BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

They're a Hit Among Tourist, but the Times Sq. Plazas Slow Many Bus Trips


By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: May 20, 2010 The New York Times.


The pedestrian plazas in Times and Herald Squares have been promoted by the Bloomberg administration as a marquee achievement in its quest to create a safer and more pleasing street scape, friendlier to tourists and merchants alike.

For some bus riders, however, the results have not been as positive.

Passengers trying to get downtown through the Times Square area have experienced longer travel times on four out of five affected bus routes, according to a report from New York City Transit, which operates the city’s bus system.

In the worst case, the M6 bus took more than 10 minutes longer to complete its route from Central Park to Union Square in the evening rush, meaning riders had to spend about 25 percent more time to finish the trip.

The report attributed the slower rides to increased congestion, longer routes and new turns required by the closing of several blocks of Broadway. It also said that the rerouting of buses and other traffic onto Seventh Avenue “appears to have caused congestion,” an assertion that the Bloomberg administration rejected.

Buses that travel north on Avenue of the Americas were not rerouted. They benefited from the city’s simplification of the intersection at Herald Square, shaving an average of 14 percent, or 90 seconds, off their travel times between 14th and 34th Streets, the report said.

The bus data was collected by New York City Transit in October and provided to the city’s Transportation Department. The report was not made public until this week, after repeated requests from The New York Times.

In February, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced that the plazas would be made permanent, the Transportation Department distributed its own report on the project’s impact on traffic. In it, the city noted that bus travel speeds around Times Square had “fallen slightly.”

The city’s report emphasized GPS data from taxicabs in measuring traffic flow.

In a paragraph describing the impact on buses, some routes were described generally as having “encountered larger delays and reduced speeds due to the introduction of more turns, which are subject to pedestrian interference.” No route-by-route breakdown was provided.

Janette Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner, said in an interview that the extended travel times did not reflect the average experience of a rider.

“You don’t take the M6 from the beginning of the line to the end,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said. “A lot of trips are for just a few blocks.”

Furthermore, she said, the consolidation of bus routes along Seventh Avenue meant that riders in that corridor did not have to wait as long for a bus to arrive, offsetting any delays onboard. “Buses now come every minute, which is a huge improvement for passengers,” she said.

To accommodate the changes to the street grid, five bus lines were rerouted and some were made longer. The average increase in travel time on those routes ranged from one to seven minutes. One route, the M20, was three minutes faster between 42nd and 14th Streets but about a minute slower above 42nd Street.

Ms. Sadik-Khan, who supervised the pedestrian plaza project, pointed to the new, longer routes as a culprit. “I take exception to the claim that the rerouting has caused congestion,” she said.

No major complaints from the public about the changes in bus service were received by New York City Transit, its report said.

The pedestrian plazas have received positive reviews for the aesthetic improvements to an area once known for gridlock and crammed sidewalks.

But the project, primarily intended to improve traffic flow, has fallen somewhat short of its anti-gridlock goals: Traffic speeds slowed on Eighth and Ninth Avenues and on many crosstown streets. Over all, vehicular traffic sped up along Seventh and Sixth Avenues, but less than the city had hoped.

Told of the bus report, the city’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, said he was concerned that the data was not shared sooner.

“Communities cannot be engaged if they are kept in the dark about reports like this,” he said.

Business leaders said their constituents remained pleased.

“I measure these things on utilitarian grounds,” said Dan Biederman, the president of the 34th Street Partnership. “Is the 34th Street district better on behalf of the city’s work? Yes.”

Mr. Biederman marveled at the traffic improvements on Sixth Avenue, noting that before the changes, “I could have crawled north faster.”

Still, he said that congestion at 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue, where buses must now turn left to reconnect with Broadway, required attention. “It’s a bad situation,” he said. “The owners do not like having a bus depot in the middle of a retail block.”

Photo by Ruby Washington of the Times.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York


The M6 bus, rerouted because of the pedestrian plazas, takes more than 10 minutes longer in the evening rush to go from Central Park to Union Square. Three other routes are also slower.

[HwyHaulier]

Mr 'L' -

Sigh! Just one more line of thought from the urban planning types. The general and zealous belief the cities are to be saved by cutesy gimmicks.
Whether any of the betterments do any good is not to be discussed!

.......................Vern.....................

[Mr. Linsky]

Vern,

I'm just hoping against hope that the next Mayor of the City New York has enough sense to put things back the way they're supposed to be!

What's the matter? tourists don't have enough places to hang out? how about Central Park, the top of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center or a tour of the one hundred and some odd subway stations in the city!

The idea is good except when it poses 'roadblocks' to the conducting of business in Manhattan - then it's bad!

Give me a break!

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

[HwyHaulier]

Mr 'L' -

If you like that one, you just gotta' love the silliness of the Light Rail Zealots. Stuff like grabbing active traffic lanes from busy roadways, and
diversion to the "Super Street Cars"... The knee slappingly funny nonsense that "Transit Oriented Development" along the way is Promised
Deliverance of failing retail areas. (Oh, all property owners: Don't look at what this does to Property Tax "voluntary grant assessments"!
Be sure your cardiologist says it is OK before you look!)

...................Vern......................

[RailBus63]

I don't know, guys - I visited Times Square last summer with my family and a few friends and I thought the new plazas are actually an improvement to the overall visitor experience. I think the solution to better bus service is by continuing to work towards limited the amount of vehicles on Manhattan streets, presumably using a congestion-pricing scheme.

[HwyHaulier]

[RailBus63]

[ripta42]

[HwyHaulier]

RailBus63 - All -

To begin, I have a healthy respect for the truths that the Five Boros issues are so daunting, better to leave how it is done to those with
daily experience just doing it.

"Congestion Pricing" is simply civic suicide. Just another tax, and increase of costs of doing business in the City. It on top of endless taxes,
fees, and other legalized shakedowns. In your response, you hint at a cachet about a Manhattan address. That may only be worked just so far...

Besides, isn't this "congestion pricing" fad a bit of a statement whether: The city should more favor the tourist market, compared with business
operators? Businesses, for the most part, cannot control time of day its essential vehicles are on the streets.

Something of an, Oh, BTW. The analogy of the (nasty) congestion pricing, compared with toll facilities. Usually, toll routes may be avoided.
Compare, to avoid congestion pricing, a business must go about its activities at 3:00 am? It hints at a larger issue here, in that toll highway
facilities are bad faith with the users. The presence of the device states a failure of prudent financial policy in use of public tax money, IMHO...

The whole matter is so contentious, I have no enthusiasm to comment on it more, and simply waste bandwidth here. Just mark me down in
the column that congestion pricing is bad news, and will hurt a jurisdiction much more than it can possibly help...

......................Vern.........................

[ripta42]

[RailBus63]

Manhattan seems to be the ideal place to implement some form of congestion pricing. It is an island with limited entry points. The city has the benefit of an extensive network of mass transit routes, including commuter railroads and premium express coaches used by many higher-income employees. I haven’t seen data, but I’m guessing that the income of the typical private vehicle driver is somewhat higher than the city’s other four boroughs (and discounts and/or exceptions can be made for lower-income residents on the north end of the island). I doubt that a five or ten-dollar daily fee is going to discourage higher-income Manhattan residents who own automobiles, nor is it likely to deter the typical tourist family.

I’ve become increasingly convinced that our country needs to devise a more equitable means to financing the maintenance and further development of transportation infrastructure. Ideally, this should be based on a per-mile or per-trip fee with variable-pricing mechanisms in place to incentivize usage at times other than peak hours. The bottom line is, users should pay a fair price for what they use and when they use it, be it mass transportation, roadways or the air and passenger rail networks.

[HwyHaulier]

ripta42 - RailBus63 - All -

Congestion pricing hints at other, more serious flaws in current financing schemes. Yes, indeed, the Nation has no rational Transport Policy at
all for many decades.

A problem with congestion pricing is simply one more fad addressing specific problems of difficult to manage urban areas. It does not protect
interests of those not dependent on major metro sites.

The cities can do whatever they want, and (it is hoped) distribute the pains amongst their local residents. Folks in places (ex.) like American
Falls, ID, Hays, KS and Susanville, CA can live without these high falutin' concepts...

.........................Vern.................

[ripta42]

[ripta42]

[HwyHaulier]