Can't understand why they didn't make Metrocards RFID non-swipe rather than magnetic swipe. All of the bucks spent making the new receipt dispensers, staff at the stops, etc could have been spent altering the cards. And until the subway turnstiles were upgraded, they could make if combo RFID/swipe card. Contact cards worked great in London (yeah, I know the price/trip, 24 hour thing v. NYC), but it would avoid "Swipe Again", mechanical part breakdowns, card creasers and all the waste. You could get a disposable for the tourists, and a heartier card/fob for those who are frequent riders. But I guess silly, non-working arrival clocks and non-working "security" cameras were more important than good long-term system improvement.

One other improvement I would make would be the receipts ought to have your metrocard balance as well as a notice detailing the penalty fine you'll get without the receipt.

One thought is that they maybe don't want to concentrate on this fine for now because people need to get used to the system. So that might be a good thing for now. But they will need to have this later to emphasize how important that receipt is.

Select bus is a joke. I want the old system back because there were more buses and it was faster.

I'm also tired of seeing old people being told that they have to get off the bus, use their metrocard to get a receipt and get back on the bus. They often have no idea what the bus driver is talking about. They need to ask multiple times for clarification and holds up the bus making everyone late for work. The select bus has caused me to get really frustrated more than half of the times i've used it. Any possible benefit of this idiotic idea does not justify it so far.

The Select+, being like a subway, should not wait for those people purchasing a receipt. It should spend 20 seconds to let people enter and exit and be on its way. Those who are getting a receipt can wait for the next bus.

So, you're willing to throw out a system that has proven to speed up buses by 20% in the Bronx because a few people don't know how it works less than two weeks after it launched?

Great idea! Let's throw out every idea before people have time to adjust to it!

yes. If the new system has made me consistently late for work multiple times AND was the worst ever this morning, then I say throw it out. It sucks.

Agree with Ev 100%. It's a pretty big change for a lot of people to pay off the bus, so it will take some time to get used to this new system.

Congrats on this being the informative, civil, and cordial bunch of comments I've ever read on this site. Did you all just win the lottery or something? Maybe you're all still spiritually high from whatever religious ceremony caused you to dump those animal carcasses in Prospect Park...

This morning I waited almost 15 minutes for an uptown bus at 1st and 14th. Three locals passed before a Select came, and when it did, it was already packed. People had to push their way on.

If we had buses that ran on schedule, we wouldn't need EXTRA ones. A bus every 3-4 minutes!!! Is this too hard to implement?

"People are quite silly for not realizing there is a big difference with the downtown SBS vs. the uptown SBS due to the 2nd avenue subway construction. Everyone keeps going on about the 2nd Avenue one and says nothing about the First Avenue one. It's like night and day. You HAVE to bring up 1st avenue as well for any discussion on this."

If you work in midtown and live uptown, or work downtown and live anywhere else in Manhattan, the fact that the SBS works great going uptown along 1st Avenue is absolutely useless in terms of getting to work.

The select busses that take most people to work go down 2nd Avenue, which is an odd way to do things because of all the traffic on that avenue around the 59th Street Bridge -which empties right onto 2nd Avenue- and in the 30s where you get the Midtown tunnel traffic.

Another commentator claimed there was no dedicated bus lane along 2nd Avenue in Midtown. I have to check that out for myself if this is true -I can't believe that even someone at the MTA thought select bus service was achievable without a dedicated bus lane. Otherwise it just becomes the old limited bus service, which turned into local bus service. But maybe the amount of traffic on 2nd Avenue in Midtown prevents putting in a dedicated bus lane. In which case why use that route?

I actually live along 2nd Avenue and if it takes 88 minutes this does me no good. For people further East maybe, but I can get to the subway in ten minutes and take a twenty-minute ride downtown, though this assumes no subway delays and that is another story.

I don't disagree, you're precisely right it does no good for people going to work to be so slow going downtown. What I'm saying is that people are blaming the SBS system in itself for causing it to be slow and they aren't realizing that it's the 2nd Avenue Subway construction that is screwing up all the 2nd avenue buses. This was the case before the SBS even came into being. That's why you have to compare it to the uptown portion.

And yes there is no dedicated bus lane at least uptown on 2nd avenue because there is no room for it because of the construction.

I actually live along 2nd Avenue and if it takes 88 minutes this does me no good.

I think you're missing the point of this service, then. It wasn't made to make the bus faster than a train - it was made to make the bus faster than it was before. Even the article states that 88 minutes now is ten minutes faster than before - and that's without the kinks worked out.

Excellent point. That 88 minutes is also for the entire line, correct? so 126 St all the way to South Ferry? To Ed: unless you live on 125/2 and take it to South Ferry, I don't think you have to worry about 88 minutes. Also if you do live on 126/2 you are pretty retarded for taking the bus 8 miles down 2nd Avenue as opposed to walking to 125/Lex and taking the 4 to Bowling Green which probably takes your 88 minutes down to 20. But maybe you're not a train person, I don't know.

Another flaw, if you want to call it that, is that once you pay and get the receipt, you cannot use it to board a non select (local) bus. The only way to board the local is to swipe your Metrocard or pay cash, making your Select Bus receipt fairly useless.

That's not true anymore. My cousin used his receipt just the other day.

Took it for the first time the other night. There were problems, most of which will be smoothed over time. There is one glaring problem that I think will doom this system, though: the laggards.

The bus can never leave promptly because there are always people who see the bus and come dashing up to the stop. Under the old system, you were able to get on the bus only if there was still a line or you could make it in just before/after the doors close. Now, people run up, then head to the machine to get the receipt, which takes much longer than a swipe. While they are doing this, other people dash up, and the cycle continues.

Each time the bus stopped on my way from 42nd St to 14th St, we sat there for a good 4 minutes waiting for people who just ran up to get their receipts. It's a nightmare.

People are quite silly for not realizing there is a big difference with the downtown SBS vs. the uptown SBS due to the 2nd avenue subway construction. Everyone keeps going on about the 2nd Avenue one and says nothing about the First Avenue one. It's like night and day. You HAVE to bring up 1st avenue as well for any discussion on this.

I'm afraid I'm missing something obvious, but I'll ask the question anyway.

How does the driver know you paid your fare? After you pay or use your metrocard at the kiosk, what happens? Couldn't you just get on the bus without paying? Do you get a ticket or receipt?

I figured out an easy way that the system could be beaten. When you get off the bus just give your receipt to someone else at the Bus Stop before they put their card or cash into the machine. It should work most of the time. The time of day is probably printed on the ticket, but I don't thing they can prove anything unless the cop saw you having the ticket handed to you.

The receipts have MetroCard Serial Numbers along with card type (Student Fare/Passes/XFers). I doubt they, the inspectors will check those numbers, however. (I haven't been checked ever, however I still swipe)