MTA: SBS on Nostrand and Rogers Avenues Starts November 17

Get ready, Brooklyn: B44 SBS is scheduled to start November 17. Click for larger map. Image: ##http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/downloads/pdf/201109_brt_nostrand_cac4.pdf##MTA/NYC DOT##

We’ve been watching the progress as bus bulbs are installed and dedicated lanes are painted, and now the MTA has announced a start date for Select Bus Service on Nostrand and Rogers Avenues: November 17.

SBS service, which replaces the limited-stop B44 route and shifts a portion of its route west to Rogers Avenue, will include off-board fare payment and 12 bus bulbs to speed boarding and provide more space at bus stops. It includes dedicated, camera-enforced bus lanes on most of its route between Flushing and Flatbush Avenues. The project, which received a $28 million federal grant, extends from the Williamsburg Bridge to Sheepshead Bay.

The MTA says that road work performed by NYC DOT in preparation for SBS included the removal of rail installed for the BMT’s Nostrand Avenue Trolley, which operated from 1871 to 1951. The trolley connected over the Williamsburg Bridge to Delancey Street; SBS will instead terminate at the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge.

With SBS operating on Webster Avenue in the Bronx and an opening date on the calendar for B44 SBS, attention shifts to other planned SBS routes. A proposal for 125th Street was shelved over opposition from local elected officials and community boards, but the MTA has released a map of areas that could see the service in coming years.

  • Ben Kintisch

    It’s a bit surprising to me, but even before the full SBS roll out, the Crown Heights section of Nostrand Ave. is moving smooth and steady. I wonder if part of the plan calls for ticketing double parking. That’s going to be a big determining factor in how fast this “fast” bus moves – are the lanes going to remain clear for the buses to zoom through?

  • Anonymous

    My sense is that Nostrand is moving faster and there is less double parking because drivers have a very well-developed sense of how much a given action is going to enrage their fellow drivers.

    Much like PPW, the double parking on Nostrand thrived on its excess capacity–those few extra feet that allowed you to double park but not totally block a lane by yourself. Sure, the other cars double parked on the other side turned things into a slalom, but you weren’t doing that all by yourself, so you knew no one would pull up behind you and honk interminably–or do something worse. With that cushion gone, you can’t double park without roiling the very sensitive souls of your fellow drivers.

    Meanwhile, it’s still a terrible road for biking. The only bright spot is that now it isn’t the road surface that’s likely to get you killed.

  • Steve Faust

    The double parking started when Nostrand was made one way. Up through the 1950’s Nostrand and parallel streets – Classon, Franklin, Rogers, New York, were two way streets. When there were trolleys, no-one could double park.
    I even rode the Nostrand Ave trolley, and the Franklin Ave trolley buses.

    Bedford Ave was much preferred for cycling in the 1960s and 70s, even before it got bike lanes.

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