Brooklyn's B16

The B16 is a bus that goes throughout a small area of Brooklyn. It starts at the Verrazano Bridge and winds its way through Bay Ridge then onto Sunset Park. It then goes through the middle of Boro Park and finally to Flatbush. The ride is about 1 hour from end to end. If you start from the beginning and go to the end you will be surrounded by some of New York’s most interesting characters. Generally people riding the bus in Bay Ridge are people who work there. Since the beginning of this line is in a very wealthy area most of the people living there do not take the bus. So you see a lot of home attendants, and general labor workers on this bus going to other neighborhoods that are more affordable to live. When the bus moves into the commercial district you begin to pick up people of all nationalities. There are many Asians who go to Sunset Park, Orthodox Jews who go to Boro Park and Island Black who end up in Flatbush.

It is very interesting to be on a bus with so many different kinds of people. Buses tend to be far more interactive than the subway. I think it is because they are smaller and have far less noise. People are often very helpful to people with children and packages, knowing that the arrival at their destination depends on the joint effort of everyone. The bus also provides for a captive audience. Street preachers often find this venue welcoming. People riding the bus will engage them as well. I think riders also like the excitement of having people entertaining them. Buses also have many homeless and mentally disabled people riding. This can be a challenge for riders as well as the bus driver who will have to eject them from the bus at the end of the line.

People in NYC depend on transportation to get to work. On average people travel one hour to and from work on the trains, buses and in cars. If one sat down with a calculator that would be about 3 months of 40 hour weeks each year spent traveling. If a person works from the time they are 18 until they are 65, they would spend nearly 11.75 years traveling to and from work. For many people that is lost time. Now a monthly pass is around 80 dollars. That would be almost $1000 dollars. If you drive and you have to cross a toll bridge or if you take the train from Long Island or New Jersey the cost for your commute is much higher. The funny thing about all of this is that no one ever thinks about what impact the “commute” has on us and our family.

As I walk along the water front under the Verrazano Bridge, I note that over 200,000 cars pass over the bridge each day. They fly by me on the belt parkway, hundreds of cars, as I walk. Many people are in a hurry, going to who knows where and for what purpose. We all have an agenda that seems so important to us. Yet in the end we only get one life. We have created a world where we spend so much time and energy and money doing stuff that we are left with little time to enjoy the people that are so important to us. Most of this revolves around getting more things that is to eventually make us happier, which we know never does.

Is there a way to live a simple life where we concentrate on the people we love. We concentrate on taking time for them, just being together. In a blink people can be taken from us. Our lives are so short and to give into the insanity that “The American Dream” equals a prosperous life is absurd. I know that most us just cannot stop and get off, but you can seriously re-evaluate your life and your aspirations, and put priorities back into order.

Have a blessed Christmas .... (Picture of Harlow)

Barre