THE COMMUTE: In Part 1, we discussed why it is too late to change the proposed B44 Select Bus Service (SBS). In Part 2, we discussed why the B44 SBS is different from the other SBS routes. In this final part we will answer the question posed above. It is not such a simple question to find an answer for.

If you go to the MTA home page on the weekend, you first have to find and click on the “MTA Home” tab. It is in small print in the upper right hand corner in dark grey on a black background and not very obvious. During the rest of the week this step is not necessary. Next, you must click on the tab “MTA Info” in the top center. Then you click on “Planning Studies” on the left side of the page. Following that, you click on “Select Bus Service.” Then, on “Current and Planned SBS Routes.” And finally, on “Nostrand Ave SBS.” That’s six transfers. Couldn’t the MTA have made finding information about SBS on the web a bit easier instead of it being so cryptic?

But wait. We still do not have an answer. On the Current & Planned SBS Routes page, the MTA states “Service to begin in 2013.” The Nostrand Avenue SBS tab states the “latter half of 2013.” Clicking on the FAQ tab states the service will start in “mid 2013.” Also, the last link on the Current & Planned SBS Routes page, directs you to the NYCDOT website for further information and that link is broken.

There are also links to outdated documents without any indications that the date has changed since the document was produced. The link to the Introduction to Bus Rapid Transit Phase II report on the Select Bus Service Main Page shows 2011 as the start date on Page 46.

If you manage to find the SBS page on the DOT website in spite of the broken link, you will also get conflicting information. I will not take you through the steps, but only say that it is a bit easier to navigate than the MTA site. This document gives fall 2013 as the start date. If you rely on attached PDFs such as this one you will still see fall 2012 as the start date. Only if you download the latest DOT newsletter on the Nostrand Avenue page do you get the latest date of spring 2014, which might still change again.

That means all the dates on the MTA website — 2013, latter half of 2013, mid-2013, and even 2011 — are all wrong. DOT states the start date as fall 2012, fall 2013 and spring 2014. That’s a total of seven different dates, with only one being correct.

Yet, the start date is not the only error. If you click on Nostrand Making the Case on the MTA website, it shows an outdated map without the Newkirk / Avenue D stop that was added later. The document was never updated.

Conclusion

We have three agencies involved and one does not seem to know what the other is doing. NYMTC is in charge of obtaining the funding while NYCDOT and the MTA are in charge of implementation. NYMTC is seeking public comments to proceed with an engineering study to proceed in a corridor (Woodhaven Boulevard) that the MTA does not even recognize on its website as a potential SBS corridor.

Finding information on Select Bus Service on the internet is difficult and the information provided is conflicting and some of it is out of date. If you use the search function, you are provided with an assortment of documents and may have to check more than one to find the information you seek and when you find it, you cannot be sure that it is the latest information available.

We know that the data collected to evaluate existing SBS routes has been deficient and incomplete, designed to show a pre-determined conclusion that all SBS routes have been very successful, when the degree of success, in fact, varies from route to route.

According to MTA statistics, on page 19 of this report, 99 percent of M15 SBS riders are satisfied with the service provided. The MTA does not tell us how they arrived at that number, but if their bus satisfaction surveys provide a clue, we can infer the following: Since riders were asked to rate their satisfaction level on a score of 1 through 10, with 10 being the highest level of satisfaction, someone only rating the service a six would believe his trip is delayed 40 percent of the time. Since the MTA considers all ratings above a five to be satisfactory, that individual would be counted as part of the 99 percent of satisfied SBS riders.

In other words, you should only expect to arrive on time slightly more than half the time, to be a satisfied rider. When I went to school, a 75 grade was considered a passing grade; 51 percent was a miserably failing grade. Only ratings of eight, nine, or 10 should be considered satisfactory because good service means you only experience a significant delay no more than 20 percent of the time — not 49 percent of the time.

The B44 SBS will be plagued with a host of problems that may or not be addressed after implementation, depending on how vocal bus riders are. The MTA will simply dismiss these as growing pains when in fact many could be avoided through better planning.

No matter if the B44 SBS is a success or failure, or no matter how many riders are inconvenienced with slower trips, increased walks, and increased fares, and no matter how dissatisfied the riders are, rest assured that the MTA will only focus on the resulting improved bus speeds. They will hail the SBS as a huge success, ignoring all negative factors such as the impact to cars, trucks and the local B44 non-SBS bus riders. They will fail to measure traffic increases on neighboring streets and on alternative travel routes, some of which are not that obvious.

Cars making left turns during the peak hours in the peak direction between Avenue X and Emmons Avenue, after the exclusive bus lane goes into effect, will delay the only moving lane of traffic that will be required to come to a stop until opposing traffic clears. This may necessitate the banning of left turns at some intersections, further inconveniencing drivers and encouraging them onto neighboring residential side streets instead.

If the MTA and DOT cannot even agree on a single proposed start date instead of posting seven different start dates on their web pages, and post conflicting maps regarding SBS stops and future SBS corridors, how good could the SBS planning process have been in the first place?

The poor planning is already becoming apparent. As Sheepshead Bites reported on Friday, construction of a bus bulb will occupy the former bus stop at Emmons Avenue and Nostrand Avenue. That means that the buses will now stop in the former outside lane, leaving only one lane for moving traffic. Since the bus stop is right before a turn, buses will have two options: wait for traffic to clear in the only moving traffic lane to be able to clear the turn as the bus will swing out when making its turn, or not permit other traffic to go around the bus as it waits in the bus stop, similar to what happens under the 86th Street El, delaying all traffic.

Finally, the MTA promised that bus bulbs would only be constructed at the heaviest bus stop locations, not locations where no more than 10 passengers board at a time. Larger sidewalks are not needed where they restrict traffic movement. Let’s just hope they do not construct a bus bulb on Knapp Street, delaying traffic entering the Belt Parkway.

The planning process treated the B44 in isolation rather than as part of a complete transit system and without regard to negative effects on traffic.

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.

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• B44 Select Bus Service (SBS): Part 2 Of 3 — Why The B44 SBS Is Different From Other SBS Routes
• B44 Select Bus Service (SBS): Part 1 Of 3 — It’s Too Late to Make Changes

Tags: b44, mta, sbs, sbs/brt nostrand ave, select bus service