Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Report: M9 stop on Avenue C gets light after 7 years in the dark

The city's first solar-powered bus shelter is now in place at the southbound M9 bus stop on Avenue C and East 16th Street, DNAinfo reports.

The shelter has been dark since 2009, when a Con Ed crew disconnected lights from its power source, according to a Community Board 6 member.

Per the article:

Residents have avoided using the stop for years and, in 2013, a [Con Ed] truck fatally struck 88-year-old Stella Huang as she crossed East 16th Street, a tragedy that many blamed on the area’s poor lighting...

As for the solar lights, the city may install a similar set-up at other unlit bus shelters around NYC.

Image via Google Street View

6 comments:

Marcos said...

Anyone notice that after the recent construction the signal at Bowery and E 4th Street is back to being dangerously short?

http://evgrieve.com/2012/06/are-these-dangerous-intersections-on.html

Scuba Diva said...

Now if they can just put the M9 back on Avenue B where it belongs.

Anonymous said...

Just for nostalgia? C is much wider, makes sense there.

Gojira said...

I second Scuba Diva. Ridiculous that they take our bus away but would consider giving Babu Ji 78,000 chairs and tables for that decidedly non-regulation width sidewalk, which is already incredibly narrow.

Scuba Diva said...

Dear Anonymous:

The M9 was a Red and Tan bus back in the 60s. It has always run on Avenue B—through Chinatown, and up to Union Square before turning around and coming back.

When the M9 was given most of the M21's route, that didn't make sense. The remaining M21 route is a mere stub of itself.

The M9 also used to be a 24-hour bus. However, it's only because it had become one that terminates service around 10:30 PM that its service wasn't also cut when sweeping cuts were made to the system a few years ago.

Call it nostalgia, but it makes more sense for the M9 to go from Chinatown to Union Square, as it used to even when owned by a privately-owned system.

Anonymous said...

@scuba diva

So is it about being in B vs C or about going to union square? My point was B is too narrow and you've made it about the ultimate destination.

Also, thanks for the history lesson that reaffirms your desire to return to the fictitious "good old days" for no reason other than "it has always been this way."