2006/10/14
Proposed bus station, plus more
When I first got here, I was really confused by the bus system. Not that it's gotten a whole lot better – the route maps (and names, too) don't really make any sense if you don't know the city really well (go download a couple of schedules) – but at least I've sort of figured something out: The Regional Transportation Center is not the same thing as the city bus station.
In my experience, that's unusual.
Of course, the city doesn't actually have a bus station. You can catch a Greyhound or a train at the RTC, but the hub of the hub-and-spoke mass transit system is the always-cluttered intersection of Salina and Fayette streets. You have to know at which of the four corners your bus stops, and downtown traffic is always stalled.
It also means a lack of visibility for store fronts (with buses stopped in front of them) and a shortage of parking – so people who are driving through downtown are likely to not stop there to do errands.
On top of that, it means that if you're taking the bus, for six months of the year, you are uncomfortably cold, and subject to the elements' effects on the sidewalk. Not great if you've a compromised immune system, aren't in really good physical condition (try navigating an icy sidewalk with bad hips and a walker), and unattractive if you could just drive to work instead, even if you typically would prefer mass transit.
But the city's stepping up, and may soon buy a building for a bus station. It would mean relocating the Red Cross Blood Center – which I don't think would be a bad thing; I know that if I had easier access to it, I might actually take a lunch break to donate blood, but it also means that the buses would clear out of that intersection, and people would have the comfort of a roof over their heads (and walls around their bodies) in the harsh CNY winters.
There are two exciting possibilities here. First, for novice bus takers, there's no wondering which corner you have to stand on – and having to wait another hour if you guess wrong after 6 p.m. And more importantly, it lightens traffic at Salina and Fayette, which could lead to more downtown development.
And if you've been reading, you know we think that's a thing.
Also in the news
• We wrote Thursday about a pact to clean up Onondaga Lake that involves a $451 million promise from Honeywell, which now owns the company that dumped a lot of toxic sludge in there. But there's a lot of doubt about the effectiveness of the planned methods.
• Here's a little more on the AXA lease.
In my experience, that's unusual.
Of course, the city doesn't actually have a bus station. You can catch a Greyhound or a train at the RTC, but the hub of the hub-and-spoke mass transit system is the always-cluttered intersection of Salina and Fayette streets. You have to know at which of the four corners your bus stops, and downtown traffic is always stalled.
It also means a lack of visibility for store fronts (with buses stopped in front of them) and a shortage of parking – so people who are driving through downtown are likely to not stop there to do errands.
On top of that, it means that if you're taking the bus, for six months of the year, you are uncomfortably cold, and subject to the elements' effects on the sidewalk. Not great if you've a compromised immune system, aren't in really good physical condition (try navigating an icy sidewalk with bad hips and a walker), and unattractive if you could just drive to work instead, even if you typically would prefer mass transit.
But the city's stepping up, and may soon buy a building for a bus station. It would mean relocating the Red Cross Blood Center – which I don't think would be a bad thing; I know that if I had easier access to it, I might actually take a lunch break to donate blood, but it also means that the buses would clear out of that intersection, and people would have the comfort of a roof over their heads (and walls around their bodies) in the harsh CNY winters.
There are two exciting possibilities here. First, for novice bus takers, there's no wondering which corner you have to stand on – and having to wait another hour if you guess wrong after 6 p.m. And more importantly, it lightens traffic at Salina and Fayette, which could lead to more downtown development.
And if you've been reading, you know we think that's a thing.
Also in the news
• We wrote Thursday about a pact to clean up Onondaga Lake that involves a $451 million promise from Honeywell, which now owns the company that dumped a lot of toxic sludge in there. But there's a lot of doubt about the effectiveness of the planned methods.
• Here's a little more on the AXA lease.
