Tag: transportation

Hoping to Lure Riders With Scenic Commutes

Even at the start of the 5 p.m. rush hour, the commuters getting off and on [at India Street] could be counted on one hand. Though the numbers are more robust during the morning rush hours — on Monday, 14 people caught the 8:39 ferry to Pier 11 near Wall Street and 21 caught the 8:40 to East 34th Street — they still raise questions about the popularity and profitability of the service as a whole. The ferries can hold 149 passengers.

Anecdotally (which is the best this article can muster too), the number of people getting on the ferry at North 6th Street every morning (going in either direction) is certainly much higher, and the number of passengers at the end of the day at Wall Street is as well. Most boats that I ride are comfortably crowded – not packed, and not at capacity, but they sure don’t feel like ghost ships.

It is not news that the ferry requires subsidies to survive, and that the ferry “functions especially well for residents of Brooklyn and Queens who [like me] live a short walk from the ferry and have jobs or attend schools near the ferry’s two stops in Manhattan” and don’t have to pay two fares.

It is also not news that the ferry is a very nice way to commute (and, if you can afford it, well worth the extra $1.75 each way to avoid the subway at rush hour).

Street Sign Snafu Designates Drab Greenpoint Warehouse a Landmark

In addition to being ugly, the new mixed-case street signs are wrong.

(Ironically, the “drab warehouse” at the southwest corner of Greenpoint & West is part of the Greenpoint Terminal Market site, which, prior to the fire that destroyed many of the historic structures on the site in 2006, some people wanted to have designated as a landmark. I don’t think this particular warehouse would have made anyone’s “To Save” list, though.)

A New Generation of Street Signs

Berry

Floating Berry
Photo: NYT

David Dunlap goes deep on the new mixed-case street signs that you see going up all over the city:

“Clearview’s [the typeface on the new sign] primary mission is to improve on the legibility of the standard alphabet used for traffic signs, known officially as the FHWA series but colloquially as Highway Gothic. …In discussing its policy, the highway agency said there were demonstrable gains in legibility when mixed-case Clearview letters appeared on a reflective surface called microprismatic sheeting.”

Safety, schmafety, I still say the mixed-case signs are ugly.

Searching for the L Train’s ‘Silver Bullet’

One quote from [Senator Dan] Squadron though struck a chord. As he noted that some rush hour trains will likely be below the MTA’s load guidelines, he let slip a key line. “This is not going to be the silver bullet, but this is real good news for L train riders,” he said. “Anyone tired of the crushing crowds and overflowing trains will now have an L train trip less likely to feel like hell.” What exactly does Squadron expect? What kind of silver bullet does he want? The MTA isn’t about to build a parallel line through Williamsburg or third-track the L train, and running trains every 180 seconds should be at least sufficient to ease some of the crowding concerns.

I can’t speak for the Senator, but his comments echo my points from last Friday – there is no silver bullet on the L train. Increased service is great, and an extra train every hour or so actually will make a difference. But no amount of automation or optimization is going to going to overcome a sick passenger on a two-track line. So overcrowding and delays will remain a fact of life, and those “residual delays” tweets will keep coming.

L Train Set for Service Bumps

Newsday (via Second Avenue Sagas):

The MTA will add nearly 100 trains each week along the L line starting Sunday… 16 additional round trips will run each weekday, 11 more will go on Saturdays and another seven on Sundays, an MTA spokesman said.

The increased service is the result of the automation upgrades that have been going in on the line for what seems like years now. As a result, the MTA is able to reduce headway and squeeze more trains onto the single-track line.

State Senator Dan Squadron – who pushed hard for these service increases – is a happy man: “Anyone tired of the crushing crowds and overflowing trains will now have an L train trip less likely to feel like hell.”

Bike Share Map

The City has released its draft map for the first phase of the bike share program. Phase I includes about 60 or so sharing stations in Williamsburg and Greenpoint (including some east of McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint).

Ferry Operator Wants to Accept Metrocards

04/27/2012 | 1 Comment

The East River Ferry wants to accept Metrocards. Other non-MTA services already accept Metrocards, so the idea is not that far fetched. But the real innovation would be for the ferry to accept Metrocard transfers – i.e., eliminating the two-fare structure that most commuters using the ferry face (by the way, it’s nice to see Second Avenue Sagas having a change of heart about the ferry). As it stands now, if you want to go from the ferry to an MTA bus or subway, a one-way trip will cost you as much as $6.50. Institute free Metrocard transfers, and the price drops to $4 (the cost of the ferry ride).

But MTA chief Joe Lhota says that’s not going to happen.

Heart the G

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is joining the effort to continue the G train extension. Unless the MTA decides otherwise, the extra stops on the Crosstown Local into south Brooklyn are scheduled to go away very soon.

Now that the construction is nearing completion, the M.T.A. is considering discontinuing the G-train extension that enabled riders in Greenpoint to go all the way to Kensington without switching trains.

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[Via Brownstoner]