(MTA) Draft Proposal
Jan. 13, 2020 By Kristen Torres
The MTA has announced that it will be holding two additional meetings–one in Jackson Heights on Wednesday and the other in the Rockaways Feb. 6–to provide residents with greater opportunity to provide feedback on its bus network redesign plan.
The first draft of the proposed Queens bus network plan was released on Dec. 31 and the changes have been criticized by many residents in Jackson Heights and the Rockaways.
The additional Jackson Heights community meeting came at the request of Assembly Member Michael DenDekker, who reached out to the MTA after receiving multiple complaints from constituents about the proposal. That meeting is now set to take place on Jan. 15 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 33-04 93rd St.
The MTA plan—which is still in the draft stage and far from being finalized—would eliminate bus service going east on Roosevelt Avenue between 74th and 83rd Streets.
“I am alarmed by some of the changes to bus routes – the Q32, the Q33, the Q47 the Q49, and the Q66 – proposed by the Queens Bus Network Redesign draft plan,” DenDekker said in a statement. “Cutting these bus lines that serve seniors, people with disabilities, parents, and children would have significant consequences for our community.”
A meeting for the Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and Corona communities was already scheduled to take place on Jan. 30 at 100-01 Northern Boulevard inside the Langston Hughes Library from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. That meeting will still take place.
MTA officials said they’ll continue to take rider comments on the draft plan, and use the feedback for crafting the final bus plan, set to be released in spring 2020.
“Queens customers know how important buses are and how they can be used to serve the neighborhoods better, which is why we absolutely need our customers’ help reimagining how public transit serves Queens,” said MTA NYC Transit President Andy Byford in a statement Sunday.
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18 Comments
I use bus 32 all the time to connect to74 Street station or going into Manhattan. I am to old to walk to7 train and climb up to the 82 street station. I notice that many handicapped people, families and student use the bus and it is often crowded between 74 street and Northern Boulevard. Stupid plan to eliminate a popular and needed bus route,
The powers that be at the MTA have absolutely no clue how these proposed service redesigns will completely change these neighborhoods. So many folks rely on these bus lines to get to school and work. With the continued work on the airport it is a wonder no one figured out how to have buses in strategic areas in the event of traffic congestion. Removing buses is not the answer. Nor is blaming services like Uber or Lyft, which everyone cannot afford to do. You will also take pedestrian traffic away from businesses that rely on it. No one on the MTA board has to live in these areas so they don’t care about the ones who do. You want to raise fares all the time to cover up all the mistakes you make wasting money. Stop selling out the people of Queens! Stop shortchanging the people of NYC period. MTA is Not going our way…
Jackson Heights need the bus lines to remained untouched. They work perfectly fine with the major exception of people not paying the fare. The MTA needs to have someone enforcing the fares. People wait for someone to exit the bus to use the back door to enter without payment. This is why MTA doesn’t see the accurate number of riders who use this single bus line.
For those of you who participated in January 15th’s meeting, did anyone else notice the irony that the location wasn’t even accessible? There were steps leading down into that Rumpus Room!! How was someone with a wheelchair supposed to participate? Honestly, that meeting felt like it was an afterthought, hastily scrambled together, just to give the illusion of public engagement. I hope the MTA and our elected officials take seriously that all future community meetings need to be inclusive and provide both accessibility and language access beyond just English.
They should add buses and limit the amount of uber/lyft cars. Way too many cabs that have no clue on how to drive
What is the logic in discontinuing the 53 that is the only way to get to rockaway. In addition it transports people to the mall, the hospital and Trader Joe’s.
People who live in Woodside Jackson Heights elmhurst don’t usually own cars and heavily rely on public transportation
Please rethink the redesign!
Given the unreliability of the subway system, the bus is sometimes the only way to get anywhere, including along the 7 line into Manhattan. Also, some people like me, use the bus because of physical limitations. Dropping me off at a subway stop with only stairs or an elevator that barely holds anybody or is broken is not a solution. Save our buses!!
On the Q49 in particular, I’m sure the MTA has heard plenty of complaints about this route, and they may be using that as an excuse to eliminate it, but NO ONE in Jackson Heights wants that. What we want for the Q49 is for the MTA to fix the idiotic scheduling that dispatches a pack of as many as SEVEN buses at a time, while leaving long wait times in between packs. If you miss a pack you’re outta luck, because then it could be 10-15 minutes of nothing until one lone bus goes by, not making any stops because it’s too crowded. This senseless scheduling means that some of the buses are full up to the windshield, while others are flying down 35th Avenue nearly empty! The MTA’s insistence that Queens bus service is so dysfunctional that they have to scrap ALL of it and come up with a whole bunch of seemingly worthless new routes is utter nonsense. They need to keep what’s working and fix what’s not, and they don’t need deprive entire neighborhoods of all bus service to do that.
What idiot came up with these cancellations?
and how does a senior get from Sunnyside to Jackson Heights when there is no bus on Roosevelt ?
take Uber ?
I’m a senior and use a cane, , please don’t dare to change the Q32 bus, I use it all the time, it’s my only way to get around!!!thank you ..
where is our politician we vote for them went they need us let see if they come and do something if not this is the end for them we need this bus route don’t take them away from us
I don’t believe the MTA conducted a careful research regarding
the bus routes they propose to cut . If they did they would know that the Q32, the Q33, the Q47 the Q49, and the Q66 –service thousands of commuters that would be left stranded.
There is absolutely NO Logic to this partisan proposed plan.
This plan will take away service in JH. It eliminates the Q49 which boards over 90 passengers per hour on weekdays and over 70 on weekends. It makes money for the MTA. The redesign pushes riders to the over crowded and in accessible 7 train. People use the bus because they don’t like the stairs or long walks.
We must fight to keep the Q49, and stop cuts to the Q66, Q32, Q53, Q29 and other lines.
This is insane and must not be allowed to pass.
The bus routes as is is working just fine. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The changes will cause mass chaos and confusion. Consider that working people, retired people, students and other people rely on the service daily. The cost of making new maps, bus schedules, bus signs, etc will cost excessive amounts of money. benefiting the service provider not the riding public! The proposal is shameful and without merit!
They are removing service from 74th Street just as 82nd Street 7 train stop will be undergoing renovations in May. Who is the idiot who drew up this plan?
Jackson heights bus lines should really be left alone don’t fix what is t broken, we have a very large elderly community that rely on these lines to get around, not to mention people with disabilities and a lot of as well as elementary and middle school children that use these bus lines, if anything they should increase the frequency in which these busses run.