years in recent memory. To me one of the best was probably 2015, which was the first time SI got pulled to cover runs, and the S79 SBS fleet came up to Tuskegee to cover everything in full SBS colors. Quill pitched in too with RTSes on the 101-103, which was great. All those 40-footers and they still had a bus get stuck on the 103rd St. hill and screw the whole line up. The later years when we got the TwinVision RTSes on the M14 were great too, since some of those buses still had 1999-era codes for the M14 via AV A (and probably had the M14 via AV C in there too, but nobody tried it).

I still remember when this business of getting 40-footers from the boroughs started, which was after the 2010 blizzard. It was pure carnage out there – D60s jackknifed everywhere, and maybe 35 buses stuck on 5th Ave from 8th St. on up. Nothing had chains on, and all the artics stayed out. That was the end of that...lot of heat from the MTA brass after that. 

Welp, some dispatcher's gonna get in trouble for that one...transverse you can get by for deadheading, but never supposed to go out in service.

 I wish I took a picture... probably the last time that is happening. But I was not fast enough.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

21 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

 

Alright, what is that orange icon supposed to denote? A bus that's supposed to be at that location (which is this case, is a NB B41 at Flatlands)? Like, wtf is "estimated" supposed to mean here....

 

* Just looked at bustime right before I clicked the 'submit reply' button to this post... Right now, that orange icon in question is at the junction.

 

21 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

I think it means that somehow they verified that the bus left the depot, but the transponder is broken so they're assuming where it is based on its scheduled run.

Yeah that's basically it. They use that when the GPS on the bus isn't transmitting properly. On some buses, there's a serious lag on the GPS updating its location. On BusTrek, these buses show up as "ghost" buses when they disappear. On BusTime, they would just disappear previously, or show the last time they updated in red once they went past say a minute without refreshing accordingly (usually update every 30-40 seconds on most buses).