I, like many Villagers, am appalled by the 14th Street fiasco. The 14th Street bus is one of the best in the city, it runs very often, you don’t have to stand waiting in the cold or rain more than a few minutes. The MTA complains that bus ridership has declined. There is a very evident and easy reason for that. They may be concerned with cutting a minute or two off the crosstown time on the M14, but if you want to take the M55 uptown from the Village, be prepared to wait 15 minutes if you’re extremely lucky, more likely half an hour or more. The other day I waited almost an hour. The M20 also runs very infrequently—it’s listed as three times an hour, but if one of those buses is missing, you’re stuck for half an hour or more. Most people riding buses are doing so because they cannot walk long distances or climb subway stairs. We can get fairly near our destinations by changing buses, but at what cost of time? If the M55 and the M20 are always “tied up in traffic” either at South Ferry or the tunnel, maybe they should reroute a few of them so they don’t all have to go through that bottleneck at the Ferry. Also I heard a rumor that they’re now planning to eliminate the M14A westbound to Abingdon Square—again some people depend on that bus and that bus stop. Okay, I’ve had my say.
—Diane Martella, Longtime Villager
