FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 30, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
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Queens bus service fares better than rest of
city, but system is in ‘crisis’ mode: comptroller
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com
@AngelaMatua
City Comptroller Scott Stringer released
a study analyzing the city bus service and
is arguing that major changes need to be
implemented to make the system more
reliable.
Th e report, titled “Th e Other Transit
Crisis: How to Improve the NYC Bus
System,” found that bus ridership has lost
100 million passengers in the last eight
years. Th e average bus in the city’s system
travels slower than buses in the 17 largest
bus companies in the country, with
an average speed of 7.4 miles per hour on
local, express and SBS routes.
Th e bus service in Queens fared slightly
better than the service in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and the Bronx with average
speeds of 8.1 miles per hour. Ridership in
Queens also rose by 1 percent from 2011
through 2016.
Employment growth within Queens,
Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island
has risen by double digits since 2006 but
Manhattan only saw a 5 percent increase
in growth since then. Many residents are
also commuting within their home borough
or to another borough that isn’t
Manhattan, making reliable bus service
even more imperative.
Queens saw a 34 percent employment
growth between 2006 and 2016, but in
neighborhoods with plenty of job opportunities,
the bus service was infrequent.
For example, in College Point where
there are 13,851 jobs according to the
Census Bureau, only one of seven bus
routes had high frequency service going
both ways. Four routes were considered
low frequency traveling both ways and
two routes were considered high frequency
traveling in one direction.
Evening service in neighborhoods with
a high concentration of healthcare, retail,
food services and hospitality is also lacking,
the report found. In neighborhoods
like Forest Hills and Glen Oaks, where
half the jobs are in industries requiring
staff seven days a week and 24 hours a
day, bus service plummets by more than
60 percent between rush hour in the
morning and the evening.
Select Bus Service, which was implemented
in 2008 to address some of the
issues with service including slow speeds
and ineffi cient routes, “has introduced
eff ective, replicable innovations” that
should be implemented system-wide, the
report found.
But the report also says that implementation
has not been reliable and that there
are design fl aws. Five of the nine routes
implemented before 2016 lost ridership
aft er they were turned into SBS routes.
Ridership also decreased by 0.2 percent
on all nine lines.
Th e Q44, which was implemented in
2015 and runs through Jamaica, saw a 2
percent decrease from 28,139 riders in
2015 to 27,712 riders in 2016.
Th e frequency and speed of SBS buses
also does not diff er much from buses that
follow local routes. SBS buses arrive every
4.9 minutes during rush hour while local
buses arrive every 6.7 minutes. While the
average speed of an SBS bus is 8.7 miles
per hour, a local bus travels 7 miles per
hour on average.
One of the design fl aws, according to
the report, is the distance between bus
stops. Th e MTA Bus Company guidelines
outline a spacing interval of 750
feet between each stop. On 10 routes, bus
stops are located more than 1,200 feet
apart, which is problematic for seniors
and riders with disabilities.
Th e Q10 (1,362 feet), Q35 (1,641 feet)
and Q100 (3,560 feet) rank among the
routes with the highest distance between
each stop.
Bus routes with the shortest average
distance between stops also have slow
and unreliable service. Seven of the nine
bus routes with less than 650 feet between
stops saw a decrease in riders between
2011 and 2016. Th e comptroller suggested
that the MTA conduct a “top-to-bottom
review” of spacing across all of its
bus routes. In total, the report made 19
recommendations to improve the service.
Gloria Chin, a spokesperson for the
Department of Transportation, pointed
to the mayor’s announcement that the
city would add 21 new SBS routes within
the next 10 years. Th ere are a total
of 15 SBS routes so far, with the latest
one implemented along Woodhaven and
Cross Bay Boulevards in Queens.
Chin also said the city has worked to
create new dedicated bus lanes in highly
traffi cked corridors in neighborhoods
such as downtown Flushing. She added
that while the city was “grateful to get the
support for all these eff orts,” some of the
recommendations he made will require
his “active assistance.”
“For example, given his support for
dedicated bus lanes, we look forward to
working with Comptroller Stringer to
advance state legislation for additional
bus-lane cameras among his former colleagues
in the state legislature,” she said.
“Th e new bus shelters that he recommends
will also require that we modify
existing contracts and make new city
expenditures — and so we will appreciate
the comptroller’s support in expediting
those changes.”
Offi cials for the MTA argued that “the
bus network has never been more dynamic
than it is now.” Th ey also said that outer
borough ridership has transferred to
subways due to “new populations that are
increasingly traveling to Manhattan for
work and leisure” using the subway.
“Th e bus system and our riders are the
victims of a crisis,” said MTA Chairman
Joe Lhota in a statement. “Traffi c congestion
and New York City’s consistent
inability to manage traffi c fl ow and
enforce existing traffi c laws on its streets
is killing our bus service and hurting bus
riders. Th e proper and progressive way
to deal with the scourge of traffi c is for
everyone to support a responsible congestion
pricing plan. Traffi c congestion is
keeping the most reliable and advanced
bus fl eet in recent history from moving as
effi ciently as it can and should.”
The city comptroller released a report criticizing bus service in New York City.