Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

and yes hurting I believe it's basically at capacity atm. ferry service is mostly a joke as far as commuting goes. fun tho.

I was just down by those new condos/rentals on the waterfront (where Brooklyn Flea is now) and I saw they were running the ferries pretty rapidly. I was thinking what if they had like five of those docks on each side of the river and maybe included a subway transfer with your $4 fare -- at least some of the more well-heeled nu-Williamsburgers would probably take the option and relieve some of the pressure on the subways.

I.e. five docks on each side just for williamsburg. Obv there are other docks.

subway transfer would be a nice start but still those ferries are seasonal and not super cost effective for the amount of people they're moving

how many of those well-heeled burgers are gonna wait for a ferry outside for 15 minutes in the snow

Hmm, maybe a Williamsburg Bridge express bus then. Not that it would be very "express" in morning traffic, but as someone who does the Graham to Union Square ride every day I can't see how the fuck the L is going to accommodate the even more commmuters who may/may not move into all those bldgs around McCarren that aren't already full. Maybe some will find their way to the M.

the bigger solution is just to upzone around transit lines w/ capacity instead of around what neighborhoods are hot. not that there's a ton of room to build in Brooklyn regardless I guess.

also to build more subway lines

Not that I know the details of it, but I would guess this is partly a byproduct of having a weird city transit authority that is a creature of the state instead of the city, i.e. planning/zoning and transit are probably not as well coordinated? Really don't know though, it's a guess.

Yeah, more lines for sure. At least the area around the area/downtown has a shitton of subways so it actually makes some sense to have higher density there.

nah this kinda shit is poorly planned throughout the country. it's an america problem more than a ny problem.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Subway Conducting

OH yeah, that Q&A is awesome. Been recommending the full version (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/kx5fa/iama_new_york_city_transit_subway_conductor_ama/) to everyone!
Mole People/"police investigation" code/why is the C train so old?? etc.
You can ignore the "protesters should just get jobs" part at the end though!

Anyone have any thoughts on what times are better on L morning commutes? It seems like leaving a little later (getting on the train @9am or after) helps, but i can't always leave that late. What's the earliest things get unbearably crowded?

maybe look at the city-wide commute time distribution for NYC and the l schedule. but beyond 'later is always better' i dunno what you'd find.

or just bike to work? I dunno I feel for you but there's no easy solution. how far are you from the g?

I tried to take the D from Borough Park to LES this morning. I got to the 50 St station but there were no Manhattan-bound trains running, so everyone had to take it two stops and transfer to the northbound train at 62 St. Except once everyone got off there the construction workers told us trains weren't stopping there either, so everyone got back on the next southbound, and I wasn't sure what to do so I just got off at 20 Ave and sure enough there's no trains to Manhattan here, either, and the person in the booth told me I had to just stay on the train until it got to Coney Island and looped around.

What the fuck is going on? Why am I sitting on a train platform in Bensonhurst instead of eating DUMPLINGS! at Vanessa's?

Rerouted trains are the norm at any time other than rush hours. Wage slaves gotta get to work, what else is New York for these days?

Oh okay so apparently there are no northbound trains AT ALL on the D tracks between 36 St and Stillwell Av. That's, like, 14 stations. Apparently I was supposed to leave the 62 St station and transfer to the New Utrecht Av N station. THANKS FOR THE CLEAR SIGNAGE, MTA.

The N and D trains in Brooklyn have been out of whack for some reason the past few weeks ... I work in Borough Park, and half the time there's some bizarre transfer, stopped train, or other mildly irritating inconvenience. I wonder what's going on.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/10/24/who-killed-transit-on-the-new-tappan-zee-feds-and-state-dot-wont-say/

this saga is pretty tragic

Rockland county is shit for any public trans

bloomie apparently gonna actually push for 7 to jersey

Wife says some guy told her L isn't running - anyone know if that's true?

nm apparently resumed

robert caro endorses jsk: http://www.observer.com/2011/11/janette-sadik-khan-is-o-k-in-robert-caros-book/

there are def problems w/ taking the comparison too far - closing down times sq + adding bike lanes vs. turning like half of new york city into freeways and housing projects. nobody can really be the new robert moses! okay I'm not doing her justice, but her legacy will be a lot more about changing the philosophy here than anything else.

map of abandoned stations and unbuilt lines

The L train is so nice at holiday times when everyone is away.

Eventually with the pace of construction in Williamsburg the thing is just going to be bonkers.

I saw that thing...I'm not sure what criteria they're using for inclusion in their map. seems kinda sloppy?

missing most of the IND second system stuff, which are the most interesting 'what if' lines

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/1929_IND_Second_System.jpg

http://transportationnation.org/2012/01/11/a-whole-new-york-city-borough-gets-real-time-bus-information/

That is so cool!!! I could have used that option at 8.15 this morning when I waited for a local bus that never came.

I could have used that option every time I've ever waited for a new york city bus and it didn't come when it was supposed to, which is every time.

Unfair. The buses usually run really well ime!

My gripe with the B46 is that there are 6 limited buses for every 1-2 local ones, and my stop is a local. So I have to let a lot of them go by. But presumably this is based on how people use the bus, and where they need to go, so I'll just have to deal.

still not gettin a mobile

I could have used that option every time I've ever waited for a new york city bus and it didn't come when it was supposed to, which is every time.

places w/ heavy traffic + hundreds of stops + millions of people using public transit can't just magically ensure that buses come on time. two buses cluster together naturally when a lot of people get on the first, which slows it down. someone in a wheelchair can take more than 2 minutes to get on. etc.

what's more important is overall frequency. a bus that comes every 20 mins but rarely hits schedule > a bus that comes ~on time~ every 40 mins. and nyc has lots of pretty frequent buses.

"The MTA hopes to roll out a city-wide system by mid-2013."

Really this is a great thing though. I've been finding buses a lot more useful since I moved to North Brooklyn (where I'm only close to L service), and the main drawback to them is waiting outside for long periods of time in the rain or on freezing cold days. The two main buses I take (the Q59 and the one that goes up Manhattan Ave - forget the name) have both been pretty unreliable IME and I've waited EXTREMELY long times for both at least a couple times. I'm not talking about the 5:49 coming at 5:52 -- obv I know you can't time a road vehicle with that degree of certainty.

I think the bus system is pretty good all things considered, tho I only use it for supplementary trips + occassionally in a far out part of the outer boroughs. sometimes just out of boredom.

but it's mostly pretty good because it's wayyy more subsidized than the subway system.

What was up this morning? Just weather related?

Subways are apparently like to Gremlins -- don't get them wet, don't feed them after 10pm.

Ha.

There were also some other explanations on the mta page.

This morning my L train driver announced that the train was going express from Lorimer to Union Square. Whenever they announce that I think "you fucked up, didn't you"

a lot of the time they do that when one train get delayed and the one behind it catches up

That's what I always figured. Either that or there is a slow train- maybe even a work train- before it on the local track.

What MTA page had the explanations? Not finding them....

Fulton/Broadway station mildly NUTSO this morn, since it's still under construction and only small passageways are open between each set of points. Add crazy religions lady shouting the gospel over everyone else's heads, and I wanted to go back home.

http://mta.info/

Ah, thanks--I see. Not much info, though, is it.