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| Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains (234303) | |||
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Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains |
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Posted by BrooklynBus on Sat May 28 22:37:16 2011, in response to Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains, posted by B49 Limited on Fri May 27 18:22:03 2011. When I was head of Bus Planning in 1981, the problem was that we had no power when it came to route changes. All I could really do was change bus stops and destination signage. Bus Transportation had the final say in route changes, and their attitude was "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" That was literally their response to every route change proposal I ran past them. I couldn't even get them to cut routes! When I tried that, their response was: "But people depend on us." The only types of changes they would make were if you pointed out a safety problem.In the summer of 1981, Rapid Transit Operations Planning and the Surface Planning Department I headed were combined to form "Operations Planning". The following year, it was placed under Planning and Budget. Now the Transportation people at Buses lost most of their power, and the Budget people now had the final word. Several years later, Scheduling also moved from Bus Transportation to Operations Planning leaving Buses to handle only maintenance day to day operations. In 1978, the day when my bus proposals were adopted, the TA decided to also inaugurate the B50 (now B82), which they had received a franchise for three years earlier, but never operated. It was a totally new service. Today, a route like that would never be implemented, because then there was no requirement that any new service must also involve a discontinuance of service somewhere. That became the rules Operations Planning had to live with once they came under the Office of Management and Budget. So yes OP is not completely to blame. They are forced to operate under bean counters who do not have the vaguest idea about what constitutes good route planning theory. Even if you have good ideas, the MTA does not want to hear them when it involves route planning. Pushing those ideas will only hurt your career. In 2006, I attended an Employee Suggestion Program Ceremony whereby the MTA awards money to employees making good suggestions. Dollar awards can be in the thousands if it saves the MTA money. A simple change to a manufacturing process can earn you $25,000 or more if it saves the MTA millions. Hundreds of employees were honored at the ceremony. Some departments had between 10 and 25 winners. Operations Planning only gave out 2 awards and probably rejected hundreds of submissions. I submitted about 50 myself, all of which were rejected, some for the most ridiculous and conflicting reasons. OP is just not open to new ideas. I wouldn't call the bus system "horrible." It is a great system compared to other cities, but it is operating as your teachers used to say: "far below its potential." |
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