Janno’s Secret Fitness Program

Dear Editor:

Janno Lieber and his MTA want Q35 riders to WALK MORE when proposed MTA bus route changes come at the end of August.

Never mind that shifting one stretch of the almost century-old Q35 route from the peninsula’s population center of gravity (Newport Avenue) to the unpopular Q21’s Rockaway Beach Boulevard route (after all, lack of ridership is the reason MTA gives for eliminating the Q22 in 11694), Janno and his crew proclaimed the Q35’s new route would feature doubled (and in one case tripled) distances between stops. Their logic? Fewer stops make for faster commutes!

First of all, there are safety issues: the huge blue buses, when stopping, will intrude into the curbside lane—which happens to be a dedicated bicycle lane, as well as stopping points for the free ferry shuttle. By the way, if the ferry shuttle is free and runs from Roxbury to the ferry, why have the Q35 duplicate this? Unless, the goal is to show sometime in the future the Q35 is unpopular and unnecessary and thus “disappear” it—like the Q22— after a few years?

Second, the Q35 on Newport takes local passengers closer to where they want to go: the single Middle and Elementary School and voting venue of the district, all the shops and eateries and small businesses of Beach 129th St., and the USPS Post Office and medical practitioners on Beach Channel Drive. Adding blocks of extra walking between bus stop and destination in Rockaway’s frequent bad weather can’t be a plus for any user.

Okay, let’s simplify: The change in route for the Q35 is not for safety (bike lane and ferry shuttle conflicts); not to save time (11694 riders will have to walk two to three times as far just to get to a bus stop); not for convenience (increased distance from RBB to Beach 129 and Beach Channel Drive shops, doctors, dining, schools, polling sites, etc.).

So the only logical explanations are a) it’s a first step to Q35’s eventual complete elimination; or b) Janno Lieber wants us all to be more fit by having to walk (and run) to catch buses, extra distances in all kinds of weather, but thereby saving us investment in home treadmills or gym memberships; or most plausible, c) Janno Lieber hasn’t a clue about anything outside Manhattan (and getting frequent photo-ops is the main preoccupation in his quixotic attempts to eventually be Mayor)! And for this he collects $400,000 per year!

Nowhere do they mention the Q35 connects us on the peninsula to the subways: the Numbers 2 and 5, the Rockaway Shuttle, the A train… It gets us to and from “the city” that sustains us and that we sustain.

SAVE THE Q35 AS IS.

IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T “FIX” IT!

Stephen Keller