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| Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains (234253) | |||
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Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains |
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Posted by checkmatechamp13 on Sat May 28 16:43:47 2011, in response to Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains, posted by (SIR) North Shore Line on Thu May 26 11:42:43 2011. When I looked at the documents from the public hearing last year, I noticed a pattern: If the route didn't serve St. George or Bay Ridge, it would have the label "high student ridership" (meaning that a lower percentage of regular riders were riding those routes).The reason is simple: People want to have an easy way to reach Manhattan, and making 2 transfers makes those routes unattractive (I think the same holds true for virtually every other route in the outer boroughs: If there is no easy connection to the subway, the route will have low ridership) The reason is simple: Part of it is the fact that making 2 transfers often requires 2 fares (except in some cases where there are 3-legged transfers). The other part is that, the more transfers you have to make, the more unreliable your trip will be (especially when the routes involved are relatively infrequent) The routes that had "high student ridership" were the S54, S55, S56, S57, and S59/S89. There really isn't anything that could be done with the S55/S56: Combining them with the S44 or S61 could make them unreliable, and the trip to St. George would still be extremely long (I think every able-bodied person would walk to the S74, S78, or SIR, which offer more direct service to St. George). The S89 could shed some of its costs by being cut back to the 8th Street HBLR station (it also has the advantage of riders from SI having a better chance of getting a seat on the HBLR) The S54, S57, and S59 could be sent to St. George one way or another. The S54 could either be extended straight down Richmond Terrace (I believe you mentioned that there was a very long layover in West Brighton), or combined with the S42. The S57 could be extended straight down Richmond Terrace from Port Richmond. We have discussed the possibility of splitting the S40/S90 and having the S59 cover the eastern portion, and the S53 cover the western portion. That proposal does have its merits. However, now that I think about it, a better candidate would be the S46/S96. The reason is that Richmond Terrace is the fastest route to St. George, so the riders in Mariners' Harbor should still have that fast, direct route to St. George. Ths S46/S96 take a slower route along Castleton Avenue, so it is actually doing a favor to them by forcing them to take the faster S40/S90 to reach St. George. In exchange, they have the S53 as a direct route to Brooklyn. The only disadvantage of this proposal over the S40/S90 split proposal is that the S59 doesn't offer the fast ride to St. George (for Richmond Avenue riders) that it would along Richmond Terrace. However, the direct route to St. George should take some pressure off of the S44. |
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