Who Do I Have To Blow To Get a Bus Shelter Around Here?

Standing in the rain waiting for the B41 bus last weekend got me thinking: Why is it that only one of the B41 bus stops around here has a bus shelter? The B41, which goes up and down Flatbush, is one of most heavily used bus lines in Brooklyn. Yet Park Slope's B71, whose ridership is so low it's been slated for extinction, has new bus shelters in several spots along Union Street.

RIGHT: The bus shelters along Parkside Avenue have no shortage of customers. Yet the most heavily used bus lines in PLG lack such shelters.

The B41 isn't the only heavy-lifting bus line in PLG that doesn't have bus shelters. The B44 along Nostrand—which has the fifth highest ridership of any bus line in the city—has none within the PLG boundary either.

In fairness, the MTA/DOT may be waiting until after the planned bus rapid transit line is in to install shelters along Nostrand. And before launching into a conspiracy theory, I should check whether the site specs along Flatbush would even allow for a shelter. If B41 stops don't fit the specs, it would be because the sidewalk along Flatbush Avenue is too narrow. But if the sidewalk is too narrow for a bus stop, that suggests another kind of problem: passengers clogging the sidewalks as they wait for one of the most crowded buses in the city. (I can attest to this happening at the Parkside stop.)

One of two B41 express stops in PLG—at Empire Blvd.—has a bus shelter from a previous era, but there is no shelter at Parkside, nor are there shelters at Grand Army Plaza, an area with much wider sidewalks.

I asked Community Board 9 President Pearl Miles about this, and she responded with a request for suggested stops. I'm going to recommend Grand Army Plaza and Parkside for the B41, and the B44 stops along Nostrand and New York Avenues. The B49, along Bedford and Rogers, has less than half the passenger load as the other buses, and I haven't checked for shelters along these roads (though I'm pretty sure there are zero). So if anyone has any other suggestions for Ms. Miles, do let her know: bk09@cb.nyc.gov.

Comments

[Tim Thomas]

Carrie: Glad to hear you went with the simpler "ask" to Pearl about those bus shelters. Anything more might have been a bit "forward."

[Aaron]

How about a shelter at Lincoln road for B41s heading south. The Q/B doesn't stop at avenue H anymore so to get to Brooklyn College one would either have to walk to the 2/5 (for me, on Beekman Pl., that's a bit of a walk) or wait out in the elements for a bus. In the winter and on rainy days that's really a pain!