... will soon be relocated a few hundred feet to the south...
...right smack in front of the entrances of several apartment buildings..
...a move that is making several residents along here uneasy.... As one resident here told me, given: "the fratty bars, the KFC, and the bus...it makes for a lot of strange lingerers and plenty of litter." And noise.... any course of action for residents to fight against the move of a bus shelter? Doesn't seem to be much of a 311 call...
The bus shelter is being moved because of the new Bloomberg Express bus line on 1st & 2nd Ave.
ReplyDeleteThey have to put in a huge waiting area and ticket vending machines because these buses will not accept metrocards.
As to those residents, I'm sure the response from City Hall will be "If you don't like it, tough shit".
It's not "a few hundred feet," it's barely over a hundred feet. It's staying on the same block. I have no idea how moving a bus shelter to a different place on the same block has anything to do with "the fratty bars and the KFC." Please, enlighten me, "one resident."
ReplyDeleteGrieve, come on, you're better that this!
Here's the issue. It seems the bus shelter may stay where it is but the vending machines will be moved to the South end of the block. Why not couple them together, consolidating the litter and crowding?
ReplyDeleteThe bars here and the KFC and the bus and the confluence of two major thorough-fares make for a fairly trash-strewn block. Urban planning like this (a huge gap from the shelter to the machines) will only exacerbate the problem.
As a resident, it would be nice to get a head's up or have some say.
They just finished the installation on 14th and 1st, why don't you take a look. The shelter is at the end of what they call "the bus bulb" and the machines are next to it.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure they'll put a shelter at the 13th street end by the machines, and possibly leave the 14th street shelter where the local buses will continue to stop.
I think the fratty bars and litter are different and separate issues from this farkockta bus plan.
Hey, why not saddle all the bike riders to the front of the buses (like the old stagecoaches), have them pull the bus up and down the avenue, and you'll have a completely GREEN transportation system with way less hazards for pedestrians and motorists alike !
ReplyDeleteYou could even share the ticket revenues with the bikers !
the one thing folks are forgetting is that bus-riders are walkers. they have to walk to the stops, between the stops for transfers, and from the stops. to the handicapped and elderly, folks with walkers, canes, etc, the 1/2 block increases can be extreme. the distance for bus stop transfers have been moving farther and farther apart too, as the buses get longer and longer. and now the bus does not stop in front of the bus shelter (that i know of). to a person that has no trouble walking it will not seem to make any difference. the longer walks in the rain and snow are another example of the pedestrian being the last to be considered.
ReplyDelete@blue glass
ReplyDeleteYou have a good point. They're trying to scale the system up for efficiency while reducing equipment, manpower and costs.
Someone mentioned to me today that the city is becoming less hospitable for those over 50, and given all the safety and convenience issues these Avenue reconstructions have raised, I'm in agreement.
As someone that lives on that block, in front of the current bus shelter, that works for me!
ReplyDeleteThe bars aren't the problem. Finnerty's is perpetually empty. Professor Thom's is far enough down and few people who frequent that hell hole (New England displacements) take the bus there.
The problem is people would rather stand in the building doorway and not under the shelter. Happens every day. Try to get in to the building, have to get past 3 or 4 people that for whatever reason don't want to move.
Either way, it's not a big deal. But if the shelter moved to the other end of the block, I wouldn't be sad about it.