State Senate Approves Bus Camera Legislation
News about bus service continues to dominate this space. The never ending battle to bring survelliance cameras to bus only lanes continues. This legislation which would be a major key into improving bus service passed the State Senate’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday. Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News has more:
A plan to monitor bus-only lanes with surveillance cameras – and mail tickets to violators – cleared a bump in the road Tuesday.
The state Senate’s transportation committee approved legislation that would allow the city to use cameras as an enforcement tool on up to 50 miles of bus lanes, including the new ones along First and Second Aves.
Mayor Bloomberg and MTA Chairman Jay Walder have made this legislation a priority, saying fines will serve as a deterrent to drivers who now park or drive in bus-only lanes.
Click here for the complete report.
The headline is a bit misleading in my opinion since it has only passed a Senate committee. The real battle will be getting it to the floor for a full vote & having it pass. This is the same Senate that has turned its back on such legislation in the past. This should be an interesting battle that will unfold over the coming days & weeks. Will Albany do the right thing for NYC & its riding public? If past history is any indication, the answer is a resounding no.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Bus Lane Camera Legislation Is Watered Down
- Bill S3772-A Stalls In The State Assembly
- Suffolk Wants To Join Nassau MTA Tax Lawsuit
- NYDN Editorial: Bus Lane Cameras Are Good
- Reappointment Is Truly A Blow To Mass Transit
Fare Beaters To Face $100 Tickets
The news is still coming in with regards to the Select Bus Service coming to the east side of Manhattan later this year. As I noted yesterday, the MTA is not worried about fare evasion on the upcoming service even though the agency admitted it would be a problem back in April.
Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News reports on how fare beaters would face $100 tickets from extra inspectors:
Here’s some bad news for fare-beaters.
While the speedier bus service coming to the East Side is based on an honor system in which riders pay at the curb, officials will hire more NYC Transit inspectors to ferret out cheaters and issue $100 fines when the new plan arrives in the fall.
That already happens in the Bronx, where inspectors on just one route issue more than twice as many tickets as the NYPD does on all other bus routes combined.
Still, some riders on the M15 route are skeptical NYC Transit can keep out the freeloaders under the new plan – designed to cut boarding time and shorten trips that averaged a snail-like pace of one block a minute in midtown yesterday.
“It won’t work here,” Jeff Rigby, 52, a graphic designer, said. “I don’t know if New Yorkers are trustworthy. They will ride for free as long as they can. It’s still a nice idea, though.”
Compliance will depend on enforcement, said therapist Michele Endich. “They need to fear the fine,” she said.
Mayor Bloomberg agrees.
“There always will be a handful of people who cheat,” he said. “When you start fining a few, then they’ll say, ‘Oops! I better not do that.'”
The Select Bus Service will affect the M15 on First and Second Aves. from Houston to 125th Sts.
Click here for the complete report.
Newsflash, $100 fines will not do the trick. It is one thing to issue a fine but will you actually see it paid by the perpetrators? I feel Mayor Bloomberg is living in a fantasy world to think that seeing a people fined will stop people from attempting to beat the fare. Fare evasion has been a long standing issue with buses for years. How many millions of dollars are lost every year from it on buses alone much less all forms of service that the MTA provides.
If they really want to curb fare evasion, real solutions must be put into place & a few extra inspectors are not it. One can’t possibly have enough inspectors to cover every single bus from beginning to end. What they should do is sit down with the NYPD & come up with long term sustainable solutions to address this problem throughout the entire system.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- New York Daily News Changes Fare Evasion Tune
- MTA Not Worried About SBS Fare Evasion
- NYCT: Select Bus Fare Beaters Were Expected
- MTA & NYPD Team Up To Crack Down On Fare Evaders
- 15,700 Fare Beaters Arrested So Far In 2010
MTA Statement On Booth & Kiosk Closures
Just a few minutes ago, the MTA issued a statement on the subway booth & kiosk closures which a Manhattan Supreme Court Judge found were closed by improper procedures. Here is the statement they sent me a few minutes ago:
The MTA continues to disagree with the court’s ruling that additional public hearings are required before the station booths and kiosks can be closed, and that the kiosks closed in May need to be re-opened. These closures were necessitated by the MTA’s dire financial situation, and the need for the savings they generate remains.
We believe the prior public hearings fully conformed with the legal requirements and will be appealing the judge’s order as soon as it is entered. The appeal triggers an automatic stay of the lower court’s order, and the MTA therefore should not be required to re-open the recently-closed kiosks at this time.
At the same time as the MTA pursues the appeal, we will be proceeding on a parallel track with the public hearing process. With that in mind, an MTA Board meeting is scheduled for tomorrow at which the Board will be asked to authorize the public hearing process to move this vital cost-saving initiative forward.
I am going to see if I can find a way to attend this meeting tomorrow although it is looking unlikely at this point.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Public Hearing Reminder
- MTA Statement On 2011 Fare Hike
- MTA Posts Public Hearing Notice
- Judge Halts MTA Closing Token Booths
- MTA Expanded Statement On Payroll Tax
MTA Not Worried About SBS Fare Evasion
For a few minutes this morning, I could not stop laughing. You are probably wondering what had me in near tears? The article in today’s New York Post by Tom Namako which talks about how the MTA is not worried about fare evasion on the new Select Bus Service route debuting on the east side of Manhattan later this year:
You won’t need a ticket to ride!
Wide-eyed MTA officials are hoping that riders on a new East Side express bus line will buy tickets before they board — even though nobody, except the occasional inspector, will be able to give them the boot for fare-beating.
Drivers will ask to see the tickets from riders on the new express M15 route — who are being trusted to buy tickets before they board in order to speed up the process — but will be powerless to enforce the fare.
Enforcement will be left up to a special MTA team, which has just 30 members.
The new route — which in October will run on First and Second avenues from 125th Street to Houston Street — is supposed to speed up trip lengths by ditching the time-consuming MetroCard dips.Transit officials say the payment system has helped reduce fare-beating on the Fordham Road express line in The Bronx from 13 percent of riders per year — when fares were paid on board — to 10 percent.
Even Mayor Bloomberg is putting his trust in the riders.
“It’s to some extent an honor system,” Hizzoner said yesterday. “People pay. These are New Yorkers and, yes, there will always be a handful of people who cheat. There are a handful of people that cheat right now.
“Most people are honest, and the fact of the matter is, if you improve the service dramatically, you’ll get a lot more people using it, and the revenues will go up even if a handful of people cheat,” he added.
Click here for the complete report.
Honestly, who are they kidding? Fare Evasion has been a big problem with Select Bus Service so far as the New York Daily News has reported on a number of occasions. Even MTA New York City Transit expected fare evasion to be an issue with SBS as they said as much in April.
I hate to bring this up but are the faith sentiments in honesty stemming from the location of the service? It is widely known that fare evasion has been a problem in the Bronx on the Bx12’s Select Bus Service. Are the MTA & Mayor Bloomberg echoing so much faith because this service will be in Manhattan & serving more upscale neighborhoods?
I am not trying to offend anyone but I find it is a fair question considering the resounding faith being showed in the honesty system working in terms of fare collection. Most likely it is just misguided faith & not some underhanded class structure point. This is the same agency spending over $100M to rehab Jay Street yet will not repaint badly needed areas in the station as part of the work. I just wanted to put it out there as I could not be the only person to have seen this potential point.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Fare Beaters To Face $100 Tickets
- New York Daily News Changes Fare Evasion Tune
- Increased Fare Evasion Penalty Begins Today
- NYC Transit Increases Fare Evasion Penalty
- Bx12 Fare Beating Still A Problem
Sorry Jay, No Paint For You
In a story that comes as to no surprise to me nor should it you, the MTA will spend over $100M on a station rehabilitation which somehow does not include repainting. The station in question is the Jay St station which has been under extensive renovations for months as anyone who reads the “Service Diversions” would know. Gary Buiso of The Brooklyn Paper has more:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is spending $110 million to rehabilitate the bustling Jay Street subway station, but it is content to treat the hub’s entryway as an ugly stepchild.
The transit agency said this week it will not repaint the peeling ceilings on either exit on the west side of Jay Street between Willoughby Street and Myrtle Avenue, leaving a moonscape of potentially toxic paint chips raining down.
Straphangers were disgusted by the news.
“They need to fix it — it’s not healthy,” said commuter Anjell Bowers. If Jay Street were Wall Street, it is unlikely the ceilings would be left to deteriorate, she added.
“But Wall Street is where the money is.”
Commuter Norman Chan agreed.
“If this was an apartment building, this would be a major housing violation,” he charged. “You wouldn’t rent a place that looked like this.”
Transit spokeswoman Deirdre Parker insisted that the areas in question are safe, noting that the ceiling was re-painted in the 1990s with a non-lead based paint.
But even so, the agency regards the situation as dangerous: Above-ground station cleaners are instructed to sweep the courtyard area with wet cloths and a HEPA vacuum — which contain specialized filters to trap dangerous lead particles, which can cause serious health problems.
Click here for the complete report.
This kind of stupidity irks me to no end. Why spend millions of dollars to do a station rehabilitation yet choose to not repaint areas that clearly need them? One does not need an Ivy-League education to understand why this is beyond ridiculous. However leave it to the MTA to do such a thing which leaves you scratching your heads & wondering who makes these decisions. I will applaud them when they do well but I will equally trash them when they do something stupid like this!
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:
