Abuse of Isham Street residents and danger to school children
"kosulivan@..."
Mr. Marcus Book
MTA
Gov’t and Community Relations
Subject: Endless bus violations – Stop abusing Isham Street
Dear Mr. Book:
For 1½ years now, you led me to believe that it is always inappropriate for the #20 bus to be using Isham Street. (the #20 bus has its own route and it doesn’t include Isham Street) You have been telling me for a year and a half that the #20 bus will be stopped from using Isham Street. You even asked me to volunteer my time to tell you which renegade buses are using Isham Street inappropriately. You asked me to call or email the numbers of these buses so that you can report these vigilante bus drivers; then they will be reprimanded by their supervisor and stopped from using Isham Street.
Now you tell me that sometimes it’s ok for the #20 bus to use Isham Street. I’m confused. I am very confused with our phone conversation last Wednesday, June 17, when you told me that supervisors may tell the #20 bus drivers that if 207th Street is very busy, they can use Isham Street. So now Isham Street is the default street for busy 207th Street????
I brought this information to the Inwood Livable Streets group on Wednesday night,
June 17. They agree that all buses #20 and #12 should be banned from using Isham Street which is a narrow, residential school crossing street. In fact, Inwood Livable Streets is prioritizing the MTA’s abuse of Isham Street, the quality of life of its residents and the danger to school children as one of the main issues on its platform.
A common nightmare that people have is spending time in a bus terminal- it’s a nightmare experience. Yet, the MTA has created this nightmare for the residents of Inwood on Broadway and Isham Street by creating a bus terminal there. Then the MTA tries to extend this nightmare onto the residents of Isham Street, a small, narrow, quiet residential street and to use Isham Street as part of its bus terminal by having buses circling and idling (like at a bus terminal), and running stop signs on Isham Street right where school children cross going to two local elementary schools.
The Inwood Livable Streets Group is demanding that first - the #20 bus be totally banned from using Isham Street no matter how crowded other streets (like 207th Street) are. The #20 bus needs to be rerouted to one of the following routes if 207th Street is not able to absorb #20 bus. The MTA needs to diversify its use of streets in Inwood so that no one street, like Isham Street, gets hammered by the MTA’s lack of creativity in solving its routing problems.
Here are six (6) other routes that the MTA can use so that the #20 bus can turn around in Inwood, back to its Bronx route:
*East on Dyckman (200th Street) , North on Vermilyea, West on Academy, to Broadway
*East on Academy, North on Vermilyea, West on 204th Street, to Broadway
*West on Dyckman, North on Seaman, East on Academy, to Broadway
*West on Cummings, North on Seaman, East on Academy, to Broadway
*West on Academy, North on Seaman, East on 204th Street, to Broadway
*West on 204th Street, North on Seaman, East on 207th Street, to Broadway
Wide Streets – West of Broadway
Academy Street is a wide street and never busy.
Seaman Avenue is a wide street and not very busy.
204th Street is a wide street and never busy.
These streets west of Broadway can easily absorb the #20 bus as it turns back to the Bronx. Isham Street is a busy, narrow residential street that is already being hammered by the #12 buses running every other minute and can’t absorb the dangerous (to school children) renegade #20 buses.
Advice to the MTA
DIVERSIFY YOUR ROUTING SOLUTIONS. ISHAM STREET IS NOT THE ANSWER TO EVERY ONE OF YOUR BUS ROUTING PROBLEMS IN INWOOD.
Mr. Book, when you called on June 17, you asked me if things had gotten any better on Isham Street with the #20 buses. I told you that it was worse than ever. In fact, the construction flagman who is flagging cars and buses because of the construction on Isham Street told me that he had counted seven #20 buses yesterday afternoon between 12:00 and 5:00. I had counted one that very morning, bus #6280 at 11:30 am on June 16.
Can you believe that the #20 buses are using Isham Street even though it is crowded with construction, so crowded that it has a full time flagman, the #12 buses and all the other city traffic. Isham Street is already a narrow street that is now only 2/3 of what it originally was. The #12 can’t make the turn without difficulty and without the help of a construction flagman.
Yet the #20 buses try to squeeze up Isham Street causing extra bottlenecking. What is it about Isham Street that the #20 buses can’t resist. How can it be easier to use Isham Street rather than stay on its 207th Street route even though Isham Street is packed with construction and the #12 bus and cars and garbage trucks, etc. The supervisors need to tell the #20 bus drivers that under no circumstances can they use Isham Street.
The following is a report that you requested showing that Isham Street continues to be abused by the #20 buses and other bus abuses, ie. circling #12 buses and idling #20 buses (not to mention the perennial problem of #12 buses running stop signs at the corner of Isham Street and Vermilyea Avenue):
June 13 #6078 2:09 pm #12 bus circling Isham Street, no passengers
June 13 #6009 12:02pm
June 13 #6255 1:40pm
June 15 #535 12:35pm
June 15 #564 2:14 pm
June 16 #6280 11:30 am
June 18 #167 9:30 am
June 18 #705 10:30 am Circling #12 bus, no passengers
June 19 #6040 11:58am, 12:50pm, 1:45pm, 2:55pm (4 times around Isham- even
the flagman was shocked by the same #20 bus)
June 22 #282 10:50 am
June 24 #438 3:30 pm Circling #12 bus, no passengers
The flagman reported to me daily that these illegal #20 buses are running up and down Isham Streetall day long. I can’t be there recording them every half hour as he was able to do. I just have a sampling here of the illegal use of Isham Street whenever I witness it and have pen and paper. The abuse of Isham Street is going on relentlessly and endlessly. It needs to be stopped now.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen O’Sullivan
Inwood Livable Streets
kosulivan@netzero.net
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