Private buses on Barker Avenue because Hamilton is ONE way.

Various private buses, not the big regionals like Adirondack or Greyhound, but the less big ones, probably carrying corporate passengers, travel away from the Transmania Center on residential Barker Avenue to North Broadway about 6 PM on weekdays. They should take non-residential Hamilton Avenue but they cannot even if they wanted to because many years ago the City of White Plains made Hamilton one way for about half the distance between North Broadway and the Transmania and no one in recent years has changed that.

This blog has had several posts asking about all the bus traffic in downtown. A basic reason it has never been an issue is that Common Council members, CNA type groups and what passes for media concentrate on junk issues like FASNY, Railside, etc. stuff that impacts a very small percentage of residents, who live outside downtown. Another reason is that few, if any, of them walk around the downtown. Ever.

Quality of life issues downtown are non-existent for them. None have ever thought to examine all this bus traffic. These buses, including the county Bee Line, probably have a very small percentage of their seats occupied and the percent of riders who are White Plains residents is also probably very small.

Maybe that's incorrect. If so, make the correction. That would require examining the issue. It would also mean delaying the planning by the TransCenter task force in developing the desolate area near the train station/ bus depots.

Bee Line Buses: mostly empty.

The City of White Plains needs to get data from the county on the Bee Line bus system, specifically its ridership in White Plains. Any casual observation draws two conclusions:
- many buses are "not in service" but are parked on busy city streets such as Hamilton Avenue or driving on major streets "not in service"
- the buses that are in service have very few passengers.

Yesterday at 6 PM a "not in service" Bee Line was traveling north on North Broadway near Park Avenue. That area has many apartments. "not in service" in the middle of rush hour and heading out of downtown. What the heck?

This morning at 11 AM a DOUBLE Bee Line bus was roaring past apartment buildings on Barker Avenue towards the TransMania Center EMPTY. What the heck?

The county and/or the city are negligent for not monitoring all this negative quality of life bus traffic for way too many years.

Is there any oversight of the Bee Line by any municipality?

It's about the same on Garth Road in Eastchester where I lived for a couple of years.

The City should not even begin planning the train station/bus depots area changes until it resolves not only the county Bee Line public system, but also all those Adirondack, Greyhound, etc. private regional bus companies that dominate downtown White Plains streets, causing White Plains tax payers to pay for the additional wear on the streets with little apparent benefit to the residents of White Plains.

Somebody in a position of authority needs to take responsibility for this.

Transit District Study Stakeholder Task Force: any work products? Any work?

What the heck? This group was formed back in October 2015. They have yet to appear publicly as a group. Mayor Thomas Roach and Planning Commissioner Chris Gomez have conducted the three public meetings on the Trancenter area Transit District ... whatever. Both Roach and Gomez are well versed, enthusiastic and diligent. But it makes one wonder if this isn't all just a Kabuki dance with the task force a mere show for what is basically a two man operation with 90% of the outcome predetermined.

Does this task force meet?

Does it have conference calls, ...?

What, if anything, has it produced?

How would anyone know any of this?

Mayor Roach is working hard on this. How about the rest of you putting a little effort into it? And show your faces as a group and face the residents of White Plains.

And how about reaching out to the condo and co-op boards and apartment renters, which represent way more White Plains residents than those self appointed community associations that compose the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA)? Pandering to the CNA and its most vocal couple of "Hill" associations is not responsible engagement.

Here is the list of task force members from the city website:

http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/index.aspx?nid=616

Mayor Roach, Chair City of White Plains

Michael Shiffer V.P. Planning, MTA Metro-North Railroad

Ed Buroughs Westchester County Planning Commissioner

Todd Westhuis NYS Dept. of Transportation, Division of Operations and Asset Management

Justin Brasch Metro-North Commuter; resident

Larry Salley Chair, White Plains Housing Authority; Former Commissioner, Westchester County Department of Transportation; resident

Mary Cavallero Former Chair, White Plains Planning Board; resident

Patty Cantu Co-President, Battle Hill Neighborhood Association; resident

Peter Mosbacher Senior V.P., Community Development, Webster Bank; placemaking advocate

Richard Payne Cycling advocate; resident

Robert Weisz CEO, RPW Group

Susan Fox President & CEO, White Plains Hospital

Tim Jones Managing Member, Robert Martin Company, LLC

William Cuddy Executive V.P., CBRE Brokerage Services
________________

Big buses all over serving little purpose.

Hamilton Avenue, adjacent to Walmart 5 PM today: double Bee Line buses parked along the entire block. An informal bus depot?

Corporate buses going down Barker Avenue towards the trains station. These in addition to regional companies like Adirondack, etc.

Has anyone in the Traffic department paid any attention in recent decades. How about the Public Safety department?

Anyone who wants to actually analyse how many White Plains residents use these many buses, start with who rides the county Bee Line and how much of its capacity is used by anyone.

Take a casual look into Bee Line buses in White Plains. What percent of the seats are occupied? Then consider how many Bee Line buses are on city streets "Not in Service". It's a joke. Get the stats from the county.

So many buses doing so little good for so long and none of this is on the municipal radar.

FYI: much more space east of the NORTH White Plains train station than east of the White Plains train station for regional buses. So, why are the bus depots in White Plains rather than NORTH White Plains?

And someone wake the dead at the Westchester County bureaucracy, especially the Bee Line.

Train "station": new building or fix up the platform?

The knee jerk reaction is to want a new building to function as a train "station".

Some White Plains lifers lament the destruction of an old train station. My only recollections as an adult transplant were reports in the 1970s of the police arresting perverts, the vernacular of the time, in the men's room.

After demolition, this being White Plains, the area remained vacant for parts of three decades. It was known as the hole in the ground, which eventually had trees growing there. Such is the traditional construction and renovation time line in White Plains. Consider what preceded the Sam Ashe store at 178 Mamaroneck Avenue: the "Cheesery", a deli restaurant, which was an eye sore for parts of three decades. Again the Common Council was impotent.

The old train station building site now has the unimaginatively designed twin tower rental complex 15 Bank Street, formerly Bank Street Commons. So there's no way to put a new train building on the previous site for those who want a new building.

Stamford, CT train station

Where then? On one of those really valuable municipal parking lots that the city could have converted into a revenue generator decades ago? That would be a colossally bad idea. The only realistic option is to redesign the current platform.

While I support his efforts to push for change, unfortunately in his zeal, Mayor Thomas Roach has criticized the form and function of the current train "station" so much that he may have raised unrealistic expectations. Since the "station" is above two major roads, Main Street and Hamilton Avenue, it must be a raised platform. And what "station" between White Plains and Grand Central has much more than a platform. To get onto any train anywhere, passengers must get onto a platform, raised or not.

 The White Plains platform is very long. One problem is that everyone wants to ride in the front cars into Grand Central because that's where most people exit. The other substantive problem is that much of the space of the platform between the front and the end is made smaller by the "building" part, which does not even use the space well. Maybe the ticket selling area should be on ground level.

Probably the best option is to use some of the space on the east side of the tracks that's currently jammed with taxis and those deplorable regional buses such as Adirondack. Yesterday at 5 PM I spotted a huge Adirondack Trailways bus going north on Mamaroneck Avenue, apparently heading to Martine Avenue, presumably on route to the regional bus depot at the train "station". Get those regional buses the heck out of downtown White Plains. They're huge and serve very few residents. It's bad enough that the Westchester County Bee Line has a major bus depot at the White Plains train "station"; that should also be moved. No one wants to live near a bus depot. No one.

Convenient compromise.

Tombstone, Arizona--"The Town Too Tough to Die": Tombstone Territory 30 min | Western | TV Series (1957-1960)

White Plains: the town too convenient to leave.

Biggest complaints:
- train station could be nicer
- too much traffic; oh wait, that's us driving all over.

Most likely outcome of the Trancenter Task Force: more of the same and at the same slow pace.

No point in rushing unimaginative change.

Trancenter task force: three points of failure.

If any one of these three things occur, the Trancenter task force will fail to transform and improve the Transit District area:

1. build a new parking garage

2. build a new office building

3. leave the bus depots at the train station.

They are naturally concentrating on how to change the form of what is there and what would be most like the rest of White Plains. The three items above approach this in an entirely different way.

Monday, March 28, 2016
Do bus terminals need to be at the train station?

Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Luxury rental apartments near: train station cool, bus depot NOT cool.

Friday, April 8, 2016
Reverse commuters: traveling to/from to do what?

Unfortunately, it's much more likely that the task force will do all three rather than none.

Reverse commuters: traveling to/from to do what?

We hear about all those people doing a reverse commute into White Plains. The implication is that White Plains is so popular that people living in Manhattan are traveling north to work in good paying office jobs and that some day they may move to White Plains into a luxury apartment yet to be built.

But where are they living now?

1. Southern Westchester
2. Manhattan
3. The Bronx
4. Queens
5. Brooklyn
6. Staten Island?

And what jobs do they have, especially those streaming down Hamilton Avenue and Main Street from the train station at 11AM? At that time they probably work in a restaurant or retail store. Can they afford a luxury apartment even in White Plains? Or would they need to form groups, sort of like a college dorm? Are these the millennials upon whom city planners are counting, the ones who will pay taxes and not drive cars?

Will they want to live near the train station/bus depot?

"Not in Service" Bee Line buses roaring down North Broadway: where are they coming from at 4PM?

They are probably going to the bus depot at the White Plains train station. But since so many, including double buses, are roaring down North Broadway empty, it suggests that they have just left some staging area. Where?

Do the White Plains Transcenter task force members know basic stuff about the Westchester county Bee Line bus system?

How full do the buses get?

What percentage of Westchester residents use the Bee Line regularly? White Plains residents? What percentages used the Bee Line very little, if at all, this millennium?

Where are the big Bee Line bus depots in addition to the one at the White Plains train station?

Where are the buses serviced?

How long has the Bee Line had a major depot at the White Plains train station and is it needed there?

Could it be moved someplace else to remove all those Bee Line buses from downtown White Plains streets?

Luxury rental apartments near: train station cool, bus depot NOT cool.

Port Authority Bus Terminal Manhattan

NOBODY is his/her right mind wants to live near a bus depot, which currently exits at the White Plains train station and which, if anything, will become even more prominent if planners continue with conventional thinking. There are actually two bus depots: county Bee-Line and a mess of others.

With a new bridge planned across the Hudson River it's inevitable that the Trancenter task force members will assume that more buses should be routed to the downtown train station. They're moving the chairs around on the deck of the Titanic. This is probably the most fundamental issue that they should be addressing and they don't even know it.

If not there, then where should the busses go? I think most White Plains residents don't really care but here are suggestions.

1. Along interstate highway 287, maybe in one of those corporate parks that are now considered obsolete. They were never a good idea.

2. Adjacent to the North White Plains train station, especially now that the MTA has opened that nice big parking garage east of the tracks.

Either of those sites would get those huge buses off downtown residential streets, including North Broadway south of 287 and Barker Avenue.

Adirondack Trailways roars down Barker instead of Hamilton Avenue.  Monday, March 28, 2016

Do bus terminals need to be at the train station?  Monday, March 28, 2016