MESSAGE
| DATE | 2009-03-07 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] What fare increases buys you
|
MARIE LEWIS does not take the bus often. But Ms. Lewis, a 50-year-old
nurse from Rockland County, knows this much: “If you miss it, you’re in
trouble,†she said at a bus stop in the East Village on a recent
morning.
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Ms. Lewis had just hustled across 14th Street at First Avenue only to
watch the M15 bus lumber away. She stared bleakly down the avenue. Cars
rushed past, but the hulk of a bus was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m not about to stay here forever,†she said, resolving to walk
several blocks to an appointment. If she knew her bus would arrive in
the next two minutes, would she wait?
“Yes,†Ms. Lewis said emphatically. But there was no way to know.
She swung around and strode down the block, two minutes before a bus
arrived.
A blank electronic board at the M15 bus shelter was intended to avert
just this situation by providing real-time updates to riders. Instead,
it has become the latest failure in the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s longstanding attempt to use GPS tracking to manage buses
more efficiently and offer riders information about arrival times. Other
cities, including Chicago and London, have successfully implemented the
technology.
The M.T.A. issued its first contract for the system in 1996. Several
companies and more than a decade later, there are no official plans on
what to try next. James Anyansi, an M.T.A. spokesman, said the current
project had been scuttled by technical problems, and in a dispiriting
sign of its demise, all 15 electronic boards are to be dismantled by the
end of next month.
Predictably, the reaction among bus riders and those who support the
devices has been one of unhappiness.
“The public is very unsympathetic to the saga that’s been bus tracking,â€
said Gene Russianoff, chief spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign, a
rider advocacy group.
Mr. Anyansi said the agency remained “committed to developing a reliable
system,†but he declined to provide further details.
Over the course of one morning, M15 buses arrived erratically at the
stop at First Avenue and 14th Street, piling up in bunches or not
arriving for long stretches as would-be riders huddled against a biting
wind.
Lou Basile, 41, a building engineer, stood at the shelter on the way to
visit his son at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He planned to
stop at McDonald’s to buy his son a snack. One location beckoned right
across the street. But he knew the bus might arrive any minute.
Otherwise, Mr. Basile said, “I would go right here and get McDonald’s.
Save me the wait uptown.â€
--
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