Watchdogs find
AS THE MTA focuses on fixing the crumbling subway system, a coalition of transit advocates said Tuesday that the plodding bus network needs some road work as well.
To show the transit pros how bad it’s gotten on city streets, the groups collected more than 1,000 stories of bus riders’ missed appointments, angry bosses and unplanned taxi trips.
Members of the Bus Turnaround Coalition, which includes the Straphangers Campaign, published 50 tales of terrible MTA bus trips called “The Woes on the Bus: Frustration and Suffering, All Through the Town.”
The coalition will be delivering copies to the offices of Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, as well as to transit agencies.
The toll late buses take can be measured in dollars and aggravation: l Shannon Reid complained her Gateway Mall job is in jeopardy due to the long wait for a Q8 bus near her Brooklyn home. She relies on cabs to get to work on time — even though she has an unlimited Metrocard.
“It has gotten worse over the years,” Reid said, blasting the route as the “worst bus line.”
“I’ve gotten my final warning, about to get fired, waiting for this bus,” the irate commuter wrote. l Another woman said been there, done that.
“I lost my last job because my bus always arrived late,” grumbled Sade G., of Queens. l Edith D. of Queens gave herself a two-hour head start for a 9 a.m. job interview — but a late bus thwarted her.
“The bus was so late that it didn’t even arrive until after my interview was supposed to start,” Edith D. wrote. l Yet another bus foiled the ambitions in an epic, even legendary way, for aspiring musician Faith L. of Brooklyn.
“Once I missed an audition to do background vocals for John Legend,” she groused. l And Maria Z. made a fuss that it took her three hours to get from her Greenpoint home to Williamsburg. l A member of the grass-roots transit group, Riders Alliance, said a slow ride on the Bx19 from her South Bronx home to upper Manhattan can make the difference between seeing a doctor or needing to reschedule appointments.
“I have Medicaid. It’s difficult to get in to see some of the specialists that I see,” Ramona Ferreryra, 37, said at Columbus Circle. “It’s super-stressful.”
She complained that her ride on the Bx19 through E. 149th St. in the Bronx is constantly held up in traffic, particularly near Lincoln Hospital.
Unlike the MTA-run subways, both Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio share responsibility for the bus system. Cuomo controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and de Blasio’s Department of Transportation controls the streets.
Though transit officials are trying to improve the bus system to stem the loss of riders, performance has yet to improve. In June, nearly a quarter of buses were late to their next pickup, according to the latest MTA stats — a slight decrease from the same month last year.
The advocacy groups said the MTA can allow all-door boarding on local bus routes, while the city can add bus lanes and tweak street signals to let buses zoom through intersections.
The MTA blamed congested streets for holding up buses.
“Better bus service is directly connected to less-congested New York City streets, strong enforcement of bus-only lanes and expediting new technology like traffic signalization prioritization,” said MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan.