DOT incompetence

by jackie sheeler on September 19, 2006

on july 26th i filed a formal complaint with the DOT about a bus stop sign that existed on a corner where no buses have stopped for a several years now. (check the blog archives for my full rant about that.)

yesterday i get a letter from them, dated september 8th, stating that they have done a “full field investigation” and discovered that — holy shit! — there really IS a bus stop sign at a place where no buses stop.

now, this is at west 116th street and 8th avenue. there are DOT reps around here ALL THE TIME — clocking the buses and doing whatever it is they do with those clipboards. yet it takes a few weeks and a “full field investigation” for the DOT to figure out what was already obvious to everybody? your hard-earned tax dollars at work, folks. this is what happens with orgs like the TWU, where you practically have to do a homicide to lose your job. they shouldn’t have needed me to report this — they should have taken the sign down when the bus was rerouted. but that would be too logical.

they didn’t, of course, move the bus shelter. so it still appears that buses stop on that corner, when in fact they now stop across the street. there is no bus shelter at the new stop. guess if it’s raining, you can wait across the street and then make a mad dash across 8th avenue for your bus.

of course, you’re definitely risking life & limb if you do it that way, which is why most people don’t.

the DOT closed their letter by thanking me for my “interest in traffic safety”.

i wished they’d just thanked me for my common sense, and maybe taken a page out of my book to use for the future.