Interesting stuff in the August issue of WestView News. The letter from Bill Pullano on the bike lanes on 12th and 13th Streets was especially well informed and balanced. We need him as a writer for WestView. The simplistic DOT/MTA view on bus speeds instead of total trip duration and comfort ignores what travelers must endure, long walks to and from the unsheltered stops, long waits at the stops for buses bunched in pairs, buses passing us by while we have to purchase the ridiculous paper tickets before boarding. DOT also uses simplistic origin/destination traffic projections, again ignoring the fact that it creates congestion by parking limitations which force car owners to continually cruise the streets simply looking for free parking spaces for cars they rarely use to travel in the city. Mr. Pullano is right. The fewer spaces, the fewer cruising cars.
—Barry Benepe
