Finally!! The transportation authority here in NYC (MTA) has finally decided to realize that it’s a damn pain in the butt to try to haul luggage on a bus bound for the airport. Today they announced a pilot program to test luggage racks on the bus routes that serve both LGA and JFK airports (i.e. M60, B15, Q3, Q10, Q33, Q48 and Q72). One bus running on the M60 to LGA has the rack installed.
“We believe that the racks will be a great amenity, making things more comfortable for our customers and even helping our bus operators speed their trips. We are going to have our managers out monitoring these buses, asking our customers and bus operators if they are seeing an improvement,” said Joseph Smith, Senior Vice President in the Department of Buses. “If the results are positive, we will expand the installation of the racks to other buses on these routes.”
The issues I see with the luggage rack location are:
- security – placing the racks right next to the rear door allows a criminal to easily exit with your bag
- you must drag the bag from the front of the bus to the rear – my guess is many passengers will just continue standing towards the front with their bag
In any case, good for the MTA for testing out a feature that many other cities already offer on their airport-bound buses. I’d rather see larger and wider buses running on the airport routes rather than the low-floor tiny buses.
Tags: airport, New York, New York City Blog, NYC, transit, Transit News
