InsideTransit

Ok, here’s another one from the “uhm wtf?” file. A bus operator for Greyhound buses crashed into a wooded area –but get this, the bus operator forgot to set the parking brake after she parked the bus at a travel center in North Carolina.

The bus traveled backwards across Highway 61 and somehow wasn’t hit by cars traveling on the highway. The bus came to rest in the wooded area on the other side of the highway.

Fox8 news in Greensboro, NC has the details on the incident. Can you imagine the shock the bus driver must have received? She parks the bus, heads into the travel center, grabs some food, maybe a scratchoff, uses the restroom, comes outside and finds her bus traveling backwards across the highway.

Maybe Greyhound should play the same (very annoying) announcement you hear in the San Francisco airport when you take the airtrain. As it pulls into the station, we hear “we are entering the station, set luggage cart brake to on”.

Last year I wrote about a snakes on a bus “wrap” where the German bus looked like it had huge snakes wrapped around it. The bus wrap was created to promote the Berlin zoo.

Today I’ve learned about a man who carried a ton of snakes onto a bus in Argentina. The man, called a trafficker, was caught on the bus with 40 live snakes plus boxes of additional snakes and reptiles in the luggage hold below the seating area.

Joe Raedle from AFP notes, “The trafficker had loaded them with 444 boas, vipers and other snakes; 186 endangered tortoises; 40 lizards, and an armadillo.” Now that’s a lot of reptiles!

I wonder which is worse…a snake jumping on you while riding on a bus, or a rat jumping on you while sleeping on the subway?

Earlier this week I posted a video of a man in a Big Wheel challenging a NYC city bus to a race. At the end of the race, the text on the screen indicated that the bus moved at a speed of 3.8 miles per hour.

Can you imagine a bus traveling at over 150 miles per hour (250km/h)? Developed by Wubbo Ockels in the Netherlands, the Superbus can travel at these speeds. The “bus” (looks more like a huge racecar) can carry 23 passengers in what appears to be first-class comfort.

The Superbus will cost 1 million euros per bus and cost 14 million euros to develop. The narrator in the video below notes that most of the cost of development was paid for by Dutch taxpayers. I still prefer rail any day over this Superbus.

Here’s a video of the prototype of the Superbus at a race track in the Netherlands.
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Ok, here is what might be the funniest transit race video I have ever seen. The video is described as, “Mark Malkoff sets out to race a NYC bus one mile on 42nd Street while on a Big Wheel.” Yep, this comedian uses a Big Wheel racer and rides across 42nd street in Manhattan. I can tell you that I rode the M42 crosstown bus almost daily on the exact race segment and many times I think I could have walked faster.

For those of you who are public transit fans, there are a lot of inconsistencies in the video and pieces of it make me believe it might not have been shot straight through. The images don’t match as he is moving – they show 6th avenue on the bus but he is at Dyer. When they show him at 5th avenue, he is actually crossing 8th avenue. But it is a fun video nevertheless.

I am a big fan of buses – I even suggested you try taking a bus as a tourist. Designers Chae-woo Park & Tae-eun Kim have come up with a cool bus modification that looks like it wouldn’t cost much to implement but could help bus riders make sure they get on the right bus. Frankly this modification could even speed up bus travel as passengers will know immediately where to move when a number of buses arrive at a stop at the same time.

When buses arrive together, it can be hard to tell which bus route each bus will take because the front signs are hidden by the bus in front. Park and Kim came up with a modification that adds a bus number indicator on a folding plate that appears when the bus opens its doors. The plate opens and sticks out at a 90 degree angle to the bus which displays the route number of the bus. I guess we could take the folding plate another step and color code based on location – for example, in NYC, each borough could have a different color. This way you can tell a Bronx express bus from a Brooklyn express bus.

Here’s a video of the bus number indicator in action and check out Yanko Design for more pictures.
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So the big Snow Blizzard of 2010 in NYC continues into another day. I sure wish I had not moved from NYC — it would be awesome to be part of the action! Here are two photos from Heather – she was able to catch a bus that is stuck in Brooklyn. The bus appears to be driven by a snowman – it’s a cute photo

Here is a side shot of the bus – you can see that the bus will be there for quite a while with all of that snow around it…poor bus – it wishes it was back in the bus barn with all of its other bus friends

Here’s the new bus driver – MTA Employee #42682609:

Ok seriously, there is a lot of snow in NYC right now – some say it’s a blizzard. Jeff at Subchat has put together some photos from the Marine Park area of Brooklyn. I used to stand on this corner every day and catch the bus on the way home. Never in all my years have I seen so much snow – even with last year bringing an absolute ton of snow.

Here are two of Jeff’s photos – go visit Subchat to see all of the snow blizzard doom!

When I think of the transit authority in NYC (the MTA), I think of buses, subways, commuter trains and some tolls on bridges and tunnels. I don’t think of bikes!

NYC has begun to launch “bus only lanes” on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan. This is part of the new SBS bus system – the goal is to make riding the bus a faster and more exciting experience. If you drive in the bus lane, you could receive a ticket in the amount of $115 and if you are ticketed more than 4 times, you will have to cheer for the Jets (just kidding). The new SBS buses have cameras pointing forward from the front of the bus and the cameras will capture the license plates of those who decide to drive in the bus lane.

The MTA has hired a marketing firm which will ride bikes up and down First and Second Avenue to help get the word out about the bus lanes and the fines. Apparently the city has paid $10,000 for the week of bike riders.

The king of monitoring the money the MTA spends, Greg Mocker from WPIX television has a full report on the new ad campaign.
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Two years ago, the mayor of London announced a competition to create a new design for the iconic Routemaster bus.

Last week the first photos of a life-size full-scale model was displayed to the public. BBC News has a great slideshow of photos of the new bus. As much as I normally dislike new bus designs as they try to be over-the-top modern while usually ending up looking like crap, this new Routemaster bus actually looks good!

The bus will carry only 87 persons versus about 150 on a bendy bus. The bus won’t have air conditioning (a mistake in my opinion) and frankly I don’t know why there is a need for the hop-on, hop-off from the old days.

The first new Routemaster bus should hit the streets in 2012. The arrival of the new bus is a great reason for me to come visit London!

The NYC MTA has posted all of the new maps for the five boroughs that include the massive cuts that will take place on June 27, 2010. You can download the maps here. The changes are the biggest set of cuts ever in the history of the MTA. Many of the buses I take on a daily/weekly basis will see major cuts that will impact my ride in a very negative way.

The W and V subway lines will be discontinued and the M becomes orange and will go into midtown instead of lower manhattan.

The week of June 27th should be a very interesting week in NYC. My guess is that by mid-July the complaining and yelling will have subsided and commuters will just learn to deal with the situation. It’s certainly soothing to know the new MTA boss gets $6k for housing each month in addition to his salary.