And — oops! — I missed the open houses.....
As someone who depends on the M15 for this and that, this may or may not be helpful....
And for your cyclists!
And pedestrians!
Wow. The MTA calls these Refuge Islands?! Escape from Refuge Island!
Meanwhile...
Well, I'm all for keeping an open mind to see how all this will work....
Previously on EV Grieve:
On First Avenue, the machines are taking over!
Hey... I missed my bus trying to read all the instructions !
ReplyDeleteSo St. Mark's is no longer a limited stop?
ReplyDeleteSo if you have an unlimited Metrocard, you still need to get a separate receipt? Or will you be charged twice? Or extra?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they ever focusgroup these posters. I would pay good money to be a fly on that wall.
there's gonna be a large learning curve on this one, but definitely hoping all this works.
ReplyDeletei love all the colored frames that refer to the bus chart and the legend. this is another present from those engineers at mta.
ReplyDeletegive them something to do!
@Anon @ 11:35: You don't have to pay twice or extra, but you do have to swipe an unlimited to get a receipt so you're not fined for getting a free ride.
ReplyDeleteActually, it says that it's not extra somewhere on this poster. But I'm not surprised you missed it, because there's about a million different head-spinning details on it.
@ Chris -- thanks for the clarification. I understood the swipe situation and the paper receipt, but it wasn't clear to me what the cost (additional or otherwise) might be; and how that additional cost would factor into someone with a monthly, etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteSo if there's no one taking receipts on board the bus, and no one making spot checks ON the bus, and no one taking them at the end of the ride, as in London, what is to stop people boarding with any old piece of paper or an outdated receipt? Get one receipt and ride all day! Typical, MTA, you complete idiots...
ReplyDeleteHippie Chick calm down, I guarantee you they will looking at the timestamp on those papers and they are probably hoping for violators to thet can hit you with a fine (revenue).
ReplyDeleteHippieChick and OneWhoRemembers, it's quite possible that there will be more fare-beating with the new bus system. But the MTA would only need to hit a relatively small number of people with those $100 fines to make up the difference. The MTA claims that fare-beating has actually declined on the Bronx bus route they've been doing this on for 2 years.
ReplyDeleteI can believe that, if there are enough random inspections.
I wonder how the regular costs shake out -- paying these fare inspectors versus having to maintain and replace parts on the normal on-bus MetroCard/coin machine. Also, having the bus lane should in theory mean faster service and therefore lower fuel costs.
I say wait 3 months before seeing how it shakes out. The first month will be an adjustment, then the second month will be another adjustment because the city is bringing in cameras to ticket drivers who stay in the lanes for too long.
So, as Anonymous 10:34 asked, St Mark's is no longer a limited stop? What is the demented logic behind that little shift?
ReplyDeleteSt. Marks isn't the only stop that now will have no express service. If you look at the map, there is now absolutely nothing between Catherine St. and Grand St, skipping the ENTIRE Chinatown neighborhood and no longer is an express stop at Delancey St. (a major intersection and subway transfer from the Brooklyn lines). Now, technically these places never were express stops because express buses ran local until Houston St, but now you're screwed if you need to travel through midtown, you have to do it on a local bus.
ReplyDeleteBut as one poster helpfully points out, the Community Boards held a shitload of public meetings and actually had the MTA change their plans to address the CB needs. So I guess that means that CB 3 threw a giant "SCREW YOU" to their LES residents, right ? After all, everyone on the LES takes cabs, nobody would be caught dead on The Bus !.