I’m becoming a member of the Park Slope bus culture. Most mornings I take the B67 bus to the Bergen Street stop of the 2/3 train. Never in all my years in Park Slope did I take the bus to a subway. I’ve always been a big walker. But since taking a course at 9AM Monday through Friday in Manhattan, I catch the bus on Third Street and Seventh Avenue.
Some days I catch the bus that goes to Downtown Brooklyn. Other days I catch the bus that goes to Ditmas Avenue.
Either way I can catch the same subway just at different station. The bus that goes to Ditmas Avenue stops at Flatbush near 8th Avenue just a hop, skip and a jump to the Grand Army Plaza Station. The bus that goes downtown stops near the Bergen Street subway station.
Some days I time it perfectly and there is one bus (sometimes two) just crossing Third Street to the bus stop. Some days I have to run like crazy to catch the bus. A few times I’ve had to wait a long time. If I leave early enough the bus isn’t too crowded. But as it gets closer to 8AM, the more crowded the bus with students, parents and commuters.
One day I ran into Rev. Meeter on his way to Old First Church. Today I talked to a woman who gets on at Third Street. I think she was freaked out when I asked her where she goes in the city. Just making conversation. She changed seats (then again she may have just been switching to a more comfortable seat).
On the Seventh Avenue bus, people read books, Kindles, iPhones, newspapers. People talk on their cell phones and talk to their children. Strangers smile at children. Stranger strike up quick conversations. Sometimes people are grumpy like the other day when a woman got very impatient to get off the bus and slammed into someone.
I like being part of Park Slope bus culture. I like taking the bus every morning.
Does anyoine remember the trackless trolly electric busses in the Park Slope
ditmas park area in the late 40’s to late 1950’s. Remember them on
Beverly road and or Ave “C”?
And do you remember the Church Ave trolly TUNNEL which took trollys
UNDER Ocean Parkway to reemerge on the other side and continue on
alsong Church ave? Sometimes my frfiends used to drive (hot wired)
cars they “borrowed” down into the tunnel and shoot back up at like 80 MPH!
along church ave in the middle of the night.
Remember installing spark plugs on your tail pipes to make flames and explosions…..
Its was the pre PC real America……
i’ve always wanted to be a bus regular, a friend who is sees the same people every day and has built relationships with them–relationships that extend beyond the bus, professional contacts, even.
there is something so amazing that happens when we acknowledge the humanity–the personhoods–of the people sitting next to us on transit. you really understand what remarkable people live in new york.
i remember talking to an elderly lady on the B75 who actually went to church in Atlanta–her pastor was Martin Luther King, Jr. himself.
What’s your favorite transit story?
share it! read others!
http://www.subwaysubculture.blogspot.com
I took the bus from my home on Union & 7th to my job by the courthouses in downtown Brooklyn every day for four years. Through that time, I made friends and watched families grow. Now that I have left Brooklyn and started my own family, I feel fortunate to be able to keep in touch with some of those “bus friends” on facebook and through email. Life is pretty amazing, the way it throw people together. My fellow B67 riders really became people I cared about and “knew” and not just a group of strangers. New York can truly be a very friendly, neighborhood place. Living out of state and in the suburbs now, I miss the bus culture.
The bus is such a great and often underutilized tool, especially for us Slopers. Happy to hear that you like it! Has the addition of the B69 helped or hindered?