Jacqueline Levy was ready to take the BxM11 express bus to Manhattan when the timetables at the White Plains Road and Pelham Parkway North stop were gone.
Poking around, Levy spotted a notice from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority—the BxM11 had been moved to Boston Road and Thwaites Place, just north of the original stop.
Since that second week in July, Levy has dealt with the hardship of schlepping to the new stop.
“It’s just a horror,” said Levy, a former model now living her golden years in Holland Avenue.
A stage four cancer survivor suffering from neuropathy, Levy can’t walk any more than she’s required.
Refusing to take a subway because of “leery men”, Levy has depended on the BxM11 to shuttle her downtown for doctors appointments and other personal engagements.
The bus stop, she argues, is isolated compared to the original stop. “You have traffic driving by, but over there you have pedestrian traffic which makes you feel much safer,” said Levy, pointing at the original stop.
Several passengers waiting for the morning BxM11 bus shared Levy’s outrage over the bus’s relocation.
“It sucks,” said Liuda Rodriguez, a secretary. “The stop was right in the middle of both sides.”
Maria Aponte, a resident living on the south side of Pelham Parkway, shrugged at walking a bit extra to the new stop.
She did, however, wish a shelter could be installed, to which another rider added, “it’s going to be a killer in the winter!”
But rider Michael West found the relocation to work to his advantage.
“I live right around the corner from Thwaites,” said West, though he admitted he wouldn’t mind if the bus moved back to its original stop.
Levy took her gripes to Councilman Jimmy Vacca, who wrote a letter on her behalf to the MTA. He asked the agency to return the stop to its original place for Levy’s sake. Plus, other elderly residents have expressed a hardship, according to Vacca.
But the MTA spokesman Deirdre Parker explained the bus had a tough time shifting from Boston Road to White Plains Road since the pillars of the elevated train above the stop restricted the BxM11’s movement.
BxM11 drivers, she said, were forced to make “several awkward turning maneuvers between the elevated train pillars.”
For now, Levy will have to grin and bear it until she hopes more riders will demand the bus be put back to its original spot.
A prime nexus for for travel, Pelham Parkway includes several MTA services including subway, bus and Beeline Buses shuttling Bronxites into Westchester.
The bustling nabe has seen massive transportation changes in the last six months, namely the shifting of the Bx12 and SBS 12 bus, temporarily re-routing them to side service roads as Pelham Parkway’s main thoroughfare gets an upgrade by the city’s Department of Design and Construction.
Like the BxM11, riders for the Bx12 were caught off guard by the changes.
David Cruz can be reach via e-mail at DCruz@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3383
