Bee-Line bus system: "backbone of Westchester Employment"? Or a joke?

Message left at:

http://blog.tstc.org/2011/07/26/bee-line-revealed-as-backbone-of-westchester-employment/

Bee-Line Revealed as Backbone of Westchester Employment

POSTED BY: NADINE LEMMON JULY 26, 2011

My comment:

In White Plains Bee-Line buses are either:
- "not in service"
- parked on Hamilton Avenue
- running with almost no passengers.

This bus system is a joke that suggests:
- massive incompetence
- corruption
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Another message intended for Nadine Lemon, the writer of the mentioned above:

http://blog.tstc.org/contact-us/

Nadine,

Please read some of the posts on the Bee-Line on my blog. I'd like your perspective. I've sent messages to the Westchester County Executive, two County legislators representing White Plains, the WP task force for redeveloping the area near the train station and bus depots. No one seems to want to even consider dealing with my observations about the Bee-Line.

It has almost no passengers in White Plains. Relative to capacity, its ridership percentage must be very low. Check it out.
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True/False: "Bee-Line is Westchester County's bus system, serving over 30 million passengers annually"

That's what the Westchester website states:

http://transportation.westchestergov.com/bee-line

30,000,000    30 million!

It just seems unimaginable given the lack of passengers using the Bee-Line in downtown White Plains, which is geographically in the center of the county, has the most shopping and has the most used Metro North train station, which is located next to the Bee-Line bus depot.

Do Westchester County legislators exercise any real oversight of the Bee-Line or have they been rubber stamping an inefficient system for years? Or worse? What could be worse? Worse would be if the many 2016 candidates for Westchester County District Attorney didn't at least look into this for possible corruption.

Many messages have been sent to the County Executive. No reply.

Individual messages have been sent to two County Legislators for White Plains. No reply.

See many previous posts for more details.

12 parks? Name 'em.

http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/

Explore White Plains' Many Parks with 'Passport to Parks'

Looking for something fun and adventurous to do this summer with the kids? The WP Rec & Parks Dept has the solution: Passport to Parks. It's a safe, fun way to travel, explore & discover White Plains parks. Pick-up your Passport this Sat @ Truck Day! Additional Info...

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Truck Day? What the heck?

http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/DocumentCenter/View/1827

This passport will encourage you to visit 12 fabulous city parks ...
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If there's one thing that downtown White Plains lacks it's parks. There is ONE: between Lake Street and Main Street. That thing on North Broadway between Main and Hamilton Avenue is a really nice center divider whose width is the same as the four road lanes on each of its two long sides. If the west side of Central Park in Manhattan had a comparably wide group of lanes they would extend to about the Hudson River.

New York City also includes small strips of land in its count of "parks" but it also has large botanical gardens in Brooklyn and the Bronx and, of course, Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

A central park is exactly what White Plains lacks. It should have been created at the site of the unsightly Galleria indoor shopping mall between Main Street and Martine Avenue. Evacuation and controlled demolition are the only real solution to that mess.

But even if that occurred, what are the chances that City decision makers would make a comparable mistake with that second chance? About 100%.

They seem intent on doing that with the development of the barren area near the train station, bus depots mess. Basically, rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. More parking, new "station" structure, probably office buildings. It's unimaginable that developers would consider erecting apartment buildings above and/or adjacent to the ever expanding and underutilized bus depots.

I sent a message to the City Parks employee whose email ID was posted in the message about the 12 parks. After five days just two dysfunctional auto replies suggesting something is amiss with the City computer network. Maybe the network admin person is out enjoying one of the dozen parks ... or looking for them.

Bee Line (Bee-Line): waste, fraud and abuse?

It's got to be at least one.

http://transportation.westchestergov.com/bee-line

The Bee-Line is Westchester County's bus system, serving over 30 million passengers annually ...
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30 million? How can that possibly be when the Bee Line buses in White Plains, the heart of Westchester County, are never full. Those observed at or near the Bee Line bus depot at the White Plains train station hardly have any passengers. And, as had been mentioned in several recent posts, MANY Bee Line buses both sit around and drive around downtown White Plains proudly showing the sign "Not in Service".

So, a reasonable conclusion is that the Bee Line bus system is run very inefficiently. But is it worse than municipal incompetence? Is there criminal activity such as bribes?

The many candidates to fill the job of Westchester County District Attorney should at least address this during the election campaign ... unless they'd be investigating friends and allies.

Why does everyone DRIVE to the County Center?

Yesterday there was one of those rare events, probably a graduation, that actually fills the County Center parking lot, which is oddly on the opposite side of the Bronx River Parkway. There was massive gridlock from Route 119 and the county police with no plan to deal with the mess.

But here's the thing. There was no indication of anyone arriving by train or bus.  None. EVERYONE drove, probably even some from places with easy access to train stations that could provide service to White Plains.

Obviously, the intersection needs to be changed and policed properly ... after several decades of this. But attitudes should also be changed.

So why is there no plan to make Westchester residents aware of how easy it is to get to White Plains by train? The Bee Line bus is more problematic, as it has the sigma of being for poor people, but the train is used by all kinds of people to get to Manhattan. It's just not used enough to get to White Plains for events or shopping. Service workers take the train, seemingly much more than the Bee Line, which along with other types of buses, has been the subject of many recent posts questioning its very existence.

Raising public awareness above zero is a good idea. Which public official will take the initiative? County executive? Mayor? ...?

Uber the Bee Line out of existence. Give poor people Uber vouchers.

The article below is good but does not address the pathetic Westchester County Bee Line bus system, which moves poor people around to provide services for rich people. See many previous posts on how empty the Bee Line buses are. It might well be more cost effective to provide free and/or discounted Uber rides to the poor people, rather than having them wait in unpleasant locations for Bee Line buses.

Uber's technically not legal here, but it may be soon
by Mark Lungariello, mlungariel@lohud.com 7:48 a.m. EDT March 25, 2016
State insurance laws are a stumbling block for ride-booking services outside of New York City.

Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft are prohibited in the state outside of New York City due to existing insurance laws. Uber operates in Westchester, but under the county’s current laws regulating taxis and limousines, the company’s drivers are only allowed to give rides if the pick-up or drop-off location is within one of the five boroughs.

It’s a poorly-kept secret that you can take an Uber within Westchester County even though the services aren’t licensed to operate here ...

Yonkers, White Plains and New Rochelle license their own taxis and collect revenue from permit fees or selling medallions.
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Apply HOV to EMPTY buses.

High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV): "vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers"

Applying that concept to Westchester County Bee Line buses as well as regional and corporate buses should eliminate a significant percentage of them from downtown streets.

A VERY high percentage of Bee Line buses are "not in service", so they're gone. MANY private buses have zero passengers. Eliminate them, too.

That could eliminate the majority of buses from downtown. What's the data on EMPTY buses impacting the quality of life in downtown White Plains?

Buses parked illegally: a White Plains tradition.

There's an area with painted striped lines indicating that vehicles are not to be parked there near the hideously embarrassing mini-mall at the triangular intersection of the ever confusingly named (South Lexington Avenue)/(Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd.) and (Barker Avenue)/(Water Street).

May 16, 2016 mid day

Those really big regional buses have established a tradition of parking there for long rests and/or short vacations. The City of White Plains ignores this. Otherwise, those regionals might need to park illegally on Hamilton Avenue near Walmart with all those Westchester County Bee Line buses.

I guess those buses need to be parked somewhere. But why are they in downtown in the first place? They are almost always almost completely empty.

Buses in your face.

The thing is, once you start to notice the oppressiveness of so many buses used so inefficiently, you cannot stop noticing. It's as though the buses are in your face. Right now it's just one person but it could become more. You never know.

The absurdity of a DOUBLE Bee Line bus on North Broadway at 6 PM on a Sunday is compounded by the fact that its sign was the ever present "not in service". Just how many passengers does the county expect to board that DOUBLE bus this evening, if and when, it actually goes into service? What percent of miles traveled by Bee Line buses, including to/from staging areas, are "not in service"?

How much Westchester county tax money is being wasted on the Bee Line, whose not "not in service" buses in White Plains never seem to have more than a few passengers?

Email sent:

from:		Ken
to:		Downtown White Plains Transit District
cc:		Rob Astorino
date:		Sun, May 15, 2016 at 6:07 PM
subject:		Bee Line double not in service.

Is this a joke? Isn't anyone embarrassed or upset?

Photo of parked bus taken at 6 PM Sunday May 15, 2016 North Broadway and Park Avenue.

About twenty minutes earlier a huge regional was speeding down Barker Avenue approaching the Church Street intersection heading towards the bus depot at the White Plains train station.

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Bee Line: how about loops within White Plains?

The Bee Line (Bee-Line) County bus system has loops that go to Tarrytown, IBM headquarters in Armonk, corporate parks along Interstate 287 and others. I think they all go to the White Plains train station, which, of course, involves the absurd loopty loop in, through, around the county bus depot there. If that ever made sense, does it now?

http://transportation.westchestergov.com/timetables-and-maps

Since the City of White Plains is incapable, unwilling, whatever of getting its own bus system, why not petition the county for intra-city bus loops?

Empty mega bus on Park Ave. Would this be tolerated where Common Council members live?

Private bus on residential Park Ave. waiting to turn left onto North Broadway at 6:30 PM this evening. Sign on the bus: Pepsi to train station. It was empty, probably heading back to Purchase to pick up another couple of corporate passengers.



Why was this bus on Park Ave.? One reason is that Hamilton Ave., which has zero residential buildings, is ONE WAY in the wrong direction for use by the many empty and almost empty buses leaving the train station: private, regional, county Bee Line. Any casual observation during the day will show a VERY low percentage of seats occupied by passengers. It's impossible to see how this benefits the majority of White Plains residents who live in apartments downtown.

Would Common Council members tolerate this on the streets where they live? The commissioners? No way.

So how about the administration checking this out? Show some interest, even if I'm the only one making it an issue.

How about the media doing more than putting a camera on a tripod and covering yet another statement about something that impacts a very low percentage of White Plains residents. How about those who write for stuff that people read, checking it?

How about administration people joining me for random walk arounds to observe the obvious? It won't take long to see.

And the City wants many more mega buses to enter downtown White Plains from the new bridge over the Hudson? That would turn the area near the train station into a vast wasteland, maybe even worse than now.

Hudson Yards

livehudsonyards.com

All the empty buses, where do they all come from?

Dodge City. Busland. Pick your metaphor.

Traffic Laws. Thursday, December 4, 2008​

WP is Dodge City. When it comes to moving violations there is no law.
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Buses, buses everywhere ... downtown. But why so many empty buses? Why so few riders? Why on residential streets? Why are bus depots at the train station? Why are so many Bee Line buses parked empty downtown, such as on Hamilton Avenue, adjacent to Walmart? Why so many Bee Line DOUBLE buses?

Bee Line double buses even on Sunday morning.

What the heck?

Arriving at the Transmania bus depot at the White Plains train station.

Is anybody paying any attention?