I read your report on Select Bus Service with great distress. When I learned about this new service, on June 23rd, and when I started experiencing this “select” service (does not “select” imply a choice?), I started a petition to the MTA to reinstate the stops on Fordham/Sedgwick. This is where Fordham Hill Oval Co-op is located, and where I have an apartment. Eventually, we the residents had a meeting at which representatives from Community Board 7 and the MTA, as well as local politicians were present.

We who live there know how many people there are waiting for the Manhattan-bound bus every morning. And we know how many of us used to get off at the east-bound stop at Sedgwick when going home. Asking elderly and handicapped residents, and mothers with small children dragging those heavy backpacks, to walk down the two blocks on a potentially dangerous sidewalk to a bus stop that cannot be seen by westbound cars until they turn a corner is inconsiderate and downright unconscionable.

To require of us to walk almost three blocks east to University, and even worse coming from that corner at night, is ill advised.

I have written many letters to the MTA, in the last one suggesting a solution so that they can have their cake and eat it too: authorize east-bound drivers to let passengers off at Sedgwick when so requested. And, add a SBS stop on the west-bound side of Sedgwick. There is more than plenty of room to do so — much more, and much safer than at the new Cedar Avenue stop.

If MTA is seeing low figures in terms of ridership, no wonder: they introduced this service right after school ended, and when people started going away on vacation. How convenient for the MTA to be thus able to rebuff any numbers we would present to them. School starts in a week — will the MTA start/continue verifying their boarding passengers statistics?

We need those two stops back! And we need then before inclement weather starts.
Misha Harnick

 

The new Select Bus Service along Fordham Road seems to have produced lots of reaction almost from its inception at the end of June. This new “rapid” bus service on the Bx12 bus line continues to be written about. Case in point is another article which appeared in your Aug. 21-Sept. 3 issue that emphasizes residents’ anger over local service not going into Manhattan. The letter to the editor I wrote on this subject which appeared in the July 24-Aug. 20 issue was followed by another written by Joy Clark which was published in the Aug. 21-Sept. 3 issue. No doubt there are riders who may have lots to say but have not put their comments in writing.
Among other issues, I mentioned the fact that the local bus service along Fordham Road does not go into Manhattan, and that local riders would have to transfer to an express bus, then pay a second fare to board the subway in Manhattan. In part, Ms. Clark mentioned inconveniencing seniors and young children due to the elimination of a nearby bus stop [although the disabled and able-bodied can be inconvenienced as well], and of new stops on hilly streets which may make access dangerous in bad weather. She also writes that non-paying riders can board the bus through the rear door.
Passengers should know that those boarding buses without receipts are taking a chance. The new system of paying the fare before boarding the Bx12 buses leaves riders “on their honor,” but it’s inevitable that there will be those who will try to beat the system by not paying their fare. The paper receipts gotten from the machines at the express bus stops when paying are deemed to be required and must be held onto until exiting the bus in the event that an MTA employee riding on the express bus randomly selects a rider to show proof of payment. If a receipt isn’t produced, the rider is hit with a fine.
Since each express bus carries a ticket inspector, and there are many buses traveling east and west along Fordham Road daily, paying their salaries is an added expense for the MTA which may, in turn, be passed on to riders in the form of a future fare increase.
The powers that be would do well to iron out as many kinks as possible in this new “faster, more convenient” service. Meantime, the complaints keep coming….
Judy Noy