The Queens bus reboot we need
Make better the biggest borough’s buses
Queens buses are in dire need of help. Take it from me, I’ve lived in Elmhurst, Briarwood, St. Albans, Ozone Park and Woodhaven, and am a lifelong bus rider. Now, the MTA is redesigning the entire Queens bus network. We have a critical chance to improve service for 700,000 daily passengers. Bus riders won this overhaul after years of speaking up. We have to work with the MTA to make it successful.
Growing up in Queens, long bus rides were a daily part of life. I had to take two trains and a bus just to get to high school. Why? Because the bus network has poor options for those who want to travel within the borough. Buses still follow old trolley lines and trace the same routes of private bus operators from more than 20 years ago. These routes were designed on a hub-and-spoke model, with the primary objective of getting people into Manhattan.
Queens buses must do more to move people within Queens and get us to locations trains cannot. This also includes giving riders better connections to Brooklyn and the Bronx. When I was in college, I worked at Queens Center Mall and relied on the Q52/Q53. I have vivid memories of sprinting out of work as the clock struck noon because if I didn’t make the 12:15 p.m. bus I’d have to wait a full hour outside for the next one. Traveling by bus is exhausting, and it often discouraged me from leaving my house to do anything I didn’t absolutely have to.
I know my experience is broadly shared. The Q18, which takes riders from Astoria to Maspeth, is circuitous, making turns on every other four blocks once it starts to head south. The Q17, which runs from Flushing to Jamaica, takes riders for a detour on the Horace Harding, 188th St., and Hillside Ave. Riders using these routes will benefit from a more intuitive, grid-like network within Queens which will impact bunching, bus speeds and reliability, potentially saving riders a lot of valuable time.
More than half of bus riders across the city are immigrants. Riders’ average income is $28,455. And as gentrification continues to push lower-income residents out of transit-dense neighborhoods, it is even more important to have high quality, fast buses everywhere. In recent years, bus ridership has been in freefall. With buses not serving riders well, no wonder so many find new ways to get around. It’s time to redesign the Queens bus network to serve the needs of riders today and give people back their time.
The MTA just released its first draft of a Queens bus redesign. To their credit, planners have taken a bold approach, starting with a clean slate and designing a system from scratch. It’s not perfect, but the plan adds direct routes in Queens, better access to Brooklyn and Bronx and removes the convoluted and complex routing that has stripped people of valuable time for over 50 years.
I realize some Queens residents are chafing about the possible changes. I understand it’s hard to let go of a route that you’ve relied upon your whole life. Nor am I suggesting that every reform proposed by the MTA makes sense.
The key is for rider input to help shape these plans, and for it to happen constructively. Upcoming workshops hosted by MTA are crucial to learn more about the plan and provide feedback to design a network that meets riders’ 21st-century needs.
If you are a bus rider like me — fed up with the unreliability of service, multiple transfers, the indirect routing and the time that has been taken from you — look at this plan as a solution that will address these problems. Service hasn’t changed in over 50 years; surely the time for an intelligent rethink has arrived.
Burgos-Veras is campaign manager with the Riders Alliance.