From: ruben@mrbrklyn.com   
      
   It has just been misinformation that has been published by the MTA and   
   advocates of this proposal.  First of all, most people around the   
   district in question drive.  This is really not disputable.  The area is   
   full of single family homes with driveways, and condos with garages and   
   the parking is at saturation from the Waterfront to the Railroad cut on   
   Avenue I.   
      
   Secondly, very few people take this bus (B82) through the route.  Only   
   about 8k riders take the limited all along the route, and the majority   
   of riders are in Canarsie.  The reason for that is that Canarsie is   
   suburban bedroom community with a single subway and is carved out to   
   prevent through traffic on the majority of its streets.  That puts   
   extreme transit stress on the one real route in, though and out of the   
   community, which is Flatlands Avenue.  The majority of users that use   
   the B82 use it for local traffic in and around Canarsie.   
      
   On the other other hand, what the riders in Canarsie are proposing is a   
   proposition that they would never accept on Avenue L, which would be   
   turning the Kings Highway business district into a Bus Lane with an   
   exclusive right of way for buses only on a very narrow street used by   
   many different constituencies.   
      
   It has been suggested here that Kings Highway provides necessary   
   outer-ring route.  That is not only wrong, but it is a matter of   
   historical accident that the road exists at all.  The road was only   
   designed for local traffic from Ocean Avenue to Stillwell Avenue and   
   never widened ehough to even handle its designation at a truck route.   
      
   It has been suggested that the bus moves the most people in the district   
   and should get priority.  I'm sorry, but that is not only wrong, but it   
   is laughable.  Maybe the proponents who write this somehow over looked   
   the Q and B train, the B100, the B31, B2, and the B7 buses.  Less than   
   8% of all the people that come to the entire span from Stillwell to   
   Ocean Avenue arrive by any bus.   
      
   The vast majority of the people who come and use that district are not   
   surprisingly the local population that live nearby.  According the MTAs   
   own numbers, they make up over 80% of the surveyed population.  They   
   come by walking or driving.  The trips made by walking and driving are   
   also the highest valued forms of transit in that they involved complex   
   door to door carting services and are complex and diverse routes for a   
   highly valuable form of transportation.  This includes, for example, the   
   taxiing of individuals to appointments, schools, meetings and leisure   
   activities along the route.  It includes the shopping and moving of   
   large amounts of goods and services.  It includes transportation for the   
   elderly and handicapped, etc.  Obviously, the bus can not provide this   
   kind of service to families, not in Canarsie or in Midwood.  The bus is   
   only useful for the simplest types of trips, trips where one can go to   
   an inconvenient designated pick up spot, arrive an an equally   
   inconvenient drop of spot,  and most often return the same route, and   
   without carrying any substantial luggage or freight.  Bus transit is   
   therefor only useful for repeated trips to work or school, as long as   
   one is adequately mobile and not loaded up with freight.   It is useful   
   for restaurants, bars, starbucks, and sometimes movies theaters.  Bus   
   transport is all but useless high valued transportation such as when   
   transporting whole families, shopping for weekly groceries, clothing   
   shopping, medical appointments for the elderly, sick or handicapped, or   
   any trips that require multiple stops, and lots of packages.   
      
   The rational thing to do here would be to decouple the B82 back to the   
   B50 and divide the east west portions of the route.  This would maximize   
   the usage for Canarsie residents and increase the local service for   
   them, since they use the local service more than 2:1 local over express   
   service.  If you do an SBS service it needs to go down Avenue P.  That   
   will give it quick and easy access to the Brighton Linei, a half a block   
   from the Avenue P and East 16th bus stop, and gives direct access to the   
   F train at the Avenue P station.  It properly bypasses the N train,   
   which is redundant service to the B, Q and F trains, and that station is   
   designed only for local access anyway.   
      
   The best explanation of the details of all this is at   
   www.brooklyn-living.com  - specifically   
      
   http://www.brooklyn-living.com/b82_sbs_opposition.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)