The B44 SBS Is Now Operational

THE COMMUTE: After two years of delay, and five years of planning, the B44 Select Bus Service (SBS) finally made its debut yesterday along Nostrand Avenue. Limited stops at Avenues L, R, S, V, W, Y and Z are no longer in effect since the Limited has been discontinued, so do not wait for one. You now either have to take the local or walk to the closest SBS stop.

Also, there is an exclusive bus lane south of Avenue X, in which you are only allowed to enter or cross to make the next available right turn or to park your car curbside or in a driveway. The lane is in effect only during the morning peak going northbound or evening peak going southbound.

I think the note about right turns is in too small a font to be easily read by a moving car.

I have written about SBS numerous times, so you already know my views on it. This morning was the first time it has been in effect for the rush hour and, of course, it is too early to write about how it fared. But now that the schedules have finally been made available, I can tell you a few things the MTA did not reveal during its five years and 40 meetings with communities and business groups.

1. Although the route is still called the B44, it is essentially no longer a single route for most of the day. Except when the SBS is not running — which is only during late night hours — all local (non-SBS) service from Knapp Street will terminate at Flushing Avenue, not Williamsburg Bridge Plaza, requiring a change of buses for Williamsburg passengers getting on or off at local stops south of Avenue U.
2. Prior to SBS, only Limited buses operated south of Avenue U, but they made all local stops from that point south. You had to change for a local if you wanted local stops north of Avenue U or walk a little extra to a Limited stop, and there was through service to Williamsburg Bridge Plaza. Now, if you board an SBS north of Avenue U, you must change to a local for local stops south of Avenue U. Knapp Street passengers no longer have to change buses at Avenue U for local stops north of that point.
3. SBS stops are spaced much further apart than Limited stops, so walking to an SBS stop is not always an option. You may now be stuck waiting for a local.
4. You don’t have to worry about hipsters invading Emmons Avenue restaurants. Williamsburg residents will now have to change buses at Avenue U since all buses departing Williamsburg Plaza (except during late night) will terminate there. The time saved by using the SBS over the Limited will be exchanged for an extra bus transfer.
5. Interesting, because one of the selling points of SBS was that passengers traveling from Sheepshead Bay to Williamsburg, as few as that number may be, will be able to save 15 minutes, while the typical passenger saves only six. Now, with the schedules available, we learn that such a trip is not even possible on a single bus.
6. If your trip includes a bus other than the B44, you may now have to pay double fare to use the SBS if you require three buses, unless you transfer from one SBS bus to another.
7. B36 riders should transfer at Avenue U or X instead of Z to take advantage of the SBS.
8. The real losers are those boarding and transferring at eliminated Limited stops, forcing those passengers to now use the local instead, thus slowing their trip.
9. Williamsburg riders also lose big by losing all local service north of Flushing Avenue. There will only be SBS stops every six or seven city blocks north of that point.
10. Users of Kings County Hospital and all riders needing service along New York Avenue are also losers.
11. Between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. on weekdays, there will be twice as many SBS buses leaving Knapp Street than there will be locals. So unless you want to wait between 12 to 20 minutes for a local, you would be better off walking the extra blocks to the closest SBS stop.
12. Sunday service at local stops from Knapp Street will be cut 50 percent, from every 10 minutes to every 20 minutes. Locals will operate every 15 minutes but buses will not be evenly spaced. Although buses will be spaced at an average of every 8.5 minutes instead of every 10 minutes, you may actually have to wait longer if you are able to use either the SBS or the local. Here are the new schedules for the SBS and the local.

My Prediction

Within one or two years, the MTA will propose rerouting the B44 local from New York Avenue to Rogers Avenue after declaring what a huge success SBS has been. They will cite poor patronage on the local, which will be partially due to the service reduction on New York Avenue.

A while later or at the same time, they will seek to truncate the B49 from Fulton Street to Foster Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, stating that the route is duplicated by the B44 and is no longer necessary. They will tell you the change will provide a more efficient service, so they can rededicate resources to where they are needed the most. This will probably be in one of the trendier neighborhoods in the borough.

Such a change will make bus travel even more difficult, by increasing the number of transfers and fares required and encouraging additional riders to make more indirect trips using the subway lengthening travel time for the passenger. However, it will mean lower operating costs for the MTA, which is their only goal. They have no desire to improve system connectivity and increase travel options for passengers.

Conclusions

No one should have to pay an extra fare due to a service change, which had been transit policy for more than 70 years until a few years ago when the MTA quietly changed it when making the 2010 service cutbacks. SBS requires many former Limited passengers, who require a transfer to either use the slower local or pay an additional fare to use SBS if their Limited stop was not converted to an SBS stop.

You can read the Daily News for MTA propaganda, which calls the SBS “magic buses” and only shows the benefits of SBS, or you can learn the real story on Sheepshead Bites. Mr. Orosz’s comment “that bus riders can spend as much as 25 percent of their ride time waiting for passengers to get on and off the bus” is really disingenuous, since it implies a much greater time savings than actually will occur. (They are predicting a 20 percent travel time-savings.) Buses will still have to stop for passengers to get on and off, and will still have to deal with traffic and traffic signals. The wait for a bus will not disappear, and in some cases will increase, as will the walking distance to and from the bus. The maximum projected time-savings would be 15 minutes if SBS buses traveled the entire length of the route, which we now learn they will not do. Williamsburg SBS buses will terminate at Avenue U and Flushing Avenue buses will go to Knapp Street. The average savings for the typical passenger is only six minutes, which may or may not include the extra walking distance to SBS stops.

You cannot trust an agency, which reveals only benefits, does not reply to community concerns, and delays publishing schedules until the very last minute. This prevents riders from seeing the true effects of the changes beforehand. There will be more MTA deception next week when we discuss the latest Customer Satisfaction Surveys for 2013.

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.