The MTA is considering adding Select Bus Service to the M79. That means passengers would purchase tickets before boarding and then board the bus immediately without having to swipe the ticket. That process tends to speed up trips because people aren’t waiting for passengers to swipe MetroCards. Select Bus Service can also mean more frequent service.
Last year, the MTA launched Select Bus Service on the M86.
This Thursday at 7, the community board will review how M86 service has been going so far, and look at the possibility of launching it on the M79. The M79 won the “pokey” award in 2014 as the slowest bus line in the city. Buses traveled at 3.2 miles per hour on a weekday at noon. Average human walking speed is 3.5 miles per hour.
Select Bus Service can also cause frustration when ticket machines are out, as people often miss buses when they have to wait for the special tickets you need to board. The M86 has often had problems with ticket machines, and the timers that tell passengers when the next bus is coming.
Here’s the agenda for this week’s meeting. It will take place at 250 West 87th Street on the second floor.
Transportation Committee, Andrew Albert and Dan Zweig, Co-Chairpersons
Thursday, October 6, 7:00 PM *Note change of day for this month only.
1. Success of M86 Select Bus Service (SBS) and a presentation on the M79 SBS.
2. Parking regulations on West 71st Street between Broadway and West End Ave.
3. 326 West 77th Street (Riverside Drive – West End Avenue.) Application to the Department of Transportation by Lloyd Realty, LLC for a revocable consent to construct, maintain and use a new stoop and fenced-in area.
4. 322 Central Park West (West 92nd Street.) Application to the Department of Transportation by 322 Realty Corp. for a revocable consent to construct, maintain and use a fenced-in planted area on the northwest corner of intersection of West 92nd Street and Central Park West and to maintain and use two existing planters on the north sidewalk of West 92nd Street, west of Central Park West.
5. N/W/C Broadway and West 94th Street. New application #12659-2016-ANWS to the Department of Consumer Affairs by Mohammad Islam to construct and operate a newsstand on the northwest corner of Broadway and West 94th Street.
If someone would like to attend and cover the meeting for West Side Rag (for $), please contact us at westsiderag at gmail dot com with the subject line “reporting for reporter duty.”
Image via YouTube.
I’ve used Select Service buses for so long that I find it frustrating to use the non-SS bus routes now. It would be great to have this on both the 72nd and 79th crosstown lines.
How about just staggered pick ups for every other stop? These buses are insane after broadway (west side) and before lex (east side).
But what happens if someone has to get off at a stop where the bus isn’t doing a pickup? Can people only get off there but not on?
I dread to think about think that there will be another select bus service. I don’t think it saves time, and some of the drivers delight in slamming the doors when one has to deal with the machines. It must cost a great deal to have installed the machines, pay for the paper and ink, and, worst of all, pay the inspectors. Moreover, if the bus doesn’t move when they are “inspecting,” no time is saved at all.
Speaking from experience: the M86 SBS is roughly 5 minutes faster, Broadway to Lex, in the weekday morning rush hour than it was pre-Select Bus. It makes a substantial difference (which the MTA no doubt has chronicled with route completion time data). You may find it fussy at the stop but for slow bus routes it’s a big improvement.
Let’s see you get a ticket at a machine…will they work.
One ticket machine at the stop for the 79, often the line is long to get on the bus…it will be just as long for the tickets. Will you miss the bus while trying to get a ticket?
What happens if you get to the stop just in time…no time to get a ticket? Do you miss the bus because you must get the ticket?
The machine is always there, usually several of them, so people can get ticekts as they arrive (spread out). Hence, there is rarely a line, as opposed to the scanner on the bus (all at once) which is only there when a bus is there. If you walk up as the bus is leaving, then yes, you miss the bus because you don’t have a ticket. But the bus should not wait for one person.
I’ve been using the SS buses since they were implemented on 2nd Avenue and I’ve never had a problem with them. There are several ticket kiosks and I’ve never had to stand on line to get a ticket, there are 3 doors to enter and exit so you don’t have to stand on line to get on the bus. Once the SS buses were implemented on 86th Street I never had to stand on line again (or get pushed out of line), and wait for the next bus.
The drivers have been great and the only time they pull away is when there’s another bus coming in behind them and they’re always on schedule.
Twice at 7:30 am the kiosks on 86th and Broadway were out of order, but you only have to take a pic of the kiosk or tell the driver when you get on, so the MTA police at the end of the line know that you weren’t able to get a ticket.
Seems to me that the M66 is the slowest as route is through single lane streets and accommodates big hospital destination crowds among other things.
The M79 is slowed by the turns onto Columbus and then back onto 79th Streer
Reducing stops would be very difficult for disabled and elderly who depend on this bus
Curious if anyone knows….does bus data include data from days that buses are re-routed due to strreet closures for “events” like street fairs or races?
Because on those days, the residual traffic is at a standstill
Any chance that the M104 route will be restored? Many of us still are waiting for some news. It seems the DOT makes some really odd and unnecessary decisions but never do what actual commuters need. Anyone know who we can write to at this point? Thanks.
I think the OP is talking about the M104’s original route, which went down bway, turned east on 42nd and went crosstown.
It hasn’t done that for ages. I think it was changed at the same time that the M10 stopped at Columbus Circle (it used to go all the way downtown). When the MTA implemented a “worst case” plan in response to a bad budget shortfall which the state ignored. They restored most service but not all.
The NYC DOT/Bloomberg Administration supported the termination of the M104 route on 42nd Street because the left turn to go eastbound would have impacted the pedestrian plaza plans.
Similarly, westbound, DOT moved around bus stops due to pedestrian plaza plan – and thus not enough room for various buses (city and express) around 42nd Street.
The M104 is running. It wasn’t doing northbound trips on Broadway this past Saturday due to the stupid street fair, but it’s definitely operating otherwise.
the M104 route is gone? i took it just this weekend …
Sorry about last post, is it the MTA not the DOT? Ah yes, NYC bureaucracy….who makes these decisions?
seems to be arbitrary
How much money?
i’m there now.
also posting to WSR
when’s payday?
(Re: If someone would like to attend and cover the meeting for West Side Rag (for $)
Every Xtown bus in Manhattan should be converted to Select Service (maybe all buses one day). The speed and frequency on 86th is surprisingly astounding. There is no downside….speed, frequency, environmental impacts, traffic flow, equipment allocation (TBA)…seriously, what’s the true downside (petty inconvenience complaints need not apply).
I have been saying this for months since starting a new commute across town….as to staggered stops.. I think it’s a consideration but I think it would only result in even more crowding at those stops… essentially, more buses are needed and the metro card process needs to be made into a tap system with RFID or similar technology – get rid of paying with any cash money too. The dream scenario would be for no cars to be allowed to go cross town at least during rush hour along with all of the above for the most part.
They need to differentiate the appearance of unlimited Metrocards so those who have them don’t have to also get a ticket but can just show them and prove they are active. This will make it easier for these customers and greatly reduce the lines at ticket kiosks.
My understanding is that the inspectors have some way of confirming that your Metrocard is unlimited–you can show it to them if they’re checking the bus. Happened to a friend of mine.
MTA doesn’t publicize this because, presumably, they want everyone to get a ticket so they can track ridership.
I hate the M86 select bus so much that I walk down to the M79 just to avoid it.
I am curious, what do you hate about it so much that it’s worth a seven block walk?
I shudder to think about what you do about real problems…
The Select Service bus line purchase has a ‘known issue’ by the MTA – if you have an automatic withdrawal MTA card, it scrapes it making it totally unusable. Just a heads up.
I have one of those cards, use the SBS frequently, and have never had a problem.
That I haven’t seen. What I have seen is that sometimes during transfers from subway to bus ( specifically on Lex going west ), machines take the card ( and I’ve had several cards over the last year ) and spit it out saying that card is invalid. It then happily accepts the card back ( if you try again ) and processes the payment but the transfer is already gone so you end up paying twice for the trip. Other than that, SBS works pretty good.
The 79th st bus has been on a downward slide since they renamed it from the M17. Now tourists can find it and it makes the bus more crowded.
Then they added air conditioning. Who needs air conditioning? How many tax dollars is that burning up? I’d rather sweat and have lower taxes.
Then they replaced the front sign from good old paper to an electronic sign. They break all the time, I once got on a M104 thinking it was an M10 because the sign was broken.
Then they replaced those normal pull-strings to tell the driver you want to get off, with buttons and tape, which I just can’t seem to operate with my arthritis. Doesn’t Helen Rosenthal care about my arthritis????
I tried using the BusTime system but it doesn’t work with my Motorola Star*Tac. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I stopped paying that crazy cellphone bill a few years ago.
Now they’re going to make me use another blasted machine? What’s this city coming to?
Don’t get me started on the commies who took away my tokens. Do those machines even take quarters???
Seriously, I love the SBS system. Like someone else said, there is no downside except fear of change.
“Seriously, I love the SBS system. Like someone else said, there is no downside except fear of change.”
How’s about the name, huh?
…sounds too much like Selective Service to me.
Has someone giving thought to having a nurse in attendance on the #104 buses? So many people with health issues.
Might be more useful to have someone assist parents with strollers?
Or assist the Trader Joe shoppers with their shopping bags?
I think the SBS on 86 street is a disaster. Do not do it on M79. Service on Avenues is different then crosstowns.
Only problem one has seen with SBS on 86th Street is that the machines on south side of West 86th seem to be out of order often. This means you must cross over to the north side of street.
Given the often long waits for the bus this isn’t usually a problem. However if you just reach the corner and or come up from the subway and (surprise) the bus is at that stop…
Manhattan123 maybe you can tell us why you think the SBS service is a disaster. I’ve had nothing but a positive experience so I’m curious to know what the problems are.
I would like to see stats on the change in revenue on the M86 since it converted. Unlimiteds are obviously excluded but contrast the amount received by people using single use cards and actually money on the bus before vs. how much is collected in the machines now. I’m curious how many people are really paying for it vs. taking their chances they will get caught. I think the benefit of the buses running more efficiently offsets some decline in revenue, but I wonder how much it is.
The MTA doesn’t really care if more people skip out on paying the fare since you’ll end up paying for it anyway through your taxes.
If the MTA doesn’t care if people skip out then why are they handing out $100 fines to those they catch?
Mainly for PR.
I don’t think the number of tickets given out is very significant. I rarely see inspectors on the buses, while I often see people riding without paying. Theoretically, once they get on the subway or another non-SBS bus they will pay, but they are missing out on some.
SBS was not instituted with the goal of increasing fare collection
Wrong:
https://www.streetsblog.org/2016/06/21/mta-says-proof-of-payment-may-increase-fare-evasion-history-says-otherwise/
https://www.amny.com/opinion/columnists/mike-vogel/a-fare-evasion-ticket-that-s-anything-but-fair-mike-vogel-1.9325671
And so it goes…
Obviously the MTA lacks manpower to place inspectors on ever Select Bus, but they do have and written enough summonses that a good number of persons think twice.
Have seen everyone including teenagers, seniors, and even mothers with children questioned and issued summonses for not being able to provide proof of payment.
More efficient bus service equals not only less congestion for all vehicles on the crosstown streets, but also possibly increases in bus ridership. Might help to offset the fare cheats.
Face it, half the time you get on the bus with an expired or whatever Metrocard the bus driver will wave you on anyway.
Pick one; 34th Street, 57th Street, 72nd Street, 79th Street, 86th Street, etc… basically all the cross town buses in Manhattan have horrible service.
You stand there waiting for ten, twenty, thirty or more minutes and nothing. Meanwhile one after another buses are going down the opposite direction. Then low and behold several buses all come bunched up together. What are they doing at those rest stops? Serving cake and coffee?
Have never understood why there isn’t Limited Service for cross town buses. It isn’t as if another local won’t arrive and it would speed up things for some passengers.
The other pet peeve is that the City needs to do more in cracking down on double parked motor vehicles that block bus lanes.
96
Quite honestly never bother with the M96 unless it is right there or approaching. It just takes too darn long. Will walk down to 86th or in some cases just hoof it through CP via transverse.
Boarding a bus without paying, driver waving you through.
Cannot tell you how many times have seen this happen over the years. It seems to have picked up since the Metrocards were introduced IMHO.
A few weeks ago on the M57 at 8th Avenue it seemed at least one person boarding besides me had some sad tale of woe and misery, and or simply argued with the driver and didn’t pay. One woman got on with a transfer (on her MC) and asked the driver if she could have another transfer. He said “no”, at first but she would keep at him. Finally the guy relented if for nothing else to shut her up and keep the line moving.
Now back in the day when it was cash or tokens you mostly either paid your fare or were told to get off the bus. That or the bus driver would simply shut the thing down until the offending person or persons got off.
Think now with so much reported violence against MTA bus drivers the official (or unofficial) line is simply not to confront anyone. If they don’t pay it isn’t as if the money is coming out of the driver’s pocket.