February 9, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PA GE 15
Queens lawmakers, transit advocates rally for
revised MTA Queens Bus Redesign Draft Plan
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
The Queens delegation of
elected officials, along with transit
advocates and community
members, are banding together
against the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) and
demanding a revised inclusive
and comprehensive Queens Bus
Network Redesign Draft Plan,
which has received negative public
feedback.
The lawmakers stood on the
steps of Borough Hall at 120-55
Queens Blvd. on Friday, Jan. 31,
to send a clear message to the
MTA: “The Queens Bus Network
Redesign Draft Plan doesn’t
work.”
“When you look at this plan
and every corner of Queens that
has held public hearings, this
plan has united all of Queens,”
Councilman Donovan Richards
said. “The MTA has come back
to us with a flawed plan that
only decreases service. To get
from southern Queens to northern
Queens, it’s mission impossible
right now.”
After releasing its draft plan
to redraw the Queens Bus Network
for the first time in 100
years when they were converted
from the old trolley lines at
the turn of the 20th century or
consolidated from private bus
companies that began serving
Queens in the 1910s, the MTA
had announced a series of workshops
throughout the borough
for public feedback.
The transit agency has increased
its efforts to an “unprecedented
level of outreach,” adding
more public feedback meetings
in the coming months in an attempt
to mollify Queens bus riders.
The new system will better
serve customers, shorten commute
Queens lawmakers and transit advocates rally for a revised Queens Bus Redesign Plan at Queens Borough Hall in
Kew Gardens. Photo: Carlotta Mohamed/QNS
times, speed up buses, increase
inter-modal connections
and provide more frequency and
choices to travel within the borough
and to Brooklyn, Manhattan
and the Bronx, according to
the MTA.
“This plan was designed to include
the least amount of folks as
possible,” Councilman I. Daneek
Miller said. “The forums were
held simply as informational instead
of tables and they asked for
ideas. Well, if you’re just a bus
rider and don’t understand the
nuances and planning and headways
that go into it, then your
ideas are just ideas.”
Miller added, “We’re not opposed
to an improved new bus
network, connectivity and transportation
equity, absolutely not.
Certainly, this is an opportunity
to fix the system that is old, that
is antiquated, and suppresses
Queens and makes it an outer
borough. We want a system that
connects us, that is safe, efficient
and moves the people too
and from in a manner that they
deserve, and so, they haven’t
done that.”
Meanwhile, other elected officials
such as Councilmen Barry
Grodenchik and Robert Holden
reiterated the changes that will
impact transit-starved communities
in their district, as well.
“We understand that this is a
work in progress, but we’re not
seeing the progress,” Grodenchik
said. “They want us to get out of
our cars, but 90 percent of the
households in my district have a
car. There’s a reason for that, it’s
because the mass transportation
in my district is terrible. They’d
like to come into Forest Hills,
go into Flushing and downtown
Jamaica by bus, but it’s not convenient
and timely, and the plan
does not advance it.”
Some Queens residents
who were optimistic about the
Queens Network Bus Redesign
Plan have changed their tune after
viewing the draft plan.
“I thought we’d get better
buses. The SBS is faster and better,
and instead this plan cuts
that bus service that so many
people rely on … I was very upset,”
said Jim Burke, a resident
of Rockaway Beach, who takes
the select bus service (SBS) to
Jackson Heights. “One of the
most important things they forget
is that we have a large elderly
population. You’re removing
their independence and taking
away their freedom, as you are
with the mothers of kids and
parents with strollers, and the
same thing with our mobility
impaired population.”
Forest Hills resident Grace
Pellicano, 77, who relies on a
Roll-Aider due to health issues
where she cannot walk for a long
time or distance, said she depends
heavily on the Q23.
“I take my granddaughter
to school in the morning at P.S.
144, shop for my medical supplies
and to visit my family,”
Pellicano said. “I use the Q23
for unlimited distance between
Continental and Queens Boulevard
up to Metropolitan Avenue.
I also use it to get to my
volunteer job at the library. The
bus ride is just a few minutes
and it’s up a hill and a distance
for a disabled elderly person to
struggle with.”
Without the Q23, Pellicano
said, she would have to take an
Uber or Lyft service to visit her
family and to go shopping on
Metropolitan Avenue.
Richard David, resident and
district leader of the Democratic
Party in South Ozone Park and
Richmond Hill, said the plan
needs to be more communitycentric.
“This plan makes it worse.
For example, the Q112, there are
three stops in 40 blocks and that’s
insane. I don’t think it speeds up
the bus traffic because there is
still traffic on the roads,” David
said. “With Queens coming together,
we have a chance to actually
get the MTA to be a little
bit more responsive to the community,
historically they have
not cared about this community,
about Queens.”
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed
by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone at
(718) 260–4526.
Vol. 98 No. 6
UPDATED EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
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