BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

47 minutes ago, IAlam said:

A lot of CP buses began displaying the “fare required” signs again. I wonder if the garage is telling drivers to put that sign up again in the wake of fare beating crackdowns they’re doing on local buses. 

Seems to be a city-wide mandate as I saw several buses in The Bronx with the post covid fare required sign during the past week.

[Calvin]

Most of the Bx12-SBS buses I've seen have passengers surrounding the entire articulated bus. Although, a lot of them do crowd up the front door. When the doors close, the bus operator had to make an annoucement at stops like East Fordham Road and Webster Av to make room and not crowd up the boarding area. 

Also, at the Co-Op City Loop, during school hours, the Bx23/25/30/38 do have heavy traffic between Asch and Dresier Loop due to dismissal of students of P.S.178 that there's almost 40-50 school buses in total. 

Edited yesterday at 12:38 AM by Calvin

[MHV9218]

2 hours ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

Seems to be a city-wide mandate as I saw several buses in The Bronx with the post covid fare required sign during the past week.

Was noticing that too, thought it was just some prehistoric codes on JG buses. Interesting.

[B35 via Church]

On 9/15/2024 at 10:56 AM, Robert Spire said:

A journalist on Twitter once said the MTA likely has a lower favorability rating than Hamas.
 

Even if people use public transit and say they are satisfied with it in surveys, they are not enthusiastic about using it. Most people on subways other than railfans and most people on buses other than busfans would rather be in a car, whether their own or a Uber or Lyft. There is this part of me that thinks that rideshare cars and citibike are the young urban professionals version of express buses. 

That journalist is right.... I'd go as far as to say a significant enough a chunk of the MTA's own workforce (specifically, the blue collar guys) aren't all too big on the agency, outside of getting a check every pay period....

As for the yup's, one thing I will say that the yuppie's of today are far more willing to consider taking public transit, compared to the yuppies of yesteryear.... With that said, I wouldn't say the rideshare & bikeshare services are their version of express buses, per se... I'd say it's a microcosm of their culture!

On 9/15/2024 at 4:25 PM, JAzumah said:

Intelligent people have ALWAYS worked at the MTA. Sometimes, people listen to them, but most of the time, they are ignored until it hits the fan.

...and then thrown to the curb to get picked up by some other public transit agency.

On 9/15/2024 at 4:38 PM, Robert Spire said:

It is the MTA’s corporate culture that is the problem. It was the problem back then and it has become even more acute now. Honestly the only antidote to that is competition that kicks the MTA’s behinds (another thing I miss about the private lines, that there was some level of competition to the MTA, one theory I have is if the private lines operated most routes in Manhattan up until the 2000s, the NYCDOT system would have survived). 

Yeah, for a transit agency, the MTA is way too bureaucratic.... The difference in attitudes in the b/o's for instance, IMO/AFAIC, was like night & day before & after the PBL takeover... I've experienced something similar take place when a company I used to work for, got bought out by one of the richest men in the world.... Workplace pride & exuberance turned into stressfulness & irritability overnight.... Place still exists almost 20 years later, but glad I GTFO not too long after that buyout took place... 100% sure I wouldn't be making near as much as I currently do....

On 9/16/2024 at 8:11 AM, JAzumah said:

That is correct. However, this idea that "someone else" should pay for it leads to a culture of non-ownership. If you don't own things, then you don't care about them. The rich do not pay for what they don't control. They are more than happy to pay for everything if they can control it all. That was called feudalism in the past. The Broncs (now the Bronx) was an actual family if I remember correctly.

I'm never going to hold consumers accountable for producer incompetence.... This adversarial relationship b/w the MTA (brass) & the riding public didn't emanate from the riding public.... This is all on the MTA to fix, but I won't hold my breath, as they long have & continue to exude this palpable disposition of being too big to fail.... People tend to not take too kindly on being treated like meager meaningless numbers (stats), and/or otherwise feeling like they don't matter...

On 9/16/2024 at 3:10 PM, Robert Spire said:

I can see 15-20 minute coverage headways and bikes being encouraged as something that goes on in the outer boroughs. Manhattan wants their cake and eat it too, wait until MTA tries to redesign the Manhattan bus network. Believe me, if Manhattan private bus service survived into the 2000s or got folded into MTA Bus Company around the same time the Queens privates did, Manhattan bus service would be A LOT more generous than it is and any cut would be a tooth and nail fight.

But the big power play on Uber and Lyft’s part would be to leverage their shared ride options to destroy the dollar van operators and destroy the MTA express buses and destroy the low ridership MTA local routes. I remember reading that Uber wanted to be public transportation.

At least in Brooklyn, few of them are still spread out along Utica & Flatbush, but the vans in general (well minibuses now) in-particular are dying a slow death.... Used to be a slew of them running along  either of those 2 corridors, now, not so much.... What's happening along Church av.  OTOH is something interesting.... Instead of the "typical" lincoln town cars acting as dollar cabs, there's a stark increase in random people using their personal vehicles acting as dollar cabs that are tapping into the "market"...

[JAzumah]

7 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

I'm never going to hold consumers accountable for producer incompetence.... This adversarial relationship b/w the MTA (brass) & the riding public didn't emanate from the riding public.... This is all on the MTA to fix, but I won't hold my breath, as they long have & continue to exude this palpable disposition of being too big to fail.... People tend to not take too kindly on being treated like meager meaningless numbers (stats), and/or otherwise feeling like they don't matter...

I am not one to let the MTA off the hook on anything. However, there is always this idea that the MTA can find money "somewhere else". Sometimes, it can. However, it can't do that all of the time. If people get used to not paying for something, then they won't value it. The fare evasion rate is almost 50% on buses. That is not sustainable.

[B35 via Church]

5 hours ago, JAzumah said:

I am not one to let the MTA off the hook on anything. However, there is always this idea that the MTA can find money "somewhere else". Sometimes, it can. However, it can't do that all of the time. If people get used to not paying for something, then they won't value it. The fare evasion rate is almost 50% on buses. That is not sustainable.

You're always going to have people that act as if money grows on trees, nobody's questioning that.... The farebeating culture that continues to persist though, is one of many symptoms of the lack of value people have for public transit in this city....

Regardless of the MTA not magically finding money or not, I'm not holding the riding public accountable for the MTA's disposition towards the riding public.

 

[Calvin]

When the 2018-19 XD-40s were first all completed back then (7484-7850), I wonder if West Farms was part of the order or that they are extra buses that's sent there. 

[NewFlyer 230]

2 hours ago, Calvin said:

When the 2018-19 XD-40s were first all completed back then (7484-7850), I wonder if West Farms was part of the order or that they are extra buses that's sent there. 

They temporarily received some buses from Jamaica due to a fleet shortage. 

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

3 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

They temporarily received some buses from Jamaica due to a fleet shortage. 

Mosf of the buses they got back in 2018 were meant for Jamaica, Ulmer Park, and ENY (while also getting a few buses that were already delivered to Fresh Pond and Quill) but were re-assigned to West Farms to deal with shortages at the time. Most of the buses were sent to Jamaica and ENY (plus 7738 to the Pond) during 2019 and 2020.