Help Improve B61 Service

Councilman Brad Lander writes...

Our office is looking for volunteers to help improve the service of the B61 bus. By collecting data on B61 performance, our office is seeking to determine what can be done to help improve the speed of the B61. We are collecting ridership data to assess:

• The number of riders who use the B61
• Which bus stops have the highest and lowest ridership
• Which buses are the most chronically delayed
• How the closure of the Smith-9th Street subway station is impacting B61 riders' commutes
• Where "bunching" of buses most frequently occurs along the route.

Our office will provide volunteers with the necessary field sheets to record their data. Volunteers will collect data on Monday-Thursday from July 11-28. Morning shifts are 7-9am and evening shifts are 4:30-6:30pm.

If you want to help -- and every bus rider in our neighborhood should! -- then get in touch with Matt Green at the councilman's office. He's reachable at 212-788-6969 and mgreen@council.nyc.gov.

Worried about the B61?

Next month, MTA plans to merge the B61 and the B77. The new B61 will still run through the Columbia Waterfront. But instead of ending at Ikea, it will continue to Park Slope and Windsor Terrace. And this has our friends in Red Hook Economic Development worried about:

• Overcrowding from fitting the riders of two bus lines into one line
• Slower travel times to accommodate longer boarding times from increased usage
• Schedule delays because of traffic conditions miles from Red Hook and the Columbia Waterfront.

If you're worried too, make your worries heard by filling out RHED's new survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CJ5TSRY

Then clear your schedule for Thursday night, because MTA representatives are coming to a meeting of Community Board 6's Transportation Committee, and they deserve to hear an earful. The details:

When: Thursday, May 20

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: Long Island College Hospital

Update on Bus Cuts

The Brooklyn Paper is reporting that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, at the public hearing on Wednesday that we told you about, released a revised list of proposed service cuts. Unfortunately, the news is still worrying-to-bad for residents of the Columbia Waterfront District. The MTA still plans to eliminate the B71 bus and restructure the B61.

The Wednesday hearing was one of eight held last week in the five boroughs and Westchester and Nassau counties. The NY Daily News is reporting that seven of the 16 members of the MTA board didn't bother showing up to most of the hearings, and only three members attended them all. Pair this with the recent purge of of rider and worker representatives from the board, and we've got a situation on our hands.

Save Our Buses -- Stop the Cuts

At the urging of the Public Services Committee, CoWNA recently wrote to Councilmember Brad Lander, Assemblywoman Joan Millman and State Senator Daniel Squadron and asked three questions.

Question 1:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposes to eliminate the B71 bus. This is one of only two buses that serve our community, and its loss would be significant. CoWNA thanks you for opposing this proposal. We ask what step you are taking to save the B71.

Question 2:

MTA also proposes to restructured the B61 route. CoWNA worries that this will undermine the service gains from the January 2010 restructuring of the route. We ask what steps you are taking to ensure that any future restructuring does not lead to the return of chronic delays.

Question 3 (for Millman and Squadron only, not Lander):

The State Senate and Assembly let six rider and worker representatives be eliminated from the MTA board. CoWNA believes that with service reductions and layoffs on the table, rider and worker voices need to be heard. We ask what you are doing to return these six representatives to their positions before the board takes action on service cuts and layoffs.

We'll let you know their answers when we receive them.