Community Board 2 wants to slam the brakes on a city proposal to reroute the B-54 bus for at least the fifth time in 20 years, arguing that the plan will only further “degrade” the much-maligned bus route.
New York City’s latest proposal, slated to go into effect this summer, would change the bus’s route around Metrotech from clockwise to counter-clockwise.
Though it may seem minor, the purpose of the rerouting is to lessen delays from all the double-parked cars on Jay Street, where the line begins and ends, according to the Community Board.
But Community Board 2 — whose vote is only advisory — rejected the proposal soundly, arguing that if double-parking is the problem, New York City Transit should “work with the New York Police Department to enforce [existing] parking regulations.”
A spokesperson for New York City Transit did not return a call.
The latest re-routing proposal is one of many that have kept bus riders guessing.
Before the creation of Metrotech more than a decade ago, the Myrtle Avenue bus run straight through Downtown Brooklyn to Jay Street. But after Metrotech was built, the bus was rerouted along a service road running under the complex.
Then, amid heightened, post-9-11 security concerns, the bus route was truncated to Flatbush Avenue.
After years of complaining, the neighborhood got the bus rerouted yet again, so that it would circle the suburban-style Metrotech campus.
Elizabeth Collazo, who takes the bus every morning from Myrtle Avenue and Harman Street to Jay Street–Borough Hall, said she’d support any measure that would improve the consistently dreadful service.
“In the morning, it’s terrible,” said Collazo. “It takes me over an hour to get here from where I live.”
“Anything that will make the trip better is good.”
