Opinions from the public were solicited on post-it notes. Instead, they held lightly-attended and ill-publicized workshops merely informing the public what they are trying to accomplish. The MTA never solicited problems and possible solutions from Community Boards. The problem is people's trips need to be faster with better and more reliable service and requiring fewer connections. They propose providing more bus lanes or busways, without considering the impacts on traffic. The MTA begins with the assumption that the major problem is buses are too slow and one solution is to eliminate bus stops so that all local bus routes in effect become Limiteds. Is the study’s purpose to reduce operating costs resulting from the 40% bus passenger decline since covid or to make destinations more accessible and shorten passenger trip times? Existing route segments should be realigned and service gaps filled. The intent is to design routes “from a blank slate,” which is unrealistic. We have no indication that such is the case. A Brooklyn bus network redesign is long overdue, but it must be performed in the correct manner. The MTA announced this past summer that the borough network redesign studies that were halted by covid will resume this fall.

Boarding the bus in Brooklyn (photo: MTA/Patrick Cashin)

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