RIRA is unhappy – again – about RIOC’s management of the Red Bus routing and schedule. And there are a half-dozen letters about it from residents in this WIRE.

Fresh discontent seems to center on the home-bound rush hour and the rerouting of northbound trips along the new Main Street, rather than the West Service Road, so that home-bound subway riders can no longer board directly in front of the station. Their choices are (1) to cross the West Service Road to board a southbound bus that will also stop at the Tram station, or (2) to walk uphill to a stop across Main Street from Riverwalk Place.

WIRE letter writers and a Residents Association Common Council letter, sent earlier this week to RIOC President Steve Shane, point out that the uphill walk is difficult for the elderly and disabled residents who most need the bus service. In wet or cold weather, they can then wait "up to a half hour," as the RIRA letter puts it. Until recently, passengers could wait indoors at the subway station, or under cover just outside its doors, and board a Red Bus a few steps from the door.

In response to the RIRA letter, Shane "challenged RIRA to decide which way they want the bus to run," as he explained his reaction in an e-mail to The WIRE. Referring to the routing south of Blackwell House, he continued, "Clockwise or counterclockwise, but then be prepared to be responsible for the decision. RIOC will do it either way." Shane suggests that a change to clockwise routing would inconvenience handicapped passengers arriving by Tram; they would have to cross the street. While a routing across the road south of the Queensboro Bridge would put the bus on the Tram-station side of the street, RIRA President Matthew Katz told The WIRE that Shane rejected use of that road, mentioning a penalty in time and cost.

At press time, Shane and Katz were putting together a meeting to get both RIRA and RIOC personnel to work on changes.

The 1100-word RIRA Council letter raises five issues. In addition to the relocation of the northbound stop serving subway riders, these concerns are listed:

• Rush-hour restrictions on open strollers.

Criticisms: Too difficult and dangerous to hold children, packages, and stroller while standing. Causes delay when parents must fold strollers after boarding.

Recommendation: Allow open strollers at all times.

Shane pointed out in his e-mail to The WIRE that the MTA bans open strollers as a standard policy.

• Inadequate system capacity.

Criticism: Considerable increase in passenger load and length of route, but no increase in system capacity.

Recommendation: More buses during rush periods.

Shane’s response: "The assertions of inadequate service level are a complete misapplication of the realities, since only the 500 additional Octagon residents can be added to bus ridership, not the extrapolation from Tram ridership or pure population increases as both the Southtown population and the increasing senior population are not bus users in the only critical time of the rush hours."

• Lack of a firm schedule.

Criticism: When bus departures are not timed, buses begin traveling in packs, leading to protracted waits.

Recommendations: Time departures. Supervise actively, using radios. In non-rush periods, synchronize buses to Tram arrivals. Use the services of a competent transit planner.

• Replacement of stop signs with yield signs.

Criticism: A pedestrian safety problem.

Recommendation: Restore stop signs. (In the past, letter writers have also pointed out that stop-sign enforcement has been lax or non-existent.)

Shane response: More stop signs are more lurches and more stagnant traffic on Main Street. More bunching, more expensive, and less efficient.

The RIRA letter, reproduced on this page, ends with a request that RIOC ask RIRA to review planned changes before they are implemented. Shane discusses the bus service in his RIOC Column in this issue.