The Commute: Why We Need Better Bus Service

An old bus map, clearly a relic from the Cenozoic era. Photo by Allan Rosen. Click to enlarge

THE COMMUTE: Last week, we discussed bus routing inefficiencies in Sheepshead Bay. I am going to venture a guess that Sheepshead Bay residents have a need to leave the area on occasion (although Ned may disagree) and are interested in routing deficiencies in our adjacent neighborhoods.

The Bus Routing System Was Never Planned

Many of the routing problems exist today because the bus system just incrementally developed over time by route combinations and extensions and absorption of former trolley lines. This is what caused today’s inefficient and indirect bus routing. In fact, while doing research for my Master’s thesis, I learned that when the B21 was created in 1946, bus riders protested in front of Coney Island Hospital on the first day, that the new route did not meet their needs.

Yet it remained in place for 32 more years, and if not for me it may have still been in existence today, 68 years later not serving our needs. More likely, had it not been incorporated into the present B1 and B4, it would have either been discontinued without a replacement or else become a shuttle route between Ocean Parkway and Kingsborough Community College, thus reducing mobility even further.

Other areas still have non-functioning routes, such as the B21. That is because the MTA does not do comprehensive bus studies, because the ones they have done in the past failed due to their unwillingness to compromise with communities. It was always the MTA’s way or the highway. Only recently have they restarted that effort with studies in Co-Op City and Northeast Queens at the behest of local elected officials.

Another reason why bus routes remain stagnant is because the MTA treats operating costs separately from revenue when evaluating bus route changes and until recently insisted that any bus routing changes be cost-neutral, refusing to make any investments to the system. That means that every bus routing improvement must be coupled with a service cut, so that while bus service improves for some, it is degraded for others. The MTA fails to understand that more frequent service means more riders and hence more revenue, so new routes have only 30-minute headways with the exception of the revived truncated B37, which now operates every 20 minutes.

The MTA’s Shortsightedness

Their shortsightedness resulted in the B67 extension in Williamsburg failing to connect with other bus routes, greatly limiting its usefulness, because of their desire to save one bus to keep operating costs to a minimum. If they had considered ridership in their analysis, and the huge effect that a service more frequent than every 30 minutes and additional bus connections would have had on ridership, they may have concluded that the extra bus would have been worth the extra cost. It is very likely that no such analysis was performed. If one was done, the MTA owed it to the riders to make that analysis public, in the interest of transparency.

Instead of solving existing bus routing problems by correcting routing deficiencies, the MTA created new ones by failing to properly plan its new routes. Their quest to keep operating costs to a minimum is shortsighted and fails to consider the connection between with increased operating costs and revenue/ridership.

The Need For Better North-South Bus Service Between Borough Park And Bensonhurst

When I was in charge of the bus study in Southwest Brooklyn between 1974 and 1978 at the Department of City Planning, prior to my career at the MTA, we proposed bus routing changes throughout Southwest Brooklyn. Aside from the extension of the B11 east of 18th Avenue, all the other approved changes were in the Sheepshead Bay area. Only about 25 percent of the proposed changes were immediately accepted by the MTA.

My proposed changes to improve north-south travel between Borough Park and Bensonhurst were rejected in 1978. In the 30 or so years since, the MTA saw the need to implement a few more of my proposed changes. These included extending the S7 (now S53) from 95th Street to 86th Street in Bay Ridge, where more bus connections are available. They also extended the B68 from West 5th Street to Coney Island, rerouted the northbound B49 around the southern end of the Sheepshead Bay Station, and rerouted the B1 from Bay Ridge Avenue to 86th Street.

In 1978, the MTA found reasons why all those changes were infeasible, but later did an about face for all of them. It took them up to 30 years to agree with me that those were good and proper. Additionally, a half dozen other bus routing changes in the northern part of Brooklyn that I recommended in my 1973 Master’s thesis at Columbia University were also coincidentally implemented over the following 40 years. The most recent one was the splitting up of the B75 into two routes, which I recommended, along with splitting the B61 in Downtown Brooklyn and having it absorb the B77 along 9th Street, and the combination of the B57 with the Smith Street portion of the B75. I also proposed extending the B61 (now the B62) into Long Island City and an extension of the B38 to Metropolitan Avenue.

So why should it take the MTA 40 years to make eight routing changes, which were obvious to me as far back as 1973, not including the 10 routing changes they made in 1978? And why are they still resisting my proposals to resolve the north-south bus routing problems in Borough Park and Bensonhurst?

Routing Problems In Borough Park And Bensonhurst Go Back To The 1940s!

That is 70 years! In 1974, when I first brought my routing proposals before the local community boards and told them of my idea to have a single bus route traverse 86th Street, instead of four routes veering on and off the street requiring numerous bus changes and indirect travel, I was informed that Community Board 10 had been requesting the MTA and New York City Transit Authority make a similar change since the 1960s, but the request had fallen on deaf ears for more than 10 years.

Will we have to wait another 40 years for the “experts” to see the obvious?

Next Week: My proposals for Bensonhurst and Borough Park.

The Commute is a weekly feature highlighting news and information about the city’s mass transit system and transportation infrastructure. It is written by Allan Rosen, a Manhattan Beach resident and former Director of MTA/NYC Transit Bus Planning (1981).

Disclaimer: The above is an opinion column and may not represent the thoughts or position of Sheepshead Bites. Based upon their expertise in their respective fields, our columnists are responsible for fact-checking their own work, and their submissions are edited only for length, grammar and clarity. If you would like to submit an opinion piece or become a regularly featured contributor, please e-mail nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.