- Target:
- MTA Bus Company, New York City Transit, local elected officials, and local civic leaders
- Region:
- United States of America
This petition is now closed.
The MTA has currently unveiled a plan to bring Select Bus Service on the M60. Although that might bring time savings and speed travel between Manhattan and LaGuardia, there will be less stops made in Western Queens and fewer Western Queens residents will have the frequent service that they have grown accustomed to on the M60 and will be forced to take the Q19 bus instead, which currently runs sparse levels of service.
Also the M60 currently has major bunching and service reliability issues that Select Bus Service might not do a good job at addressing and has not necessarily addressed in other corridors where Select Bus Service has been implemented. What Western Queens needs is improvements to the Q19 bus service which include more frequent levels of service and a longer span of service because the Q19 is a route that although runs sparsely, is very reliable. While many M60 riders complain about their bus being late, on the other hand there are many cases when the Q19 runs early.
Service reliability and attractiveness by having attractive levels of service and an attractive service span (5 AM – 1 AM daily) is the key to encouraging ridership on the Q19 and is the key to the continuation of ridership growth along the Astoria Boulevard corridor which has increased significantly over the years that the M60 has been in operation. Many Western Queens residents and people otherwise traveling to Western Queens use the M60 along Astoria Boulevard use it to get to and from the Astoria Boulevard Subway station and many of these riders are upset at the service reliability of the M60 and would benefit if the Q19 is improved with a better service span (5 AM – 1 AM daily) and more frequent buses.
This is given that service reliability is much better with the Q19 than the M60, which is an interborough bus route and that the onset of Select Bus Service on the M60 is bound to remove M60 bus stops in Western Queens.
Since the MTA plans to make the M60 Select Bus Service only, the MTA must retain local M60 service (M60 service in its current form) from 1 AM - 5 AM daily as the Q19 does not run 24/7.
Also the Q19 needs to be extended to from Astoria Boulevard and 21st Street to 27th Avenue and 2nd Street. This move would help to accommodate the growth that has occurred in Astoria west of 21st Street and give easier access to the N and Q Subway lines, to other Queens neighborhoods, and to the M60 for Astoria residents west of 21st Street. This would also encourage additional ridership on the Q19, which in turn would encourage additional service on the Q19.
We, the undersigned, call on the MTA Bus Company to make improvements to the Q19 and M60 bus routes. These improvements include frequency increases to the Q19, a service span increase on the Q19 so that the Q19 runs from 5 AM - 1 AM daily, and an extension of the Q19 from Astoria Boulevard and 21st Street to 27th Avenue and 2nd Street, and retention of M60 local service from 1 AM - 5 AM daily.
The Improve service on the Q19 and M60 bus routes petition to MTA Bus Company, New York City Transit, local elected officials, and local civic leaders was written by Bayside Clearview and is in the category Politics at GoPetition.