BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

'A LEISURELY CROSSTOWN CRUISE, COURTESY OF THE MAYOR'


By SUSAN DOMINUS
Published: August 4, 2009 The New York Times

Luxury in this town is not a car and driver; it’s the crosstown bus, a smooth, air-conditioned ride on high, a slow boat to somewhere latitudinal. For those who have other options, boarding that lazy, humming vehicle is a sign that they’re rolling in something most New Yorkers have in scant supply: time.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has proposed eliminating the fare on some routes.

Leave it to the billionaire mayor to find a way to gild this particular lily.

In one of his first major campaign proposals for his re-election, Michael R. Bloomberg proposed this week that the fare be eliminated from a few of the slower crosstown buses, including the M50 and the M34. Mayor Bloomberg’s version of bread and roses is a freebie with efficiency — the plan has all the pleasures of a congestion fee without that troublesome fee. The buses would go faster without all those people digging around for their MetroCards just as the light is about to turn red, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the mayor’s number crunchers promise, would not lose much money, since so few people pay for the crosstown transfer.

At midday Tuesday, the M50, which travels west on 49th Street, was filled with people treating themselves to a small summer indulgence, the public transit equivalent of an ice cream cone. Although most of the passengers were able-bodied, few stayed aboard the bus for more than a few blocks. Having already paid for the subway uptown or down, why not exploit the free pass east or west? If it weren’t free, admitted Shaheen Suhrawardy, who had taken the E train up from Wall Street and was enjoying the ride from 8th to 11th Avenues, “I would just walk the few blocks.”

Mark Corlette, a 25-year-old maintenance worker from Queens, said he almost always walks from one job at the United Nations to another on Fifth Avenue, but on Tuesday he decided to spring for the fare across town. “It’s just the sun,” he said, as if the season’s torrential rains had left him unprepared for this unexpected summertime menace.

Would he take the bus more often if he didn’t have to shell out $2.25 to do so? Yes, Mr. Corlette said, even though he “loves walking all over the city,” and, he noted, it’s probably faster by foot.

Maybe whoever models transit use for Mayor Bloomberg should have a chat with some of those marketing researchers who study what the word “free” does to the decision-making of otherwise reasonable people. Based on the research that Dan Ariely, a Duke University psychology professor, documents in his book, “Predictably Irrational,” New Yorkers are likely to go out of their way for the privilege of being taken for a free ride across town. It might not be efficient for them; it almost certainly would not be efficient for the bus lines’ speed.

“I already have people getting out their MetroCard to go one or two blocks,” said one bus driver. “Can you imagine if now it’s free?” He shook his head. MetroCard or not, longer lines and more crowded buses would make for slower going, in his opinion.

Mayor Bloomberg could try a different argument with the transportation agency if he wants to justify giving voters a freebie: call it the Trader Joe’s approach. Who, after tasting a free sample of the M50 on a hot summer day, would not be reminded of the pleasures of taking the bus all over the city?

While people outside on 49th Street appeared to be multitasking like crazy — walking and talking and texting — inside was all leisure. A woman in a colorful print top had the space and time to work on a newspaper crossword puzzle. Across the aisle, on the back of a giveaway postcard from Home Depot, an artist was working on a charming portrait sketch of that same woman, using color markers.

From inside the bus, the sidewalks that rolled by in the opposite direction looked glamorously cinematic, filled with an endless parade of summer dresses and chic people in sunglasses. The noises were the distant, almost imperceptible sounds of familiar urban cues, like background audio for a children’s show.

But the real sell for the bus always comes the minute you step off of it, especially in summer. Suddenly someone’s turned the volume on high: A siren wails as if its next stop could only be the inside of your skull. The heat off the pavement hits with the force of a truck (several of which, incidentally, are spewing exhaust nearby). Those three blocks south to the desired destination — suddenly they seem impossibly far to walk.

Is that a downtown M1 heading this way? Please, let it not be too crowded with freeloaders.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[RailBus63]

The mayor wants to treat the symptoms and seems to be avoiding the cure. The problem - as always - is that there are too many cars and too many pedestrians in the city. He was on the right track with his congestion pricing proposal and I think long term that this proposal or a similar effort will be needed be manage the number of autos allowed into the city.

The article quoted above is spot on - people do act differently when a service is free as opposed to fee-based. Any transportation service has value and users should be assessed a reasonable fee in exchange for the service provided. Fares do force people to make decisions - a passenger connecting from the subway or a north-south bus route will not think twice about using their existing transfer to ride the 34th Street crosstown route, but someone who is traveling four blocks across town may decide to walk instead of paying $2.25. Making the crosstown routes free will undoubtedly draw in more passengers like our walker, and the article fails to mention the obvious fact that free bus service will also attract certain undesirable elements to a cool bus in summer or a heated one in winter. In the end, greater crowding will result and more than offset any time savings gained from faster boarding.

There are several common-sense solutions that the MTA and the city can pursue that will help alleviate the situation. Contactless farecards that avoid the current necessity of passengers 'dipping' cards into the farebox should be pursued as quickly as possible. Expansion of bus-only lanes should be pursued. The mayor may not control the MTA, but he can take a leading role in directing his police force to vigorously enforce restrictions against non-authorized vehicles occupying bus-only lanes and bus stops (trucks seem to be a major violator here). Long-term, the city should explore creating transitways in the center of these streets in the busiest areas that could be converted someday to rail service.

Jim D.