Feedback on Select Bus Service

To the Editor: Re: â??Bus Lane Not Yet on Candid Camera (April 15): Even if the cameras keep everybody clear of the bus lanes, there remains a major obstacle's the MTA buses themselves! On some six miles of the M15 select bus service route, both express and local buses share a single lane. That means that express buses will get stuck behind preceding locals or, as the MTA suggests, bypass them by heaving their 60-foot bulks into the nearest traffic lane's a recipe for delays and accidents. There goes the promised high-speed bus service. Bruce Silberblatt Vice president and zoning/land use chairman Turtle Bay Association To the Editor: Re: â??Select Bus Service Is a Waste of Money (letter, April 22): The issue is that the M15 bus on First/Second avenues is already one of the most-utilized bus routes in the entire New York City area (61,000 average passengers per weekday). Travel times are impacted by the large number of riders getting on and off the buses, and by traffic that chokes the streets. Simply adding more regular M15 buses will not have the impact that many people expect: wait times might benefit slightly, but travel times would be minimally improved and â??bunching would be much worse. There are fundamental problems that need to be solved. Although the M15 Limited service does help passengers who want to save some time (and often travel farther distances), select bus service is a truly better version of Limited buses. Select bus service will create something between buses and subways's offset/separated bus lanes, traffic signal priority and pre-boarding fare collection will help speed travel times quite a bit. Best of all, the costs of this program are minimal compared to the benefits to straphangers's and the costs are partly recovered with increased ridership due to these enhancements. Marshall H. East 60s To the Editor: Thanks for your detailed map of the select bus service route along First and Second avenues (â??City Advances Speedy Bus Plan, May 6). It is very useful to help unscramble the ramifications of the MTA"s debt-reduction plan and what it means to your East Side readers in the future. Your map clearly illustrates that the scheduled limited stops on First and Second avenues are at every crosstown service street with the exception of 49th/50th Streets. Will this really speed up traffic or just isolate the Turtle Bay neighborhood? To speed up traffic on First and Second avenues, will the MTA be able to address the massive afternoon entrance and exit of empty â??Not In Service boarder buses on their way to scheduled pickups in Manhattan? The empty vehicles must layover somewhere outside of Manhattan, then return over the toll-free East Side bridges and clog Second Avenue, especially after 4 p.m., when school buses are thrown into the mix, along with contractors" trucks on their journeys home outside of New York City. To cut down traffic, adding tollbooths on the Willis Avenue Bridge and congestion pricing similar to London"s system would discourage non-essential traffic and add funds to the MTA"s stretched coffers to improve mass transit, not diminish it. Speedy public surface transportation is a challenging goal, one which we all applaud. But the MTA shouldn"t neglect service to the whole Midtown neighborhood that, along with other East Side areas, suffers the noise of impatient, passing-through visitors honking their horns in our neighborhoods. Marilyn Van Syckel East 50th Street Letters have been edited for clarity.