Select Bus Service and other changes on Nostrand Jan 2013+

Grwd, in a perfect world everyone would do the right thing just because. However, we don't live in a perfect world. It's easy to forget sometimes, but Brooklyn is on an island. And 99% of the food, goods and materials consumed here are transported to this island from the mainland. The businesses that supply our stores are on the mainland, the warehouses and factories are on the mainland, and the vast majority of items that are sent here from other countries arrive on the mainland.

It would be great to support business with "innovative ordering systems" that include "a fleet of trucks, vans and cargo bicycles" on that "spends more on technology, but save money on gas and parking tickets so the net cost is the same". I challenge you to find ONE business in Brooklyn that currently uses such a model. It's not because its a bad idea, but rather because that's not the way any consumer markets or supply chains currently operate.

Without getting into too much detail, most goods get to Brooklyn in the following manner 1)They are shipped internationally via water (and to a much lesser extent air)or 2)they are shipped domestically via truck and/or rail. Almost all goods stop at the Hudson River and are brought further east by truck. Shippers want to get goods here at the lowest cost which means using the largest truck possible and loading it up with as many goods as possible. This is actually a fairly recent development. 100 years ago goods came directly into downtown Brooklyn, Red Hook, Williamsburg/Greenpoint, Sunset Park, Dumbo and countless other waterfront neighborhoods throughout the city. As we've re-purposed our waterside property for parks and luxury real estate, we've also made it a virtual necessity to have truck access for the delivery of goods. The MTA wants to develop its own methods for "greening" mass transit, but they are doing so without taking into account the reality of what this neighborhood needs in the way of goods movement.

This SBS plan which takes a highly used bus like the B44 off of a relatively lightly traveled street like New York Avenue and moves it to Rogers Avenue, one of only two northbound truck routes between Flatbush Avenue and Utica Avenue, and a street that already accommodates another bus line (B49) in the name of "better service" isn't a good idea. I believe that ultimately it may make for a better bus ride, but it will reduce the quality of life for everyone who lives in the neighborhood.

I've noticed a trend with NYC drivers in the last couple of years. Used to be that if you were pulling up to a place for a minute and there was an open space, drivers would pull into the space, but not park so that their car was out of the driving lane.

Now I see people pulling up and double parking next to open parking spaces in traffic. So now, no one can park, and the flow of traffic is impeded. It's rude and thoughtless, but appears to have become a standard part of the driving lexicon in the city. You see this on Nostrand all the time. Cars in the street blocking parking spaces while the driver blocks traffic. It drives me crazy.

Nostrand SBS is a lot more comparable to the Fordham Road SBS in the Bronx, in my book: a densely populated outer-borough commercial strip. I've never ridden it, but it supposedly sped up the busses by 20%, which is pretty good.

I, like most Crown Heights residents, don't have a car, don't drive, and thus am not particularly sympathetic to the driving minority that thinks 100% of the road bed should be available to them, even if it could be used more efficiently to provide transportation by banning cars (such as via bus and bike lanes).

Truck loading seems like it'd be best handled with loading zones as opposed to double parking.

Maybe during reno actually.