Today’s Headlines

regarding the pop up speed bump. it sounds like a genius idea, but id rather have a pop up rumble strip instead.  a pop up speed bump may actually cause an accident.  but kudos to the bright girl’s idea anyway.

re:  Queens Teen Wins Science Challenge With Pop-Up Speed Bump (News)

Great idea!  Also, the one for preventing flooding. Impressively simple.

From the DNAinfo article on Bolt Bus:
“Bolt bad originally attempted to move its West 33rd Street operations to a new stop at Eigth Avenue, between West 24th and West 25th streets in Chelsea, but that plan was thwarted one day before it was set to go into effect by angry residents and business owenrs, who said they were never consulted about the stop.”

This proposed change was in the news and I am reasonably sure that Manhattan Community Board 4 discussed this and voted in favor of it.  If some residents chose not be be a part of that process, and chose not to stay informed, then that was their choice.  I think it is wrong that despite a public process, they were able to scream “Not In My Back Yard” at the last moment and get the city to change its plans.

Also, no mention was made of the biggest change that can come from using gates at Port Authority instead of curbside space: usually the Port Authority charges for those gates and usually bus lines have to charge more to customers as a result.  As an example, the Chinatown intercity buses from Boston to NYC had to to start charging $15 instead of $10 each way when Boston forced them to use gates at their bus terminal instead of curbside space in Boston’s Chinatown.

Bolt bus tickets prices may also go up an average of 30% due to the Chelsea residents who screamed NIMBY.  Those residents in their selfishness and fear of change, and in their circumvention of community board process, may make Bolt bus service more expensive for a lot of riders, and might make Bolt struggle for competitiveness against other low cost inner-city bus lines.

NBBL tried to get the city to ignore the community process and ignore the community board vote on the PPW bike lane, but were unsuccessful (thus far).  However, this action of the city caving in to complaining residents about Bolt bus despite a community process that approved the new stop, sets a dangerous precedent.