Nostrand Ave To Get Bus Lane Camera Enforcement?


by on Jun 23rd, 2010

Courtesy of the MTA

As part of the deal to reinstate student metrocards, Albany is giving a thumbs up to camera enforcement of 50 miles of bus lanes along Select Bus Service / Bus Rapid Transit routes, for which Nostrand Avenue is slated for conversion.

Dedicated bus lanes are a key component of the MTA’s SBS service, which aims to make commuting by bus speedier and efficientto increase ridership. But even advocates note that without proper enforcement to keep them clear of idling cars, bus lanes will amount to little time saved. In the MTA’s Select Bus Service FAQ, the agency says cameras monitoring the bus lanes “would automate the enforcement process by issuing violation notices to vehicles that illegally drive or park in the bus lane.” Camera enforcement requires approval from State legislators.

According to Streetsblog, “If the MTA would eat the cost of student fares, Albany would allow it to keep its bus lanes free of traffic.” With the MTA’s part of the bargain fulfilled, the State has worked the following language into a budget bill:

WITHIN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, SUCH BUS LANE PHOTO DEVICES SHALL ONLY BE OPERATED ON DESIGNATED BUS LANES THAT ARE SELECT BUS SERVICE LANES WITHIN THE BUS RAPID TRANSIT DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM AND ONLY DURING WEEKDAYS FROM 7:00 A.M. TO 7:00 P.M.

Down in our neck of the woods, this may affect the stretch of Nostrand Avenue from Emmons Avenue to Avenue X, where dedicated bus lanes are planned for a Select Bus Service route replacing the B44, according to the MTA’s website. From Avenue X to Flatbush Avenue, buses will travel in mixed traffic, before returning to dedicated lanes for the remainder of the trip.

The MTA/DOT proposal to replace the B44 has already received a thumbs down from Community Board 15, which says the elimination of parking is not worth the six minutes saved. They also found the agency to be unresponsive to their questions, despite six years of study.

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  • http://twitter.com/nicktherat nick the rat

    all i can say is fuck the mta and our government. they keep taxing us and raising prices for everything and all they do is report higher debt, cut/cheapen our service. we need a revolution. we need to wake the fuck up and stop being lazy. we need to stop caring about meaningless bullshit like sports and organize ourselves against our shit politicians. we need to cut off peoples heads. they aren't installing these cams to speed up buses. they are installing them to ticket more people (which i heard isn't legal, this is a test program, you cant get a tkt YET)

  • Supafly10579

    EXACTLY. I don't hear about raises in salaries for the average working person, only hear about increase in fees, services, goods, etc. Same check each week, with weaker buying power.

  • nolastname

    Just last week I stopped 2 men wearing some sort of badges going down Ave. U ticketing cars.
    I asked them why dont the busses have cameras like red-light tickets in the mail.
    The reply was no $ in the budget but the one I asked the queston to liked the idea.
    Get them out of the bus stop BEFORE the bus gets there.
    It is better than leaving a person in the middle of the street.

  • Robert Bump

    keeping the bus lanes open thus speeding up bus travel, *IS* something that benefits the average working person. If each bus with … let's say 30 passengers (probably more) can get them to work 20 minutes early – that's almost like getting a raise, if you divide wages by the time you are gone from home … in my example that's 20 man-hours a day considering round trip. The real numbers are even higher, because I'm only considering 30 people on a bus at any one time, while in reality there are passengers boarding and exiting at various points.

    People have proven they're not going to stay out of the lane by simply asking them not to … but a ticket will get their attention. Don't wanna pay a ticket? Stay the f out of the lane!

  • Robert Bump

    keeping the bus lanes open thus speeding up bus travel, *IS* something that benefits the average working person. If each bus with … let's say 30 passengers (probably more) can get them to work 20 minutes early – that's almost like getting a raise, if you divide wages by the time you are gone from home … in my example that's 20 man-hours a day considering round trip. The real numbers are even higher, because I'm only considering 30 people on a bus at any one time, while in reality there are passengers boarding and exiting at various points.

    People have proven they're not going to stay out of the lane by simply asking them not to … but a ticket will get their attention. Don't wanna pay a ticket? Stay the f out of the lane!

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