Remodeled GWB Bus Station Won’t Feature Big Retail
I decided to visit Streetsblog a few minutes ago & noticed they had an article up about the soon to be remodeled George Washington Bridge Bus Station. The article focused on a report in The Manhattan Times which stated that the plan to bring “big retail” into the remodeled station has been nixed. The issue at hand is the amount of vehicular traffic that would be brought into the neighborhood. Brad Aaron of Streetsblog has more:
Plans to bring “big box” retail to a remodeled George Washington Bridge Bus Station have been scuttled due to fears that it would attract more car-commuting shoppers to Washington Heights.
Instead, according to the Manhattan Times, the Port Authority will build spaces for about a dozen smaller commercial shops and offices, says PA Executive Director Christopher Ward.
Click here for the complete article.
I think it is a smart idea to nix the idea of “big retail” being apart of the remodeled GWB Bus Station. The area is highly congested as it is & adding such stores would only worsen the situation. While on paper it might sound like a great idea to give riders & local residents more shopping choices, the positives have to outweigh the negatives.
In this case, bringing in “big retail” establishments would not only invite local residents to shop but out of area residents as well. One could safely assume that many of these residents would actually be from New Jersey. With this in mind, one could once again safely assume most of these potential shoppers will reach the stores by a means of vehicular transportation. This would beg the question, where would they park? “Big retail” establishments usually come with sizable parking accommodations. The area does not have the means to provide that & in this case, thank goodness for that!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Local Residents Frustrated With Possibly Losing The M8
We all know the laundry list of potential service cuts & elimination that face us if the MTA adapts the recently presented operating budget. One of the routes facing possible elimination is the M8, a crosstown route that travels between the East Village & West Village. Local elected officials & residents are frustrated with the possibility of losing the M8. Jefferson Siegel of The Villager has more in this report:
The river-to-river Eighth St. cross-town bus has been targeted in a scenario of sweeping transit service cuts and fare hikes.
At a public meeting last Thursday, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials outlined a sweeping package of cutbacks that includes permanently axing the route.
“This proposal is a recommendation that the M.T.A. achieve savings through the elimination of the M8 bus route,” authority spokesperson Aaron Donovan said. If there was a glimmer of hope, Donovan said that all cuts are in the proposal stage. However, if the route is eliminated at a Dec. 17 vote, as appears likely, “it would be a permanent action,” Donovan added.
News of the proposal came as a surprise to many of the M8’s regular riders. Just after 3 p.m. last Friday, students poured out of the Village Community School at W. 10th and Greenwich Sts. The young scholars and their guardians lined up to board an eastbound bus that quickly became standing room only.
Click here for the complete report.
This was one of the routes that surprised me in terms of potential service cuts or eliminations. I have ridden this line on many different occasions & noticed a pretty decent ridership for it. While I am not saying it was loaded from pillar to post, it was not close to being empty either.
I seriously hope something happens where we do not have to see such drastic service cuts. I won’t say no service cuts as the agency should look to legitimately cut back or eliminate service that is not needed.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Congestion Pricing Editorial
Sticking with The Brooklyn Eagle for a moment, the paper featured an editorial on “Congestion Pricing” written by Dennis Holt. Here is a sample:
y the end of this week, all of us will know the probably unpleasant details from the Ravitch report — ideas on how to generate revenues for the MTA, sure to impact everyone.
One of those “details” has been widely broadcast — tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges, at last.
Some estimates indicate that the East River tolls would generate $600 million, or about half of the money shortfall forecast by the MTA. The recommendations, which have to be approved by the state, are sure to be acrimonious and to be discussed far too long.
Let’s keep in mind that a street toll is, by any other name, a congestion pricing policy. Congestion pricing, by that phrase, has not appeared much in the discourse of recent weeks.
But tolls on the East River bridges are an example of congestion pricing. In fact, most experts believe that bridge tolls would be a much more effective and efficient way to reduce auto traffic in Manhattan than the original Bloomberg plan.
Click here for the complete editorial.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Local Brooklyn Officials Hold Protest Rally
This past Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined Councilman Bill de Blasio & other community leaders at a protest rally. The rally was to protest the possible elimination of some bus & subway routes. The Brooklyn Eagle has more in this report:
Monday, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman Bill de Blasio and community members held a rally here to protest the MTA’s recent proposal to eliminate numerous subway and bus lines serving Brooklyn.
The rally was held at the B75 bus stop on Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope – one of the routes for which the authority is proposing to cut weekday and weekend service. The bus stop is a block away from the F train’s Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street station.
Elected leaders also called on the Ravitch Commission to recommend reinstating the commuter tax, rather than placing tolls on the East River bridges.
“The solution to the MTA’s financial crisis is not nickel-and-diming the working families who depend on the subway and bus system to get to work everyday. We must look toward creative solutions, like reinstating the Commuter Tax, that will not disproportionately burden outer-borough New Yorkers,” said de Blasio.
To address its mounting financial troubles, the MTA recently announced a proposal to eliminate and/or truncate 26 bus and numerous subway lines. Among the services to be eliminated that impact Brooklyn riders are G train service north of Court House Square, rush-hour M train service to Brooklyn and weekend service on the X27 and X28 express bus lines.
The MTA also proposed instating drastic fare hikes for all subway and bus rides, including raising the base subway and bus fare to $2.50.
Click here for the complete report.
I can understand the frustration of Brooklyn riders as no one wants to lose service. I do not have specific information at my current disposal in terms of ridership #’s on these routes. If they happen to be low, would it really be a loss to cutback or eliminate service? While I want to see all measures considered before service cuts, if it comes down to it I can’t see why low ridership routes should not be scaled back or eliminated.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Man Charged In Murder Of Brooklyn MTA Bus Driver
As you know by know, a heartless bastard & non-paying rider murdered a Brooklyn bus driver on Monday afternoon after he was refused a transfer. Although nothing can bring the driver back, it is nice to know that the bastard Horace Moore was brought to justice. He confessed yesterday & was charged with murder. 1010 Wins has more in this report:
New York City police say a 20-year-old man has confessed to the fatal stabbing of a bus driver who was attacked in front of horrified passengers.
Police say Horace Moore, of Brooklyn, was charged with murder Tuesday after witnesses identified him in a lineup. Moore was taken in the previous evening for questioning after investigators tracked him down at his girlfriend’s apartment.
Police say 46-year-old Edwin Thomas was driving a B-46 bus when Moore boarded through the exit door and sat down. Thomas initially denied him a transfer slip because he didn’t pay for the ride, but then gave him one before following Moore off the bus and arguing with him on the street.
Police say Thomas was punched in the head and then got back on the bus. Moore then followed him onto the bus, stabbed him, then fled.
Thomas was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, and Moore fled on foot, police said.
Passenger Benjamin Stacking told television reporters that he heard the commotion.
“It’s crazy because the bus driver was cool,” Stacking said. “He let me on. I was 50 cents short. He let me on and gave me a transfer. No reason to stab a bus driver if you are broke or have no money and can’t get a transfer. No reason to stab a person.”
Click here for the complete report.
As I stated yesterday, all bus drivers face many dangers while transporting riders from one destination to another. Sewell Chan (with contributions from Martin Espinoza & Joel Stonington) of The New York Times looked into the dangers bus drivers face in this report:
The fatal stabbing of a New York City bus driver, Edwin Thomas, by a passenger who did not pay the fare, sat down anyway, and later demanded a transfer ticket has called new attention to the phenomenon of fare evasion on buses.
In the early 1990s, the Police Department cracked down on fare evasion in the subways, catching more serious criminals along the way. The police now acknowledge that bus-fare evasion is a problem.
A new initiative to fight bus-fare evasion by placing police officers on the most problematic bus routes began on Oct. 22 and has resulted so far in 86 arrests and 349 summonses, according to Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s top spokesman.
But bus drivers say that the instructions for how to deal with nonpaying passengers are confusing. Other drivers say they have sometimes been so intimidated by passengers that they have given away transfer tickets even though they were not supposed to.
Charles F. Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit, the arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates the subways and buses, said in a phone interview that if the passenger refuses to pay or cannot pay, the driver is supposed to remind the passenger of the correct fare ($2) but may not try to physically throw the rider off the bus.
Some drivers have been known to threaten to keep the bus stopped until a nonpaying or belligerent passenger gets off. But on a crowded bus at peak periods, it is practically impossible to stop operating the bus or threaten to do so.
Drivers do not have a direct line to the police. The radio in each bus connects them to a command center, where dispatches can contact law enforcement, if necessary.
Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, acknowledged that while the Police Department’s Transit Bureau has more than 2,000 officers dedicated to the subway system, there are no officers dedicated to buses (except for those working on special assignments like the current fare-evasion crackdown). But Mr. Browne pointed out that tens of thousands of police officers are on the streets each day and are available to respond if a bus driver or passenger needs help.
Unlike buses, subways require dedicated officers because “you have the size of the population underground, a concentrated population in a confined area,” Mr. Browne said.
On the B46 bus line today — the same line Mr. Thomas was working when he was killed — a driver was seen pressing a button on the driver’s side of the fare box for each passenger who boarded and refused to pay.
Click here for the complete report.
I am glad that The New York Times took the time to focus on the dangers bus drivers face on a daily basis. It is a shame that it took a driver’s death to highlight what many should have already known & understood.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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