BusTalk

[N4 Jamaica]

I much enjoy the current thread on Hudson County buses, as posted elsewhere with links to buses on nycsubway.org. Many thanks!
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Could one of the Joisey fans tell when safety gates were introduced and when they were no longer required? In the late 1940's, I recall that buses in Hudson County had to have a gate to the right of the driver. It kept passengers behind the white line. When the door closed, the gate swung from a position along the driver to a position blocking the aisle.
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Was it a county or state law?
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One of my memories is riding along Hudson Boulevard in Bayonne in the era when, I think, one could hail a bus at any cross street, all fifty or more of them. In Manhattan, you did not have to wave for a bus; you merely stood at a bus stop. In Bayonne and Jersey City, you waved, because you had to choose between interstate and intracounty buses. However, the driver on this particular trip drove with his front door open, and therefore the gate did not block the aisle. Furthermore, he barely stopped to let a passenger hop on. Maybe he judged the alacrity of the boarding passenger. He would come to a full stop if there were more than one.
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In the same era, Bayonne required all drivers to stop at the nearest intersection for a red traffic signal even blocks ahead. As the signals flipped red simultaneously and all Boulevard traffic halted, it made for admirable pedestrian safety.
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Was there another name for those gates?
Thanks.
Joe McMahon

[Mr. Linsky]

N4 Jamaica,

I can't tell you much about the history of what we used to call 'the compactors' or safety gates as used in New Jersey except for the fact that I remember riding one Public Service TDM 5108 on the #118 route from the Port Authority in Manhattan to Newark back in the fifties and it was equipped with such a gate.

In New York, the only thing that was used which acted as a similar protection where the turnstiles found on the buses of Brooklyn Bus Corporation in Brooklyn and the East Side and Comprehensive Omnibus Corporations in Manhattan.

Regards,

Mr. 'L'