But it's July... we're only 1/2 way through the year. In your head, you're thinking of all the things in Queens that this applies to. Let me make it easy for you...
I live in Howard Beach. The Q11 runs by us and there are at least 3 stops I can think of off the top of my head that had bus shelters. The shelters were fine to begin with - save for the occasional punk or wayward car that would shatter at least one panel.... 
2 or 3 months ago I noticed that in their place were the newfangled bus stops... Basically the same thing as before... just new with some fancy new design that served really no purpose. Most still did not have seating (only the one by OLG church did). So whatever. I figured the MTA was installing new stops across NYC and wanted to re-do all of them or something... 
Fast forward to now....all the new bus stops that were actually in good condition - having been installed only a few months ago and nobody's broken them yet.... were removed this past week. Not just the bus stops (and the seats in the lone bus stop that had them).... But all the concrete around them busted out as well. Nothing but a big square dirt hole where the bus stop was as of yesterday morning.
I ran out after I got home from work last night and what were barren holes ... now have the shells of new bus stops. I see in the photos that there seems to be a lot of cable routing under the bus stop . Apparently they ripped out the new stops originally installed 2-3 months ago... to re-install with electricity.They raised my fare for this? WTF MTA?"
- anonymous
11 comments:
Awwww, I'm famous...
Shoulda gotten the darned pics of the other bus stops in progress but #1 who knew they were replacing the perfectly good old ones... #2 who knew those would be torn down too to be replaced by themselves? (And some of this new fangled electricity)
Thanks Crappy.
Also, correcting myself in the last paragraph....
2-3 weeks ago should have been 2-3 months ago.
Sorry - I furiously typed this in to Crappy among a million other things and I misspoke
-R
Have you ever waited for a bus in one of these new fangled bus shelters? OH MY GOD! They are oven like the way they radiate heat. It's more comfortable to stand outside of them than in them. I'm guessing that the contract for maintaining the old ones expired and these are the ones owned and maintained from the new company.
I corrected the mistake in the last paragraph.
That blank pane of glass, with the white background, you see is for rolling advertisements. Two rolling ads on each side of the glass panel. Hmmmm... you have to wonder whose idea this was and where the money goes!
Sure seems like a big waste of money... but it's not city money, MTA money, or your money.
It's CEMUSA's money, the huge international advertising company, whose $4B contract with the city says that they buy, install, and maintain all this stuff (bus shelters is just the tip of the iceberg) in return for the ad space.
Stupid? Maybe. But nothing worth getting panties-in-a-wad -- though it might have been if it was MTA money.
These new shelters are CRAP. They don't shelter anyone from anything. They are full of gaps that let in rain, snow, and wind. The top is glass to let in sun. The roof is too high and picthed upward, the better to not-shelter you! Where I wait for the Q23, there is a bench, but the effect of that is, on rainy days when more people wnat shelter within the bus stop, there's less standing room now-- only 3 lucky sitters are "sheltered." Stoopid!
Sorry for the above typos. I should've previewed.
“The process of getting the correct map produced in a changing construction schedule has been a challenge we continue to work on,” said Molly Gordy, an assistant commissioner in the Department of Transportation. New York City Transit produces the rider information panels on a high-quality material that requires an eight-week lead time for fabrication. “During that time frame the actual installation locations may change,” she said. “Because of that, there can be a lag from the time the shelter is installed and operational and the customer service information is available.”
NY Times
Sounds like the city is really making out on this deal. I wonder how much these "construction schedule changes" are costing us?
The MTA has nothing to do with the installation and/or maintenance of bus shelters. The work is being done by a contractor hired by the New York City Department of Transportation.
Oh, here I thought it was an inept state agency wasting our tax dollars, but it's really an inept city agency that is wasting our money. My bad.
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