Ms. Quinn did not present a plan to expand New York City's subway system.

New York City mayoral front-runner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unveiled her mass transit agenda this morning. While she emphasized increased control for the city's next mayor, Ms. Quinn had no new ideas.

Her headline proposal is to take control of the MTA back from the state. But taking over the MTA is a tall order, and to do it, she'll need to prove that she has better ideas about how to run it than the state.

So does she?

Ms. Quinn presented three concrete transit proposals—bringing Metro-North service to Penn Station with new stations in the Bronx, ten new Select Bus Service lines in the outer boroughs and increased ferry service.

The first proposal, to bring Metro-North service to Co-Op City, Parkchester, Morris Park and Hunts Point, with additional stops on Manhattan's West Side, is something that has been planned for the MTA's next capital plan anyway—nothing new here.

As far as we can tell from her plan, she would leave the MTA's regional railroads—Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad—as the the same bloated and inefficient services that they are today. With the same sky-high labor costs—commuter railroads in the Northeast have clung to as many as half-a-dozen employees per train, whereas other countries and cities on the west coast have pared staff down to rapid transit levels—new Metro-North service under Ms. Quinn's plan is likely to be just as infrequent and expensive as it is now, reducing its usefulness for New Yorkers who already have cheaper, albeit slower, options. (Absent as well from her platform was any mention of labor reform on New York City's subways, despite issues like one-person train operation being at the heart of the MTA's negotiations with its union.)

Ramped up Select Bus Service service—otherwise known as "bus rapid transit," which speeds boarding with a fine-enforced honor system and gives buses their own dedicated lanes—is the meatiest part of her proposal, but this idea is hardly original—she merely puts a number (ten new lines) to the Progressive Caucus's plan for "a city-wide network of bus rapid transit lines that connect the boroughs." Her four-year timeline is a welcome improvement from the MTA's current snail's pace roll-out, but given Ms. Quinn's emphasis on public review as council speaker, it's unclear if she could roll this out as quickly as she'd like to.

Ferry rides are scenic, but there's a reason that New York started replacing them with subways in the 19th century.

Furthermore, the reasoning behind improved bus service hints at the elephant in New York City's transit room: astronomical subway construction costs.

"Subways cost roughly $1 billion per mile to construct," she said in her speech. "Bus rapid transit—just $1 million a mile."

For one, Ms. Quinn should check her facts. The Upper East Side segment of the Second Avenue subway clocks in at $2.7 billion a mile, and the 7 train extension is over $2 billion a mile—and that's without the much-needed stop at 41st Street and 10th Avenue, which would cost another half-billion, at least.

But more importantly, using the high cost of subway construction in New York City—much higher than in peer cities like Tokyo, Paris or even London—as an excuse not to build any more lines ("I'm a little bit on the fence about finishing the Second Avenue subway," Ms. Quinn joked, saying that her father has vowed not to die before it's finished) is an admission of defeat.

Select Bus Service on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, for example, is a good start (and something the MTA is already planning), but these high-ridership corridors are crying out for full-blown subway service—first planned over 80 years ago. Better bus service in the outer boroughs would be nice, but Ms. Quinn said nothing about the higher-capacity Triboro RX rail line that many transit advocates have been pushing.

As for ferries, they are essentially a 19th century mode of transit, with no hope of making a dent in the city's transit needs outside of a few places like Staten Island and the Rockaways. "In just 18 months," Ms. Quinn said of East River ferry service, "it’s already served over 1.6 million riders." As a comparison, the Lexington Avenue subway line carries 1.3 million riders each day.

New York is fundamentally a rail-oriented city, and Christine Quinn apparently has no plan to add to this infrastructure, or even make more efficient use of existing lines, aside from the Metro-North plan the MTA is already working on. Buses and ferries are all well and good, but Ms. Quinn is going to need to do better if she wants to give the city back its subways.

M60: Not stuck in traffic anymore. (The Daily News)

Castles, trains, there are a lot of things we'd like to build in the sky, but it's just not going to happen. So while LaGuardia Airport may not be getting a sleek new air train anytime soon, it will at least be getting some select bus routes.

The city announced today that there will be three new potential Select Bus Service routes to LaGuardia Airport as well as local bus service improvements, including a faster crosstown service on 125th Street. The new services could potentially reduce travel times to the rather disconnected airport by anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes.

“Select Bus Service improves travel times, enhances safety and increases ridership wherever we have installed it,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a release.“This new Select Bus Service to LaGuardia will not only cut travel time for people flying in and out of New York, but it will also benefit New Yorkers who commute to work at the airport every day from Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx.”

The plan, largely based around small efficient improvements like streamlined stops, bus-only lanes and transit signal priority technology to keep buses from getting stuck at traffic lights, highlights the city’s near obsessive design school thinking, where small changes can lead to big savings and metrics become an end in themselves.

The city is not known for downplaying its accomplishments, and it accompanied the news about the new service to LaGuardia by crowing about how great its fourth Select Bus Service on Staten Island’s S79 route is. A service that, “improved bus speeds by as much as 20 percent, with passenger satisfaction at up to 98 percent.”

Not that LaGuardia Airport couldn’t use a little design school thinking.  The airport itself served more than 24 million customers in 2011 and employs some 8,000 people, all of whom are served by just five current bus routes, which are often slowed by delays and congestion. Routes like the M60 service that are stopped, according to the release, more than 60 percent of the time and travel as slow as 2.7 mph across 125th Street. Since the area lacks easy access to subway lines, these already crowded local routes serve both local residents and air passengers with their accompanying luggage.

It’s a situation where almost anything would be a step in the right direction and for any traveler who has nearly suffered a panic attack watching traffic creep along toward the airport as boarding time approaches, we're sure select bus service seems like a very big step indeed.

kdillon@observer.com

The power biker. (Getty)

The redesign of 34th Street has come in for its fair—or unfair, depending on perspective—share of criticism in the lead up to today's launch of Select Bus Service on the thoroughfare. One person who would gladly board that bus, so to speak? None other than Robert Caro.

The Observer was interviewing Mr. Caro for an article about infrastructure investment—or lack thereof—in the country and the region. (Read all about it in this Wednesday's paper.) We were discussing the way the Bloomberg administration has been reshaping the city in the manner of Moses, if on a far smaller scale, which led The Observer to mention the opposition to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, often compared to "Moses in a skirt." Mr. Caro said he did not understand all the griping.

"I've never met her, but I know people are knocking her," he said. "But what they should remember is that at bottom, what she's engaged in is an effort to rescue the city from an over-dependence on the automobile that hurts the city in so many ways."

During our conversation, Mr. Caro spoke fondly of what the city was, a fabric of neighborhoods and cultures, and what it could be again. It is not clear that New York is returning to those polyglot days—look at the mostly well-to-do neighborhoods bike lanes tend to serve—but Mr. Caro regards it as an improvement nonetheless.

"When Robert Moses came to power, for 40 years, he systematically starved mass-transit, both the subways and the commuter railroads while pouring the city's resources into highways, into the things that would increase its dependence on the automobile," Mr. Caro said. "So I do think we would have a more balanced transportation system without him."

And we're in the midst of that rebalancing? "Yes, I do believe so."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

No longer the tortoise and the bus. (Spencer Tucker/Office of the Mayor)

Curbside fare payment machines along 34^th street? What will they dream up next? To the delight of bus drivers and passengers alike, Mayor Bloomberg and his rabble rousing Department of transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan implemented the next phase of operation Select Bus Service on 34^th street earlier today.

The new machines, as well as a ban on unauthorized vehicles in the pre-existing bus lanes, aim to cut transit times for the 33,000 passengers who use the corridor daily. Phase one of said ambitious undertaking began three years ago and has been challenged by skeptical locals ever since. In an unusually busy slice of street where it's actually faster to walk than catch a traditionally sluggish M.T.A. lift, concerned storeowners and residents wondered whether the addition of curbside payment machines would really be worth their weight in quarters. DOT, however, stands behind the new additions. Literally. Just this morning, the mayor himself, greeted a.m. commuters front of a new machine at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue.

Taking it to the street—paying your fare, that is. (Spencer Tucker/Office of the Mayor)

“Select Bus Service has improved travel times and increased ridership in the Bronx and on Manhattan’s East Side” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan in a press release. “We’re bringing the full package of improvements to 34th Street to create a bus network that New Yorkers can depend on.”

Might this be the next miracle on 34th Street? Select bus service has already been implemented with success on Fordham Road in the Bronx and on the East Side of Manhattan, with another route planned for Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn for next year. The mayor announced today that the new lines on First and Second avenues, which have been in operation for about a year, saw an 18 percent increase in travel times, a 9 percent bump in ridership and a 36 percent drop in boarding times. Furthermore, accidents fell 21 percent on the most developed stretch of the bus way, where buses, cars and bikes are all separated from one another.

realestate@observer.com

From The Times:

When Shaunté Miller arrived at her bus stop at 125th Street and Second Avenue, a city worker told her that the only way she could take her usual ride on the M15 limited would be to pay for her ticket at a machine on the sidewalk. Even swiping a MetroCard onboard was no longer allowed.

Unfortunately for Ms. Miller, the machine in question had run out of paper: the kiosk happily deducted the $2.25 fare but spat out no receipt. The worker said not to worry, but Ms. Miller worried. "They're not going to believe us," she said, fretting about the enforcement agents authorized to deliver a $100 fine. When Hannah Huber tried to board at 100th Street, the driver refused her proffered MetroCard and told her to go back and get a receipt from the sidewalk machine. "I felt guilty," she said later. "It ended up holding up the bus. I'd rather swipe my card than do all that. I think it's asking for more problems."

And when Laurie Barnett tried to board with a group on the Upper East Side, the workers "took 10 minutes to explain to everyone what they were doing," she said.

"It's going to wreak havoc now with people not knowing," Ms. Barnett said. "This is definitely slowing things down."

And the Voice:

Unfortunately, it seems this service was created with the belief that humans are inherently good, not to mention responsible -- that they will pay for and hang onto receipts. But the New Yorkers we know are always trying to get everywhere as fast as they can, are always looking for a shortcut, and are always happy to save a couple bucks. It's only the second day, and surely things will get smoother, but we suggest they counter some of the flaws inherent to this system...or the MTA will have to raise fares again to counteract the money they will lose, oh, wait -- never mind.

WNYC gives it mixed reviews:

"It's very nice, more convenient for the people," said Manhattanite Salvacion Gumacal, adding that the new buses seemed to move more quickly than the old M15 Limited.

Val Hudson of the Bronx also gave the new system good reviews, but said it takes some getting used to. "[A transit worker] had to explain to me how the whole system worked," Hudson said.

But another passenger, Mike Kidd, likes the new system for a different reason -- it's easier to beat the fare. "I'm gonna be riding the bus for free," Kidd said. "'Cause I don't have to pay, I'm just gonna hop on the bus."

Drivers on the East Side of Manhattan are also having to make adjustments. There are now bus-only lanes on First and Second Avenues. They're painted red so drivers will notice. But so far, many motorists have flouted the change, or simply failed to take notice.

Yet Ben Kabak of Second Avenue Sagas seems to get what's really going on here:

As with any new service, implementation won't be easy, and those operating the buses will have to work out the kinks as travelers adjust to the changes. The media coverage could either focus on Day 1 growing pains or the promises of speed. Let's see what the papers chose.

[...]

But of course, it's all about change. It's about change to routines, change to commuting patterns and change to an old system. As Aaron Naparstek said, "There is absolutely nothing newsworthy about NYers frowning over a major change to their routine." Whether the papers say so or not, Select Bus Service will be better than the local service it is replacing, and one day soon, the people who use it will find that they like it.

mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo