Would You Ride This Bus to the State Office Campus?
That is when it’s 90 degrees out or -10 degrees out?
Think about it for a minute. Any bus rider who wants to ride the bus, under this rendering of the proposal will be forced to walk 500 feet with no shelter to their office building in the State Office Campus. If you not going to drive, the least you would expect would be the bus to drop you off in front of your office — especially if you’re a middle class person who works for government and can afford an automobile.
No Shelter from the Office to Bus
Not only would such proposal make you walk, but if it’s raining out, you would get quite wet. There are no provisions for a roof over the sidewalk from the bus stop — 500 feet in the pouring rain. If you’re a professional who wears a suit to work, good luck not ruining it on your daily bus commute.
A Dangerous Walk to Work
This picture suggests that one would have to cross not only the Busway to get to work, but the inner-loop of the State Office Campus. Look both ways, and maybe if the drivers are feeling very nice, maybe they will stop for you. But don’t bet on it! Run quickly, and buy yourself a good life insurance policy.
Not to Mention Most State Office Workers Don’t Even Live in the City
Most Middle-Class State Workers live in the suburbs, such as Clifton Park or Delmar. A bus that heads from Crossgates Mall to the State Office Campus — or worst from Downtown to the State Office Campus won’t help them out much at all, besides drinking up their taxpayer dollars.
Not Opposed to Bus Rapid Transit But Use Some Common Sense
It might make sense to speed buses up along Western Avenue by running them along one of the underused Ring Roads — possibly dedicated exclusively to bus use. Most of the traffic on the Route 10 bus goes between colleges, so avoiding some traffic lights might make sense. Or maybe the bus should just follow the existing State Office Campus Roads, with a simpler and cheaper connector to the University of Albany.
But it’s silly to build a bus station in the middle of nowhere that nobody is ever going to use, and claim your including the State Office Campus in your routing, when all your doing is driving through it to save time. If you want to improve transit, send more buses at an affordable rate to places where people actually live or park and ride to, rather than bus stop that will never be used.
