Every bus line in the five boroughs sucks except just one, and it's in Queens!

NY Daily News

Transit advocacy groups released report cards for bus routes across the city Wednesday, and the grades weren’t exactly honor roll material.

Half of all the routes analyzed across the five boroughs received a “D” grade or lower, shining a light on the depressing, delay-ridden commutes that plague the city’s 2 million daily bus riders.

The report also shows breakdowns of bus performance by City Council district— all but five of the 51 across the city received “D” or “F” grades.

“For a long time I’ve felt that the problems on our buses were an ignored second transit crisis in this city,” said City Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), whose district received an F grade and has an average bus speed of 5 miles per hour. “All the attention goes to the obviously serious problem in our subways.”

Despite the dismal findings, the analysis does show that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bus service is improving slightly. Last year, 30 fewer bus routes received failing grades than in 2017, a statistic advocates largely chalk up to improvements in the way that buses are dispatched.

Just one route detailed in the report received an “A” grade: the Q52 select bus, which travels from Elmhurst to the Rockaways.

Jaqi Cohen of the Straphangers Campaign attributes the route’s success to features like dedicated bus lanes and all-door boarding.

 “We know how this bus got this great grade,” she said. “The simple answer is that it uses solutions that we know could work across the city.”

$226M Woodhaven/Cross Bay SBS route only saves riders a few minutes

From Forest Hills Post:

The Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that the Select Bus Service that links the Rockaways with Woodside–via Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards–has decreased travel times for riders since its introduction last year.

Travel times for bus riders have improved by nearly 10 percent on the Q52/Q53 SBS route, which was rolled out amid controversy on Nov. 12, 2017. Meanwhile, travel times for all other modes of transportation along Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards have stayed the same since the introduction of SBS, the agency said.

The DOT, as part of SBS, removed a travel lane along the boulevards for the sole use of buses, which critics say has increased congestion. Furthermore, there have been parking bans in sections of the corridor that many argue has hurt small businesses.

But the DOT says SBS has been a success since it was launched 12 months ago.

What's the longest you could possibly spend on this bus? An hour? We're talking less than 6 minutes you're saving by taking the SBS. In the meantime, it's bumper to bumper traffic for everyone else, despite the BS that DOT is peddling about travel times for other modes of transportation staying the same.

Great use of taxpayer money here.

So we did all that for nothing?

From the Queens Chronicle:

The launch of Select Bus Service along several corridors in New York City has done little to improve riders’ commutes, a new analysis by the city comptroller claims.

The findings, released last Friday, state the average speed of SBS buses is 8.9 miles per hour, 20 percent better than the average rate for local buses, 7.4 mph.

The fastest Queens SBS route is the Q70, which connects riders from Jackson Heights to LaGuardia Airport, at 11.3 mph.

And the service is not doing much to get people where they need to go in a timely manner either. The average on-time performance for all SBS lines is 62 percent, equal to that of local routes. The Q44 SBS, which runs through Flushing and Jamaica, is on time 54 percent of the time, the Q70 scored a 62 percent and the M60 — which goes from LaGuardia Airport to Morningside Heights in Manhattan — got a 37 percent on-time rate.

The report did not state the speed or on-time performance of the Q52/53 SBS routes on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards, which launched last November.

DOT allows bus lane parking on weekends

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Department of Transportation will allow motorists to park in the curbside Select Bus Service lanes on Cross Bay Boulevard from Liberty Avenue to the Belt Parkway at all hours on Saturdays, area elected officials announced Thursday.

"Today is a perfect snapshot of how government should work," state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said in front of C-Town Supermarket located at 107-66 Cross Bay Blvd. in Ozone Park. "Business owners, residents and others complain to their elected officials about a Select Bus Service that started in November and wanting change and change occurs. And we're thankful the DOT listened to our concerns and did the change."

Parking in the lanes was previously not allowed from 7 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday, with buses and cars making right turns being the only vehicles allowed in the space.

The DOT on Wednesday changed the signs to let motorists know parking is now permitted all day Saturday, following pushback from business owners along the strip who said business was negatively impacted.

Rose, the manager of C-Town, said her store lost 10 to 15 percent of its Saturday customers since the restriction was put in place in November — when SBS launched on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards.

DOT's bright ideas are costly to local businesses

From the Queens Chronicle:

The bus lanes on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards are affecting just about every stage of life.

According to several sources, parents dropping their toddlers and children at VIP II Daycare Center on Cross Bay Boulevard have had to park in the curbside lane and run into the building to drop off their children.

“When I called the [Department of Transportation] and told them about it, they said, ‘We know about VIP Daycare,’” said state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach).

And just a few steps away, according to several people, the hearse for James Romanelli-Stephen Funeral Home on Cross Bay has had to park on the sidewalk. Arlene Brown, from the office of Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), said late last month she witnessed one such occasion.

The DOT in October implemented the curbside bus lanes on Cross Bay from Rockaway Boulevard to the Belt Parkway, which restrict parking during morning and evening rush hours Monday to Saturday. Other businesses on the corridor have complained of financial impacts from the move.

From the Queens Chronicle:

Life in the slow lane continues for nearly a dozen frustrated Queens Boulevard business owners who say the bike lanes installed along the thoroughfare by the Department of Transportation this summer are to blame.

After months of fuming to themselves about the lanes — specifically the removal of parking spaces to accommodate them — the entrepreneurs gathered at Tropix Bar & Lounge on Monday to share their personal horror stories and brainstorm ideas on how to fight back.

“Every time a customer calls me, says he’s circling the block for one hour looking for parking, then says he will return next time,” said Edward Nisimov, the owner of both Falcoln Imports at 95-42 Queens Blvd. and Mother Imports next door. “But in the furniture business, there is usually no next time.”

After months of public outreach, the DOT removed 198 spaces along a 1.3-mile stretch of the boulevard’s service roads between Eliot Avenue and Yellowstone Boulevard to make way for the bike lanes.

Simultaneously, the agency added a number of curbside delivery-only zones which ban parking from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except Sunday.

Before the lanes were installed, Nisimov said, there were approximately 24 parking spots in the direct vicinity of his businesses.

Now, he said there are just four.

SBS negatively impacting local businesses

Photo from Queens Chronicle

From the Queens Chronicle:

Rose, a manager at the C-Town Supermarket on Cross Bay Blvd. in Ozone Park, is usually busy helping her customers find what they’re looking for.

But lately, she’s been talking about the bus lanes right outside her business rather than what’s on sale.

“I was speaking to a customer just now about it,” said Rose, who didn’t want her last name published. “Nobody knows what to do right now. The customers are getting confused. They don’t know when they can park or when they’re going to get a ticket.”

Not only that, but the curbside bus lanes — installed as part of the Select Bus Service project for Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards — have led to a decline in the number of people shopping at the supermarket, located at 107-66 Cross Bay Blvd.

And that’s impacting the bottom line.

Holden's ballot lead stands

From NY1:

City Councilman Elizabeth Crowley acknowledged Wednesday night that her opponent's margin of victory held during a tally of absentee ballots Wednesday in a very close Queens city council race.

The Board of Elections said it will not certify the result until it certifies all the races, as it does every election.

Sources from Crowley's opponent, Republican Robert Holden, have told NY1 that he has won the race for the 30th city council district.

Holden declared victory on Election Day, even though he was ahead by only 133 votes.

It appears his lead has grown by four votes, although the total has not been confirmed.

Well this is getting very interesting. And check these quotes from Holden in the Times Ledger:

“This mayor wants a one party socialist Marxist regime and anyone who thinks differently than him is the enemy,” Holden said. “He judges people based on labels and that is something he should be against. Instead he bad mouths the Republican Party as no good and that’s the type of approach that put this country in such a divisive mess. Did I run on the Republican line? Yeah. Am I a registered Democrat? Yeah, but the bottom line is I’m apolitical. I’m a civic leader and I’m going to work with anyone that can help my community and my constituen­ts.”

Holden added the mayor was wrong to launch the 14.7 mile Select Bus Service route on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards Monday.

“It’s such a disaster. People are sitting in traffic jams for hours. It’s just another bad policy from this administration, and one of the reasons I got so many votes,” Holden said. “He wants to take away our cars, he doesn’t understand Queens at all. The traffic is crippling all over the borough and all we get is more bike lanes and more SBS lanes. The administration is taking away one of our basic rights — the freedom of movement — you can’t just get in your car and go anymore.”

Woodhaven Blvd at a standstill due to new bus lane

From CBS:

A new bus lane on Woodhaven Boulevard is causing a traffic nightmare.

Drivers said their rush hour commutes have nearly doubled since the change.

Cars were backed up for miles on Woodhaven Boulevard on Tuesday night, and drivers say it’s being caused by the select new bus service.

One lane of traffic is now for buses only — no cars allowed.

Trottenberg said the DOT redesigned the pinch points and corridors in the hope of creating three lanes of traffic that move. The problem is in rush hour it doesn’t.

There are people who say it has added an hour to their commute.

Queens' DOT disasters

From the Queens Chronicle:

Construction to accommodate Select Bus Service at the confluence of Cross Bay Boulevard, Rockaway Boulevard and Liberty Avenue will not be complete until next month.

But residents and civic leaders are already saying things appear to be as bad, if not worse, then they have feared.

“This,” said a grim-voiced Vance Barbour of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association, “is our ‘I told you so.’”

When completed, what was three travel lanes and a service road headed northbound will become two; bus stops along the curb will be moved across the service road to a median; the travel lane adjacent to the median will become a 24/7 bus lane; and the left turn from northbound Cross Bay to Rockaway Boulevard will be eliminated, along with the turning lane, forcing cars — and trucks — to take more roundabout routes.

Bus stops already are being installed on islands on the southbound side, with machines selling SBS tickets not far behind.

Residents long have complained that the intersection forms a bottleneck during rush hour, backing traffic up for blocks.

The city’s Department of Transportation has asserted that reducing the number of lanes will improve traffic by helping create a more uniform traffic pattern along the entire corridor.

A more uniform lane configuration, along with the elimination of some left turns such as the one at Rockaway Boulevard, are designed to reduce the amount of lane merging that is said to be responsible for a great deal of congestion.

The construction is nearing completion, even over the constant and strenuous objections of residents and community leaders such as state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) and Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven).

“Nothing makes sense,” Howard Beach Resident Joseph Cerbone told the Chronicle. “We didn’t OK any of this ... They did just what they wanted to do. It was nightmare and they’re making it worse.”

From the Queens Chronicle:

In his letter, Avella added that there was a dangerous lack of signage for drivers at the location, which is an active construction area because of ongoing work for the bike lane. The senator also urged de Blasio and the DOT to abandon the bike lane plan and take up a different proposal for Northern supported by Community Board 11.

The office of Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) said he too has been in touch with city authorities.

“In response to the accidents and the community’s concerns, we reached out to the DOT to ask them to expedite the installation of signage and reflective panels to both inform motorists of the change in the traffic pattern and make the barriers more visible,” Vallone’s office said in an email.

Vallone’s opponent in November, Paul Graziano, said the bike lane has created “an extremely dangerous situation” and that the city shouldn’t install them on “what is essentially a highway.” Graziano, who lost the Democratic primary to Vallone but remains on the Reform Party line, is an urban planner who helped design the alternative bike lane proposal now backed by CB 11.

“You do not create something unless it’s well thought out, well planned and won’t be a negative,” he said.

In a statement, the transportation agency defended the barrier.

“These barriers did their job to protect those in the bike lane from accelerating turning vehicles,” the DOT said in an email last Friday. More signs, the agency said, are coming.

“In the next few days we will be installing additional safety treatments like reflective tape and flexible delineators that have been part of the design from the beginning of this project, to increase protection and awareness for all street users,” the agency said.

Metrocard machine placement is pretty dumb

From NBC:

New Yorkers are used to things on sidewalks --muni-meters, bicycle racks and the bygone phone stands -- but those are always close to the curb. So neighbors are scratching their heads over the SBS MetroCard machines right in the middle of the sidewalk near the intersection of Cross Bay Boulevard and Pitkin Avenue in Queens.

"Somebody must have been drinking and put it in the wrong spot," joked store decorator Eddie Cavuto.

Actually, the Department of Transportation says the kiosks were installed exactly where they were supposed to be.

"Okay, the worker didn't screw up, but the architect was drinking and he screwed up," cracked Cavuto.

The DOT says the kiosks are for a new bus lane and bus stop arriving there, and "our standard is to align the fare machines and other Special Bus Service amenities (like wayfinding totems) with the back of our shelter."

"These enhanced bus stop amenities needed to meet our minimum sidewalk clearance requirements," the DOT said.

De Blasio announces he's moving forward with SBS

From Curbed:

In his latest Vision Zero push, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a series of road safety and traffic improvement projects set to take place place throughout the city—all part of a $1.6 billion initiative to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities.

This particular set of Vision Zero projects involves wider sidewalks, new crosswalks, new protected bike lanes, and pedestrian refugee medians.

Queens:
Select Bus Service will be added to the Q52 and Q53 routes that run along the Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards, passing through multiple neighborhoods in Queens. There are also plans for pedestrian safety improvements along this stretch, all of which is on schedule to wrap sometime this spring.

Queens folk skeptical about SBS

From NY1:

NY1 VIDEO: A project to bring Select Bus Service to a congested Queens corridor has been a tough sell for the MTA, as a process that began four years ago continues to get bogged down. NY1's Jose Martinez reports.

Van Wyck widening & SBS don't mix

From the Queens Chronicle:

While the Department of Transportation sees no problem with the governor’s proposal to widen the Van Wyck Expressway — as part of his plan to transform John F. Kennedy International Airport — some believe it could conflict with the agency’s plan for Select Bus Service on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards.

“Maybe, it might be a good idea to hold off on it,” Betty Braton, chairwoman of Community Board 10, said last Thursday.

As Braton pointed out, the Van Wyck Expressway and Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards are both major north-south corridors. The DOT is planning to redo parts of the boulevards as part of SBS — putting a dedicated bus lane in some parts.

Meanwhile, the governor last Wednesday announced a $2 billion plan to widen the Van Wyck in both directions from three lanes to four and the connector ramps at the Kew Gardens Interchange from two to three.

Cuomo said the changes will alleviate bottlenecks along the thoroughfare and save motorists a combined travel time of 7.4 million hours annually.

Braton said it’s her board’s belief that SBS will increase congestion and that the Van Wyck project could add to that.

Select bus machines are without power

From DNA Info:

Fare payment machines at a Jamaica stop for the Q44 Select Bus have had no power for the past two months, frustrating straphangers who have since had to pay for their ride at the next stop, commuters said.

The machines at the Archer Avenue/153rd Street stop, in front of the Queens County Family Court, went offline on June 19, according to the MTA.

Straphangers using Select Bus Service lines have to insert their MetroCards into machines, which then issue their receipts to allow them to board at any door in order to avoid long lines at the front of the bus.

But passengers who get on the bus at the courthouse, have to get off at the next stop on Archer Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard and pay for their ride there, which can take a couple of minutes depending on the number of passengers, straphangers said.

It was not clear when the machines will be fixed.

Pols ask for some common sense

From the Queens Chronicle:

Three elected officials representing a large stretch of Woodhaven Boulevard have asked the Department of Transportation to go back to an alternative plan for its Select Bus Service proposal.

Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven) and state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) in a May 2 letter urged DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg to utilize what is called Concept 1 for SBS from Rockaway Boulevard to Park Lane South.

The DOT originally proposed three concepts for SBS and last March announced it is going ahead with Concept 2, much to the chagrin of some residents who oppose the plan. Others, however, support it.

Concept 1 would have the dedicated bus lanes along the corridor be placed along the service road of Woodhaven Boulevard, rather than along revamped medians, as is being proposed by the agency.

The stretch of Woodhaven Boulevard from Park Lane South to Rockaway Boulevard will be the only part of the corridor that has the median lanes, which also will require commuters to wait in the middle of the road on redesigned bus stops.

Select Bus lane on Woodhaven Blvd pretty much a disaster

From the Queens Chronicle:

It’s official: Woodhaven Boulevard now has dedicated bus lanes from Metropolitan Avenue to Alderton Street and Dry Harbor Road, and as they run right in front of this newspaper’s offices, we can tell you firsthand the results are not looking good so far. And we expect worse to come.

Of course traffic is more congested when you have fewer lanes, as drivers now do during both the morning and evening rush hours, in both directions. Only the true believers who want to get people out of their cars would contend otherwise. So we now have a handful of employees who commute home to South Queens from our Rego Park offices stuck in traffic longer than they were before. Their reports as to how bad it is do vary — along with the times they hit the road — but one says her former 45-minute commute has been closer to 90 minutes. She’s actually started taking the Van Wyck Expressway to the Belt Parkway to get back to Howard Beach, a route that looks insane on a map but actually has been eating up less of her time. Others are hitting the side streets to go north and south, surely something the residents on those blocks are not thrilled to see.

But of course a key point of installing bus lanes is to frustrate drivers enough so they either take another route or start riding public transportation. The advocates of lane reduction surgery generally don’t admit that, but one elected official we recently spoke with did, and that’s someone who supports the bus lanes. Get ’em off Woodhaven and onto the Van Wyck, off Queens Boulevard and onto the Long Island Expressway — that’s the thinking. Or, best of all, get them onto buses. That’s great for those who can or want to take the bus, but many need a car, van or truck for their job; and few like being forced onto public transportation by the anti-car crowd whose thinking is taking over the government.

Jimmy's take on transportation

- Yuppies at Vernon-Jackson need a ferry because the train is too crowded (they already have one)
- New Select Bus Service and Express Service must be created for LIC - even though it is built up because it is one subway stop from Manhattan
- CitiBike!
- Let's not build a new subway line because who cares about future generations?
- Hey, how about a pedestrian/bike only bridge to Manhattan? Because that's feasible.

City moving forward with Select Bus Service for Kew Gardens

From the Queens Courier:

With the backing of Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city is moving ahead with plans to develop an express bus service between Flushing and Jamaica.

Despite calls from community members and politicians in neighborhoods like Kew Gardens Hills, the transformation of the Q44 and Q25 into a Select Bus Service (SBS) line is set to begin as early as this fall, according to a Department of Transportation spokesman, but no official schedule has been announced. The transformed Q44 would continue along its path on Main Street. Residents in Kew Gardens Hills are worried that an express bus through their neighborhood would increase traffic or reduce parking along the route.

The city claims that an express bus line would help thousands of commuters going between the two neighborhoods every hour and allow people in areas without trains to quickly travel to Flushing for the 7 train. And in his State of the City Address, the mayor also pushed for express buses.

Federal transportation funding may dry up

From the Daily News:

The latest high-stakes, multibillion-dollar drama in Congress is coming to a bridge, highway or pothole in New York near you.

For the first time, Congress is on the verge of letting run dry the fund that pays for building and repairing the nation’s key infrastructure.

According to New York City transportation officials, that means hundreds of millions of dollars of planned work could be affected as early as August.

It would have an impact on a variety of projects, they say, including the Belt Parkway Bridge over Mill Basin in Brooklyn, the Westchester Ave. Bridge over the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx, the Macombs Dam Bridge over the Harlem River, and new curbs and medians as part of the Woodhaven Blvd. Select Bus Service project in Queens.

The legislative mess means the U.S. Transportation Department could cut back its reimbursements to states by 28% in early August, and then be totally out of money by September.

Woodhaven Blvd may get Select Bus Service

From The Forum:

Implementing express bus service along Woodhaven Boulevard, from Ozone Park to Elmhurst, would alleviate the traffic congestion that has long plagued one of the busiest, and most dangerous, corridors in the borough, area leaders said of the plan pushed by city Department of Transportation officials during a meeting at JHS 210 in Ozone Park last week.

Calling implementing select bus service – or SBS – on Woodhaven Boulevard, as well as Cross Bay Boulevard, a “big priority,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg has said such a plan could make life much safer – and easier – for residents who use the corridor that is time and again named one of the most dangerous spots for pedestrians in Queens. City officials kicked off their public meetings on the proposal at JHS 210 last Wednesday, during which they said they have a short-term plan to implement targeted bus lanes and a long-term proposal of installing SBS.

According to a plan presented at the meeting, the city aims to dedicate one lane for buses and right turns from Metropolitan Avenue to Eliot Avenue along Woodhaven Boulevard from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Additionally, officials said they would like to install a curbside bus lane northbound approaching Liberty Avenue and southbound approaching Rockaway Boulevard, which would also be in effect 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking would still be allowed in the curbside lanes when they are not in effect.