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This story with video was just shown on News12. The driver of car was interviewed. Seeing the video fully on a big TV was frightening! NICE responded by saying driver has been suspended for 5 days & must go through retraining before returning to road.
Sorry but seeing that video more clearly on TV that driver should be fired!!
I agree with the original poster. I got my first car in 1987 and lived in nassau county my whole life. I can't remember seeing any bus driving as bad as I see now. Ive seen road rage and a lot of reckless driving. Ive also worked in the city,outdoors, for the past 22 years and have seen the city bus drivers in action and the nice drivers believe it or not are just as bad maybe worse because nassau has less congestion.
I think the problem with buses is that I do not see them on the roads at all ---
It would make so much sense to have a bus schedule synchronized with train schedule and run them from south to north to shore towns. The last bus that runs in Northrop touches down at Northrop station at 6pm .. it makes 0 sense ... there are so many people who come from the city after that. It is wasteful to have a car parked in the LIRR parking life for 95% of its useful life.
I think the problem with buses is that I do not see them on the roads at all ---
It would make so much sense to have a bus schedule synchronized with train schedule and run them from south to north to shore towns. The last bus that runs in Northrop touches down at Northrop station at 6pm .. it makes 0 sense ... there are so many people who come from the city after that. It is wasteful to have a car parked in the LIRR parking life for 95% of its useful life.
I don't have much experience with buses in Suffolk County, but as for Nassau County, I can tell you that NICE's scheduling is horrible on many levels, not just the times that are printed on paper. Runs that NICE perform are frequently late because of Nassau County's traffic lighting system. Buses run slower than cars, but almost all the lights in the county are programmed to be green for cars traveling the speed limit. Buses, especially ones that are doing local runs, travel slower than the speed limit and usually get stuck at almost every red light. It's ridiculous and can get frustrating for the driver, especially when they have passengers yelling at them about being 10-30 minutes late. Routes like the n22, n6, n4, get destroyed time-wise because of high-ridership, traffic on the streets, and the lighting system. All these factors add time that puts the bus behind schedule.
And I wouldn't expect these things to change. Like I've said, Nassau County could not give a flying f**k about buses, so the traffic light system preferring cars will probably stay. NICE's route designers aren't too experienced with scheduling or ridership either, which is why the n6 has been crushed ridership-wise, and as the highest-ridership route in the system, has caused an overall-decrease in ridership system-wide for the last three years.
I know the question/comment is going to come up that this was different under Long Island Bus. Here's the thing. Generally, because of their training and their confidence, MTA drivers would be driving faster than how NICE drivers do now, and were able to stay somewhat close to schedule. NICE drivers get very little training before they're on the road driving a bus as long as they have a fresh CDL so you have newbies driving 40-ft tanks who aren't very confident in their driving yet. Why do you think we have buses going into pizzerias or houses in Hempstead, etc? Believe it or not, those could have been avoided, whether or not someone was in the middle in the street.
As an off & on LIB/NICE rider, I noticed one change in recent months. Quite a handful of times, the NICE bus ran too early from schedule! So basically there is havoc from some are too early & a pile of late bus. I sincerely think the drivers don't care anymore.
From personal experience, it is common to see 3-4 bus piled next to each other back to back. If I was a betting person, I am confident there maybe no more bus coming for 1.5 hrs during peak rush hour.
As an off & on LIB/NICE rider, I noticed one change in recent months. Quite a handful of times, the NICE bus ran too early from schedule! So basically there is havoc from some are too early & a pile of late bus. I sincerely think the drivers don't care anymore.
From personal experience, it is common to see 3-4 bus piled next to each other back to back. If I was a betting person, I am confident there maybe no more bus coming for 1.5 hrs during peak rush hour.
Being early is a huge problem too. And you're right drivers don't care, because there's no repercussions from management for leaving too early. What, are they going to fire them? NICE is low on drivers as it is and nobody wants to join NICE because of low pay, mediocre benefits, and terrible operating conditions. NICE will only punish or fire drivers if they're doing something dangerous, hence the situation that started this thread. Rush hours are the worst time to be on NICE. Buses leave early way too often, and the gaps between buses increase. Then you have to account for drivers being absent, buses breaking down, getting into an accident, etc. In the end, like you said, you could be waiting an hour or two for a bus that's scheduled for every 20 minutes. It's worse when you have buses scheduled every 10 minutes during rush hours and in the time that each bus doesn't show up, the bus stops fill with people and next thing you know, you have to wait 2-3 buses just to get on. This is the mess the county has put NICE passengers into. It's almost despicable.
Being early is a huge problem too. And you're right drivers don't care, because there's no repercussions from management for leaving too early. What, are they going to fire them? NICE is low on drivers as it is and nobody wants to join NICE because of low pay, mediocre benefits, and terrible operating conditions. NICE will only punish or fire drivers if they're doing something dangerous, hence the situation that started this thread. Rush hours are the worst time to be on NICE. Buses leave early way too often, and the gaps between buses increase. Then you have to account for drivers being absent, buses breaking down, getting into an accident, etc. In the end, like you said, you could be waiting an hour or two for a bus that's scheduled for every 20 minutes. It's worse when you have buses scheduled every 10 minutes during rush hours and in the time that each bus doesn't show up, the bus stops fill with people and next thing you know, you have to wait 2-3 buses just to get on. This is the mess the county has put NICE passengers into. It's almost despicable.
It sure is. Heck if MTA was still here I may not be so gung-ho on moving.
It's very cruel whats going on & nobody gives a damn. People in their cars could care less. As for commuters who connect from the LIRR, they're just about gone. Since a senior operator left the n51, it's often very late. There used to be about 10-15 ppl at Merrick coming off the train in the evening for the bus, now they all get picked up or take cabs. These ppl took the bus by choice, spending $10-15 on a cab is nothing for them, and they left the system and don't give a damn about the ppl who are stuck on it with no choice. I'm now the only one on the bus often from Merrick.
And they really dont, I tried to get them to complain to NICE and Mangano when the bus was late, they weren't interested. They're opinion is "I can afford other choices, I dont care what happens to you".
Thats why many nickname this the County of Nasty!
Money takes the rails so I just need to be somewhere with better train service, because the LIRR will never face the kind of cuts & poor service bus riders have. I will be working on yet another letter for LIRR management, they really do need to add more service in Westbury. I mean how much $$ does adding an extra stop cost? It's only an extra 2 min or so (if that).
Nassau bus riders just get screwed from every angle. Saw it first hand today in Hicksville, there was an n48 missing, the next bus, the n49 was 15 min late and left Hicksville stuffed to the gills and flagged everyone on Newbridge, they had to take my n50 & transfer at Hempstead Turnpike for service to Hempstead.
Ed Mangano & the Nassau legislature are completely to blame for this mess. Had they just agreed to fund the MTA this never would've happened. Even if they still gave the contract to Veolia/Transdev, they should've maintained the 9 million they were contributing. To cut it to 2.6 Million shows the contempt they have for the riders. All the snobs in this county think they can get away with not subsidizing bus service and that it won't affect them, well I sure hope they enjoy their tax increase courtesy of Ed Mangano and the drop in sales tax revenue, which is in part due to poor bus service! Now just wait until the snobs have to wait on long lines at stores due to a shortage of help, clean their house & watch their own kids since the Nanny cant get to work, or have to cut their own grass...I could go on...
Last edited by nancy thereader; 01-01-2016 at 07:48 AM..
At this point, voting others in and out will probably not make a difference. Majority of the residents of Nassau County don't care or don't want a bus system, and that's just the way it is. Like many others have stated in this thread, if you can't afford a car and have to rely on public transportation, Nassau County is not for you. Truth be told though, throughout this whole bus system situation dating back to 2010, Mangano has had no respect for bus riders or the people who work for the operation one bit. That public hearing back in 2011 when the riders spoke out is a good example.
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