As amNY reports, the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and TransitCenter announced today that the M14A is the recipient of the 2019 Pokey and Schleppie Awards, which highlight the slowest and least reliable bus service in the city.
Per amNY: "With an average speed of 4.3 miles per hour, the M14A moves slower than a manatee, which can glide through water at a crisp pace of 5 mph."
It's possible that those M14A times will speed up with the July 1 introduction of Select Bus Service along this route.
Shame dedicated bus lanes were stopped by a rich west village homeowner on the ridiculous grounds of environmental preservation. That would help alleviate not only traffic pollution by discouraging the private car use, which is hard to justify downtown.
ReplyDeleteWE DID IT!
ReplyDeleteAnd can we talk about how for every five M14D buses there is one M14A, if we're lucky? I know the MTA claims that ridership on the A line isn't as populous, but they don't see the sheer numbers of 1) people sick of waiting for an A who finally clamber about a D just to get somewhere close to where they want to be, so are not counted as A riders, and 2) until the SBS service came online, the vast numbers of people who would swarm into the A through the two rear doors without paying? Worst stops for that were Irving Place and First Avenue, and the record that I counted in one fell swoop was 11. They couldn't cram onto a D bus, but there was always more room on the A to let them do so.
ReplyDeleteIt's ok, I'm used to it.
ReplyDeleteGreat progressive leader Art Schwartz says only elderly people with mobility issues ride the bus and they LIKE it slow as paint, thanks very much, so the MTA and DOT mustn't dare change a single thing about the route or ban cars from clogging 14th Street in order to speed it up because the environment. Also, ban those polluting terror-bikes from our tony side streets where they scare the poor elderly mobility-impaired people who just want to get on their slow-ass bus in peace! https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/07/01/eyes-on-the-street-arthur-schwartzs-legal-win-is-a-huge-loss-for-bus-riders/
ReplyDeleteas an elderly person with mobility issues i no longer ride the bus - but i am sure the issue has not improved since i did ride them
ReplyDeletemr schwartz spend some time at a local bus stop on a cross town street or major avenue and watch while around 6 select buses pass by, some empty, and then if he waits long enough a local bus might arrive with room for him, if not for a person with a walker or a wheelchair. get a grip and wake up to reality mr. schwartz!
Slower than an adult doofus on a big wheel. Fact!
ReplyDeletehttps://gothamist.com/2011/04/06/video_man_riding_big_wheel_trike_be.php
As another recently mobility-impaired person, I think I can fairly speak for many when I damn the MTA for taking away the M14A stops at St Mark’s/9th. Leaving NO stops between 11 and 5 Streets. So convenient for elderly, disabled, people wrangling kids and packages or luggage and those who need a transfer to the crosstown M8. May you rot in hell, MTA.
ReplyDeleteWe need significant congestion pricing for downtown, and to get as many cars off 14th St as possible; however, the MTA seems to have no clue about when people ride buses. I walked from 14th and 8th Ave to 14th and Ave A at 11:30 on a Saturday without having 1 bus pass. Similarly, good luck getting a crosstown bus on 23rd. I've often walked from 6th Ave to Ave a with no bus passing at 8:45pm or so. There seem to be endless amounts of empty buses going to Eltingville, which apparently is a place, but few going across a major Manhattan artery after rush hour, or on the weekend. Really? No one on one of the busiest streets in the busiest cities on earth might want to ride a bus at 9 or11pm? Typical MTA- run by out-of -town hacks who have no clue how NYC works.
ReplyDeletePS- why is the "tech hub" building on 14th and Irving allowed to block off a lane of traffic?
Terrible the MTA took away so many stops - no consideration
ReplyDeletefor people at all, other than taking their money.
The M14A was very crowded most times - but any bus during an off time
will not be crowded.
Or maybe not crowded because after waiting a long time,
three buses came at once - so only the first bus will have riders.
Clearly, the rules are made by people NOT riding the bus everyday.
@MTAtoxic - the Tech Hub was allowed to protrude onto 14th Street because thanks to our "progressive" mayor, developers rule the city, and the rest of us can go hang. So even though they promised not to block the sidewalk, much less the actual street, as usual, after the fact, they went to the powers that be and whined about how hard it was going to be to stick to the terms of the original agreement. And as usual, after the fact, the city let them do whatever the hell they wanted to make it easier for them, without a thought of how it would impact the rest of us.
ReplyDelete