Friday, November 17, 2017

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.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean that everyone isn't riding bikes and taking the bus to go shopping? They aren't hopping on the bus and standing with 15 bags of groceries for the week of putting it in their car?

JQ LLC said...

I used to shop there. What a damn shame.


This is a really terrible situation. This SBS aka the stupid bullshit service has immediately turned the environment upside down. No doubt now this is designed to upend neighborhoods and an undisputed inducement on these particular neighborhoods. And in a way, excuse the hyperbole, to force citizens to give up their cars.

Heads will roll on this. But with disgusting partisanship implemented under de Faustio in the name of anti-Trump fear mongering, it's going take years to have this reversed.
And complaining their congressman won't amount to much, because establishment corrupt hack Meeks is at the forefront of this bogus resistance movement.

Ulrich better start raging about this very very soon.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile I suppose nowhere in this discussion is the idea that by reactivating the LIRR Rockaway line (a few blocks over from Woodhaven Blvd), you could give people a better way to get quickly north and south, and give the street back to the cars and businesses.

Gary W said...

Hurting small businesses? That's a feature not a bug, comrade.

Anonymous said...

"Heads will roll on this."

No heads will not roll on this, even now as I type this the scumbags who dreamed this up and implemented this bullshit and forced it on a community that wanted nothing to do with it, well they're patting themselves on the back and telling each other what great stewards of the environment they are.

Get real, this didn't have to happen but for a lazy constituency the dirtbag bureaucrats literally leaped at the opportunity to put this in place. Get used to it, Who knows what the genius D.O.T. engineers are dreaming up now?

JQ LLC said...

"You mean that everyone isn't riding bikes and taking the bus to go shopping? They aren't hopping on the bus and standing with 15 bags of groceries for the week of putting it in their car?"

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. This is what should be written and said repeatedly to community boards, city council and the goddamn mayor why these lanes should be powerwashed off the roads.

When I shopped at this C-town, I rode my bike. But if I had a car you damn right I would use it, for I use a bike and still do because I'm poor, still do, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else. The point is nobody does this and it should go without saying that the automobile is still an essential part of citizens lives.

This is an idiotically placed and forced bus lane, which is being used for the societal impacts of gentrification on the neighborhoods that it's on. And I believe this bus lane is going to be used for prospective easy travel to the Rockaways for the hipshits in case the ferry service doesn't get more boats.

Anonymous said...

I don't want my grandmother to be a sitting duck while waiting for a bus smack in the middle of a chaotic highway. And what good will those cheap metal railings do? One car leaping the curb will mow down everything and everyone.

(sarc) said...

It seems the plan is working out just as planned.

The powers that be are driving the anti socialists and anti communists out.

These hardworking industrious will be taking their cars and tax moneys with them.

Soon all that will remain will be the bicycling oblivious ignorant hipster class, uneducated poor and the lazy parasites.

at that time the "utopian" communist dream will arrive, as all will have nothing creating "equality" and "fairness"!

Equal misery for all!

Watch out Detroit!

Enjoy...

Anonymous said...

I think this is bus lane is a terrible idea for Cross Bay Blvd. It doesn't help out the local merchants at all, it doesn't help out the people who shop there. It just backs up traffic and it limits parking spaces. Whose bright idea was this? The streets are for cars, not bicycles and eventually the MTA who can't seem to manage their budget and raises the bus fares almost every other year. Buses aren't the right way to travel they are crowded and not worth the money. The lanes will eventually become defunct if people don't use the buses. Uber cars are the way to go why wait for a bus who is never on time and always crowded. Another dumb idea by a city official.

Anonymous said...

This will only get worse. In a knee jerk solution to the increased side street traffic, caused by the SBS, the City will "fix" the problem by eliminating precious parking spots to open other lanes. They want our cars! How else would the developers be able to build more big box housing? Once again, NYC is full. Time for the no vacancy sign to light up.

People Aredumb said...

Who the hell goes to a grocery store anymore.

There is something called DELIVERY.

Anonymous said...

Buses aren't the right way to travel they are crowded and not worth the money.

If they are crowded then there are a significant number of people who do not agree that buses are "not the way to travel". Even more importantly, if you put even 25% of the people on the bus into cars, the traffic problems would be significantly worse than the current problem.

Anonymous said...

Hey you disgruntled capitalists! I think it's peachy keen that Assembly Member Stacy Pheffer Amato got work for another Amato putting in those SBS machines. Why there is one right outside her office on Rockaway Beach Boulevard. I've got the photographs of the company who were putting them in. Ain't it grand to have your sister and cousin getting you decent government contracts? Why, that's the American Way.

Never mind that Rockaway Beach Boulevard is far too narrow for those long buses to turn on safely and reduces visibility for all drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. Never mind that the SBS bus is in shared car/bike lane with no room for anyone else but them.

The bottom line is that the MTA will fill their coffers with fines for all of the people who never pay on the Q53 & Q52 bus. Don't worry, DeBlasio will come up with a tax payer funded program to pay their fines.

JQ LLC said...

I recall in the past few posts, probably by George the Athiest and a few others that asked are bike riders allowed in the Stupid Bullshit Service lanes. Well, the answer is yes because it's the only and yet safest place for the bikes to ride, which has ample room to ride by the parked vehicles and flowing traffic. And for some reason, partitioned bike lanes were not considered for this supposed deadly boulevard. Actually the boulevard actually needs a painted lane for bikes instead of this

My fear is that with this awful new lane, some reckless and entitled bus drivers will feel they have the right to intimidate or cut off bikers on there. While on the subject, isn't it interesting that bike lanes were not included on Woodhaven and Cross Bay blvds? Especially since the justification from the idiots at DOT and Mayor Mandate for these sbs lanes was because of the dangers and the stats they cited.

And where are those two hipshit tools that run Transportation Alternatives and their lack of interest for this north/south major artery of Queens? And no, this is not a request for bike lanes!

By the way, when I first moved to Ozone Park, Queens back when I was a wee lad the first thing I saw on Woodhaven Blvd was a gruesome accident in the middle of the vast intersection with 2 bicyclists sprawled in the middle lanes one stiff and the other bloodied and mangled on Woodhaven Blvd. a long long time ago. I always look back to that when I ride daily.

Anonymous said...

To JQ who laughably said: "Ulrich better start raging about this very, very soon."

I wish that you hadn't said that. You could have said anything else and I would have believed it. Wasn't it you who endorsed this vastly overpaid, intensely incompetent, arrogant, corrupt, dishonest shithead for a third, illegal term? Enjoy your representation, amigo! The only heads that will roll, JQ, are the heads on 'Eric The Dead's' (as in deadbeat) personal 'Friends & Family' pay-roll, as they collectively roll their heads with laughter over the fact that anyone could STILL be so stupid to vote for a third term for that heaping pile of putrid shit that continues to pollute Queens County - to landfill effect!

Meanwhile, only 24% of registered voters bothered to show up on November 7th, and now southeastern Queens is locked into a 'Hijack-and-Hostage' holding pattern by this openly practicing psychopath, for four more infuriating years of 'TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION,' where I've already starting pining for the merely 'quaint-and-crooked' days of the likes of Al Stabile, with a vengeance!

Anonymous said...

I have bogus plates on my car and drive in the bus lane.f u de blowsio.

JQ LLC said...

To last anon.

Yes, I did endorse him with great trepidation and cynicism. I also endorsed a few other candidates I didn't want. Scala, like Malliotakis, is not prepared for the task in my opinion, so apologies for that and there were Queens Machine democrat like tactics backing him. His recent failed gangsta rap past, which I didn't give a damn about, didn't help him either. If there was another candidate on the reform or green party ticket I would not have endorsed Ulrich. But I did note, and I am sure your justified cynicism and disgust will disagree, that his movements in his new term should be diligently scrutinized. Your future comments certainly will attest to that.

No doubt Ulrich is a weak politician, I don't like him either and he has been quite a disappointment. he has been late to react to the frozen in time restoration of the Lefferts Blvd station with the elevator still inoperable, his endorsement of the ridiculous Bo Deitl who despite a few moments of brilliance ("why don't we fix what we got") behaved like a mental patient in the debates and there is no known reaction or even rejection from him to the stupid bullshit service lane in his area that could have brought a little bit of televised media attention instead of from the free Queens weeklies. But there was also no, that I know of, reaction by Scala on this wretched and commuter upending and business killing bus lane.

Again, apologies for trying to coax my low readership of my blog to re-elect him, note the other ones I endorsed didn't do well either (except for Holden). I guess there will be times when I will inevitably disappoint people(a few of my next posts are bound to offend giving some prospective titles). Thanks for checking in and don't worry, all establishment elected hacks and new ones will be spared no quarter and held accountable.

And good observation about my demand for the councilman. I was laughing too when I wrote it. Which is why you gotta bust his balls to make him grow a pair, but he seems to be content with his current situation with a cushy part-time job, the sweet raise he got a few years ago and with de Faustio running the show. His political career will probably end after his term.


Anonymous said...

To JQ who laughably said: "Ulrich better start raging about this very, very soon."

I wish that you hadn't said that. You could have said anything else and I would have believed it. Wasn't it you who endorsed this vastly overpaid, intensely incompetent, arrogant, corrupt, dishonest shithead for a third, illegal term? Enjoy your representation, amigo! The only heads that will roll, JQ, are the heads on 'Eric The Dead's' (as in deadbeat) personal 'Friends & Family' pay-roll, as they collectively roll their heads with laughter over the fact that anyone could STILL be so stupid to vote for a third term for that heaping pile of putrid shit that continues to pollute Queens County - to landfill effect!

Meanwhile, only 24% of registered voters bothered to show up on November 7th, and now southeastern Queens is locked into a 'Hijack-and-Hostage' holding pattern by this openly practicing psychopath, for four more infuriating years of 'TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION,' where I've already starting pining for the merely 'quaint-and-crooked' days of the likes of Al Stabile, with a vengeance!

Anonymous said...

Actually,24% was the turnout for the previous mayoral election. This time out it was closer to 21%. If we could find a legit,secure way to vote from samart phones and I pads,we’d probably get participation in the 90 percentile.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, JQ, for responding to my last comment about Derelict Dullrich. Alas, even seasoned members of organized crime family rings world wide could learn from this arrogant, corrupt, boy/coward of entrenched political fail. In fact, he was never even interesting enough to make me sick, which is why, when faced with voting between two, lesser evil for sale candidates - I always choose neither!

But, in this case, to reward a feckless, cowardly eunuch who devalues all honesty itself like THIS lethal turd (and his equally useless, political supporter, fat stinking elephant turd, Michael Miller), is to reward two of the greatest crimes against humanity of them all.

Sadly and tragically, egregious forms of corruption are apparently now perfectly legal (as well as to ignore one's constituency with impunity, whilst simultaneously ignoring the public oath of office that both of these subhumans' swore to uphold), and that's ON TOP of their vile, vapid and vacuous loop of lying, delaying, denying, cheating and stealing---compliments of these two scourges of epic, humanitarian fail, that even Satan himself would banish from hell!

I will never forget the nine solid years of arrogance, disrespect and hostility that I was greeted with by these two rapacious, predatory impostors. Men have been hanged for LESS!

Anonymous said...

Im a DOT technician and we are being told its for the publics own safety. The city is fast tracking banning private vehicles from driving on certain roads on certain hours in the aftermath of the Vegas shooting.

Having separate roads for only pedestrians, bikes, buses, taxis and ride-hailing cars on the streets would relieve congestion and save lives, as well as make it easier for emergency vehicles to get where they are needed.
The have this in Holland and France, even here on Fire Island and the High line for example.

This mayors vision for a New-New York City is drastic, if one does not like making sacrifices, sharing a cab, taking a bus or even housing its best to move out of New York.