BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[Transit Enthusiast]

31 minutes ago, Future ENY OP said:

In your wildest dreams.. MTA police is going to toss that to NYPD.

Unfortunately.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 hours ago, Transit Enthusiast said:

I see Archer Avenue (Eastbound) just became an impromptu bus parade! THAT busway is turning out pretty well.

However, MTA Police needs to be patrolling Jamaica Avenue (between Sutphin and 168th) for any busway violators.

That is outside of the purview of the  Police.

[Transit Enthusiast]

2 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

That is outside of the purview of the  Police.

NYPD (especially the Traffic Enforcement Division) needs to do their job, too, in busting anyone who travels more than a block on Jamaica/Archer Avenue.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

16 minutes ago, Transit Enthusiast said:

NYPD (especially the Traffic Enforcement Division) needs to do their job, too, in busting anyone who travels more than a block on Jamaica/Archer Avenue.

The trend for enforcement is cameras, be it on the actual buses or cameras installed along the bus lanes. Using the NYPD to chase people out of the bus lanes is an endless process. I had discussions with the DOT about it, as we discussed the Hylan Blvd bus lanes and the 5th Av bus lanes.

[Transit Enthusiast]

3 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The trend for enforcement is cameras, be it on the actual buses or cameras installed along the bus lanes. Using the NYPD to chase people out of the bus lanes is an endless process. I had discussions with the DOT about it, as we discussed the Hylan Blvd bus lanes and the 5th Av bus lanes.

Yes, I agree. 

[Transit Enthusiast]

Now about Archer Avenue (a block south), so far so good. The buses seem to be moving a lot faster now headed Eastbound. Also, the Q30/31 back on it's original Jamaica (Eastbound)/Archer (Westbound) route. However, the street I'm most concerned about is Hillside Avenue. With all car traffic being diverted off of Jamaica and Archer Avenues, Hillside Avenue is gonna be congested.

[Lawrence St]

Going back to the topic of the S40, when does it get crowded for people going to Amazon? I'm shocked regular riders who aren't going to Amazon haven't complained about the delays & over crowding.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Going back to the topic of the S40, when does it get crowded for people going to Amazon? I'm shocked regular riders who aren't going to Amazon haven't complained about the delays & over crowding.

Regularly. There are thousands of Amazon workers at that location, and many of them use the S40/S90. There are shifts there at various times of the day and night. Also, factor in seasonal workers when they ramp up hiring for the holidays.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[TomaszSBklyn]

18 hours ago, Calvin said:

The B6 could use artics but, the flaw is that the amount is at least doubled or tripled to what the B1 has. Out of all routes that UP has for local, the B6 is the heaviest and not liked by most ops there. 

The upside for Stengel with the 4700s though is they can shuffle the artics in-service in case the SBS units are out or so (vice-versa with the 4700s, SBS unit can cover the run)

 

The B6 buses are overcrowded and could use bigger vehicles. However, this may be difficult to implement, considering that the B6 runs through areas that are nightmare to drive through, even for for a driver of a compact car (e.g. Midwood section along Ave J and Brooklyn College). Places infamous not only for heavy traffic but for large number of double parked cars that, as I imagine, makes it very difficult to drive a large vehicle though. I can imagine driving an artic through these places will be exponentially harder.

Even now, at the B1 route where the UP artics are common, there is a stretch of route below the elevated D-Line running along the 86th Street between New Utrecht and Stilwell. In my humble opinion any BO who needs to drive an artic through this stretch should be paid double time while there. 

[TomaszSBklyn]

34 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The trend for enforcement is cameras, be it on the actual buses or cameras installed along the bus lanes. Using the NYPD to chase people out of the bus lanes is an endless process. I had discussions with the DOT about it, as we discussed the Hylan Blvd bus lanes and the 5th Av bus lanes.

While I am not a fan of those at all, perhaps it may be a good idea to implement drones to patrol bus lanes and bus stops. People park wherever they feel like and drive with total disregard to rules and safety and bus lanes and bus stops are no exceptions.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, TomaszSBklyn said:

While I am not a fan of those at all, perhaps it may be a good idea to implement drones to patrol bus lanes and bus stops. People park wherever they feel like and drive with total disregard to rules and safety and bus lanes and bus stops are no exceptions.

The problem is that enforcement has been lax. I was a fan of the Clear Curb program, which used NYPD Traffic cops to clear out bus lanes, bus stops and other areas. The DOT quietly discontinued the program, I suspect because they thought it was better to spend those monies elsewhere, so I asked them in a meeting when were discussing bus lanes what happened to that program and told them that I supported it, but by then it was a done deal. While they've been talking about camera installation, it's been a slow process and the abuse is so bad that bus stop after bus stop is clogged with illegal vehicles. Same story with bus lanes. The tickets don't go far enough.

Even when they were enforcing the bus stops and bus lanes with NYPD traffic cops, the abuse was so bad that I would just watch as I was walking to my office. On one block you had a guy writing a ticket and a few blocks down, there would be someone else blocking the bus lane.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, TomaszSBklyn said:

The B6 buses are overcrowded and could use bigger vehicles. However, this may be difficult to implement, considering that the B6 runs through areas that are nightmare to drive through, even for for a driver of a compact car (e.g. Midwood section along Ave J and Brooklyn College). Places infamous not only for heavy traffic but for large number of double parked cars that, as I imagine, makes it very difficult to drive a large vehicle though. I can imagine driving an artic through these places will be exponentially harder.

Even now, at the B1 route where the UP artics are common, there is a stretch of route below the elevated D-Line running along the 86th Street between New Utrecht and Stilwell. In my humble opinion any BO who needs to drive an artic through this stretch should be paid double time while there. 

Forget about that. Ulmer Park Depot is already packed enough. I don't know where they'd put artics at there.

[QM1to6Ave]

15 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The problem is that enforcement has been lax. I was a fan of the Clear Curb program, which used NYPD Traffic cops to clear out bus lanes, bus stops and other areas. The DOT quietly discontinued the program, I suspect because they thought it was better to spend those monies elsewhere, so I asked them in a meeting when were discussing bus lanes what happened to that program and told them that I supported it, but by then it was a done deal. While they've been talking about camera installation, it's been a slow process and the abuse is so bad that bus stop after bus stop is clogged with illegal vehicles. Same story with bus lanes. The tickets don't go far enough.

Even when they were enforcing the bus stops and bus lanes with NYPD traffic cops, the abuse was so bad that I would just watch as I was walking to my office. On one block you had a guy writing a ticket and a few blocks down, there would be someone else blocking the bus lane.

Yup, they can pay a few guys to monitor lots of cameras (poorly) instead of paying for salary and benefits for lots of traffic cops

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Yup, they can pay a few guys to monitor lots of cameras (poorly) instead of paying for salary and benefits for lots of traffic cops

The way that the cameras work is a picture is taken of the license plate and a ticket is sent in the mail to the violators. You catch more people this way and hope that the tickets deter people, but the problem is the monies for those tickets are not being collected, so there are no consequences to curb the abuse.

https://nypost.com/2021/10/13/nyc-owed-3-5-million-in-unpaid-traffic-tickets/

Edited November 2, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[4P3607]

There's an MCI on the Q38!!! I swear I just seen it travelling down 57 Ave toward Otis signed as Q38, although it wasn't on tracker and there was another regular C40 about 5m behind which was on tracker.

 

Of course, the phone I'm using decides to completely freeze when rushing to take a perfect shot. (Do phones that miss extremely rare shots deserve to be brutally beaten? I wish getting a new phone wasn't a consequence lol)

 

Perhaps someone can solve this, completely caught me off guard but this phone really had to violate like that. If I had to guess it was an OOS bus but why literally along the Q38 route signed as such? Not being on tracker is what has me thinking it wasn't real.

[SevenEleven]

22 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

Can Castleton even fit artics inside it?

 

22 hours ago, EastFlatbushLarry said:

highly unlikely. i mean, people thought artics at casey stengel & ulmer park wouldn't work either, but imo i cannot see this. Yukon? possibly. in all honesty, i don't see ATU726 being even remotely receptive to artics in general. 

If artics come out here, they’re going to go to Charleston. Castle can house an artic but I don’t see it making it through all the shifting maneuvers that go down.

And with the way TA is tryna stiff us every other month, I’m surprised we even still show up to work. 

[SoSpectacular]

16 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Unless I was dreaming, i just saw an XN60 on the B68...🤨

It's happened before

[Lex]

I forgot that Spring Creek got Prevosts until I was on my way home from voting. (No, I didn't get a good look, as I was too far away.)

[Via Garibaldi 8]

16 hours ago, 4P3607 said:

There's an MCI on the Q38!!! I swear I just seen it travelling down 57 Ave toward Otis signed as Q38, although it wasn't on tracker and there was another regular C40 about 5m behind which was on tracker.

 

Of course, the phone I'm using decides to completely freeze when rushing to take a perfect shot. (Do phones that miss extremely rare shots deserve to be brutally beaten? I wish getting a new phone wasn't a consequence lol)

 

Perhaps someone can solve this, completely caught me off guard but this phone really had to violate like that. If I had to guess it was an OOS bus but why literally along the Q38 route signed as such? Not being on tracker is what has me thinking it wasn't real.

There was a guy that drove the X27, X28, X37 or X38 that put up the Bx13 Yankee Stadium sign all the time but he wasn't in service. He'd drive down to 23rd St and wait there.  Could've been one of those situations.

[QM1to6Ave]

14 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There was a guy that drove the X27, X28, X37 or X38 that put up the Bx13 Yankee Stadium sign all the time but he wasn't in service. He'd drive down to 23rd St and wait there.  Could've been one of those situations.

I've seen that a few times right around 23rd street! I think someone posted here that that particular situation is a glitch, where the B/O signed it up for "Not In Service" but it shows up incorrectly on some EXP buses, if I remember correctly.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I've seen that a few times right around 23rd street! I think someone posted here that that particular situation is a glitch, where the B/O signed it up for "Not In Service" but it shows up incorrectly on some EXP buses, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, but the one I'm talking about is not a glitch. That guy signs up like that probably because he's a Yankee fan.

[aemoreira81]

On 11/1/2021 at 1:37 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The other issue people don't seem to realize is how overcrowded Castleton and Yukon were in the past. All of the space at Charleston Depot was accounted for before that depot even opened, and Meredith isn't even a real depot. When I lived on the island, years ago, they talked about having another depot come on line to allow for more service. That hasn't happened and quite frankly, it probably should.

On that issue, is there any space in the Bloomfield area where a new depot could be sited, or maybe where Meredith could be expanded to be a full-fledged depot? That is, is the north side opposite West Shore Plaza accounted for in terms of development, or could the MTA plan for that spot to be a depot? Or could a deal be made with Island Auto Group to purchase part of the lot they use for vehicle storage to expand Meredith Depot to give it a full-fledged maintenance building with 9-10 bays?

Also, regarding traffic to Matrix Park, where does that traffic originate between the ferry and Bloomfield? Could a different route be done, such as an S62 SBS, running via the S62 line to Travis Avenue, but then serving The Teleport and Matrix Park?

Edited November 2, 2021 by aemoreira81

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, aemoreira81 said:

On that issue, is there any space in the Bloomfield area where a new depot could be sited, or maybe where Meredith could be expanded to be a full-fledged depot? That is, is the north side opposite West Shore Plaza accounted for in terms of development, or could the MTA plan for that spot to be a depot? Or could a deal be made with Island Auto Group to purchase part of the lot they use for vehicle storage to expand Meredith Depot to give it a full-fledged maintenance building with 9-10 bays?

Also, regarding traffic to Matrix Park, where does that traffic originate between the ferry and Bloomfield? Could a different route be done, such as an S62 SBS, running via the S62 line to Travis Avenue, but then serving The Teleport and Matrix Park?

Years ago after Charleston opened, electeds on Staten Island claimed they located land for another depot, but nothing has become of that.

[trainfan22]

If anybody wants go the Rockaways while this midday G.O is effect, don't. Transit wise the Rockaways is a disaster with infrequent shuttle buses and Q22's packed to capacity. A weekday shuttle bus G.O + driver shortage = infrequent shuttle buses.

 

 

[NBTA]

3 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

If anybody wants go the Rockaways while this midday G.O is effect, don't. Transit wise the Rockaways is a disaster with infrequent shuttle buses and Q22's packed to capacity. A weekday shuttle bus G.O + driver shortage = infrequent shuttle buses.

 

 

So basically, take the Q52/53, 113/114 and the 35? Got you.