[RP TownTalk] Queensbury Buses

[Rob Oppenheim]

There are about 130 bus trips/day traveling on Queensbury 
(and on a piece of Lafayette and along Riverdale Rd).
That seems like a lot of buses.

While I am not convinced that the buses should be moved off of Queensbury 
(or find lighter buses etc), I am open to the idea. 

Are these buses benefiting towns people? How many? Could it benefit us just as well on 
E-W Highway (and maybe down Taylor to continue on Riverdale Rd past the apartments)?
Is the noise, pollution, torn up streets and higher maintenance costs worth it?

The road surface at the corner of Queensbury and Lafayette is in bad shape.
Supposedly due to the buses. Indeed most of Queensbury and especially 
the railroad crossing is in bad shape. 

The resulting bumpy streets reduces our quality of life and costs us money to 
maintain our cars, and the maintenance of Queensbury costs the town money. 

Anyone who has sat behind a bus knows that they spew out a lot of pollution 
and kick up dirt and grit and loud noises too. This has to be a constant 
irritation to people who live nearby. I hope that some more of them will
chime in on this topic. Maybe they do not mind it. If Queensbury is ever to
get traffic calming devices (turn abouts, curves, speed humps, narrowed lanes)
then I would think that the buses would have to be moved off.

FYI, there are 2 sets of buses that I know about that use Queensbury (I am 
pretty ignorant when it comes to buses, there may be others):

1) "The Bus" is operated by PG County and has Route 14 on these streets.
It makes about 40 trips/day. Schedules available at 
http://www.goprincegeorgescounty.com/Government/AgencyIndex/DPW&T/Transit/thebus.asp?nivel=foldmenu(2) 

2) "Metro Buses" operated by Washington Metro Area Transit Authority 
has Route F4 which makes about 93 trips/day on these streets.
Schedule available at http://www.wmata.com/

Are there others?

-Rob
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20060424/07145ec4/attachment-0003.html>