August 10, 2007, 12:07 pm
New Bus Shelters Let You Plan Your Shopping and TV-Watching but Not Your Trip

By David W. Dunlap

In the department of missing transit information, the absence of route maps and trip tips at a few of the new bus-stop shelters being installed by Cemusa scarcely rises to the level of outrage.

But mild indignation may be in order, since the same shelters seem to have a full complement of advertising.

On the Avenue of the Americas at 56th Street, for example, riders cannot find out what lines serve the stop, where the buses go after they leave the stop or how to pay their fare, which is no small question for an out-of-towner. They can, however, learn about Verizon’s new BlackBerry 8830 World Edition for $199.99 (after rebate) or contemplate how delicious a Corona Extra or Corona Light might taste about now, just as long as they “relax responsibly.”

Twelve blocks south on the avenue, the shelter is silent on the question of whether riders can expect an M5 or an M6 or an M7 to pull up. Instead it, it lets them know that Glenn Close is starring in “Damages” on the FX network. Oh, yes, and that Verizon BlackBerry. Only $199.99. (After rebate.)

Is this another case of a corporate takeover of the public realm without the full benefit that was promised to the public? Not quite. Cemusa, the Spanish company that won a citywide street-furniture franchise last year, is not to blame.

Whenever huge calamities strike abroad - the tsunami in Asia in 2004, say - New Yorkers know that in their ethnically mixed city there is probably an enclave directly linked to the tragedy. This pattern applies to smaller events, too, like a recent bus crash in Pennsylvania that echoed loudly throughout Chinatown.

At 3:30 a.m. May 20, a bus carrying 36 passengers from Chicago to New York went out of control on Interstate 80 in Clearfield County, Pa. The bus zigzagged across the highway and ended up on its side on the road's embankment, leaving 2 people dead and 32 others injured. The cause of the accident is under investigation.