Bus Transportation from Brooklyn Heights Into Manhattan?

alicat53

Hi there - I am having knee surgery next month and am searching for transportation alternatives other than the subway as I will be unable to navigate the stairs on crutches. I understand that the most direct bus route from the Heights into Manhattan has been eliminated, but does anyone have other suggestions on a more roundabout way to get into the city (I work in Midtown/Radio City area) from Brooklyn via bus? Trying to keep cabs/car services to a minimum as it'll quickly become expensive on a daily basis. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

rezist

I think I used to take the b51 into the city but that has been cut.. I spent some time just now trying of make sense of the mta brooklyn-manhattan express bus lines but I just got angry and stopped. It used to be a lot easier to get around by bus b4 all of the cuts.

Maybe the b62 to the q32, either way I believe it's going to take a while.

boygabriel

FWIW I tried hopstop bus-only and they referred to the Fulton Ferry

http://hopstop.com/?tid=5as10fkwnjpbuhrk

idlewild

Why not see if the MTA can supply you a cab or bus? I know they have some sort of deal with a private transport company. I forget the name. The drivers are a bunch of maniacs, but I believe you're not charged more than regular fare. Does anyone know the name of the company I'm speaking of? I think they're called Access-A-Ride. They use Crown Vics and medium size diesel buses. Door to door from what I've seen as well.

homeowner

Access-A-Ride is probably your best bet although you should be aware that you will have to leave plenty of time to get to and from home. My experiences with it were limited to the older folks in the family who have used it to get around. They complained that it wasn't unusual for folks to show up late, which sucks if you are trying to get to work.

The good news is that they do door to door pick up and drop off so you don't have to figure out how to get to and from a bus stop. You may want to start now as it takes a while (maybe as long as a month or so) to get processed.

Access-a-ride information

alicat53

Thank you all so much for the feedback. I had no idea about Access-A-Ride. Will for sure look into that. Much appreciated!

arlette

Unless they have changed access-a-ride is for the physically challenged but the process is lengthy as far as the waiting list. When I applied a couple of years ago, the list had a 2 year wait.Hopefully that has changed. Good luck.

opossumqueen

Not sure about the stations near you, but if any have elevators or escalators, that is a huge help. When I was on crutches/booted, I really appreciated those stations. I didn't have the same trip as you, but basically I used a combo of bus/cabs to handicap accessible train stations. It took longer but was much faster than doing all bus routes. Don't know you're exact situation, but I found that I could handle the stairs (not tons but a flight or two at one end of commute) better than I expected.

If it looks like there are stations that will work for you, I would suggest calling the MTA to make sure the elevator or escalator in question is functioning and not under repairs.

http://mta.info/accessibility/stations.htm

vidro3

i don't know about your age or fitness but after my acl reconstruction it took about 3 weeks before I could handle the subway stairs again. and for 2 of those weeks i did not go anywhere at all.

so you may not be inconvenienced for all that long a time.

on the subway, the trick is to put your crutch on someone's toe. that usually resulted in a seat.