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| Re: Subway Planning (1324390) | |||
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Re: Subway Planning |
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Posted by BrooklynBus on Wed Nov 19 13:33:55 2014, in response to Re: Subway Planning, posted by BusRider on Tue Nov 18 19:55:17 2014. Revenue did not determine bus service before traffic checkers. In fact, bus service was not at all matched to demand outside of rush hours. The MTA and TA before them had absolutely no idea of what levels of service was needed outside of rush hours. Beach service and school service was totally inadequate. Each major school received two extra buses at school arrivals and dismissals which was usually grossly inadequate. It meant students clogged up regular buses and many riders on some routes could not get on the buses at all during those times.I used to take the B49 from Church Avenue to Manhattan Beach between 1965 and 1969. Additional buses were put on at Church Avenue. On a very nice day 90 people woud load onto those buses or the regular buses at that tie. although buses were supposed to stop every block, they woud only stop when someone needed to get off usually at a transfer point. If you were waiting at Avenue K or Avenue T and did not walk to Avenues J or U, you could literally wait for a bus from 2 PM to 5 PM and not ave a bus stop for you. In 1975 , when there was a budget crisis, and service needed to be cut, the riders were totally ignored. The MTA only looked at its budget and realized it could save the most money by cutting the routes with the most service, which were also the routes with the heaviest patronage. So rush hour service on routes like the B41, then the heaviest route in Brooklyn, and the B41 and B44 saw rush hour service cut by a whopping 50 percent. The MTA justified the cuts by saying you will only have to wait one or two minutes longer for a bus since service was cut from every two minutes to every four minutes. The private sector immediately filled the void with private cars taking people to the subway for a fee, followed almost immediately by limousines or as they were more popularly called " gypsy cabs" which were eventually replaced with "dollar vans" as the MTA refused to reinstate the buses that were cut. They measured their new ridership base which was 50 percent less on these routes and concluded that existing service was sufficient. It was not until free transfers between buses and subways that riders returned and bus service became more frequent enabling additional riders to use the bus system. Moses did not mess with mass transit because it was one of the few areas e held no official position. One time he held eleven different positions simultaneously, including Parks, Housing, Highways, Streets, Bridges and Tunnels. There are those who will argue he funneled money away from mass transit, but that is debatable, since his skill at obtaining funding for his pet projects also harmed hospitals, and schools as well as transit and other factors were also involved like the Great Depression and World War II. |
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