As most of us on this board are aware, NICE has been shedding ridership not just because of the service cuts and inconsistent service quality, but also because of the outdated design of the network. Many places that were once large ridership draws, such as Sunrise Mall and office parks, are no longer generating much demand, while other places, especially low-income areas and New York City, are still healthy in terms of ridership. Other cities, such as Houston, Columbus, and Baltimore, have, or are in the process of, restructuring their networks to reflect current ridership patterns.
While I am aware that NICE probably doesn't have the money to do a study on this, I believe that it would help to save money in the long-run, as well as stem the network's ridership decline. Some ideas that I had (sorted by route), are as follows. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS BASED UPON CURRENT SERVICE LEVELS, AND THE ASSUMPTION THAT NICE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REVIVE PREVIOUSLY ELIMINATED SERVICE IN MOST CASES (such as the n36 or Saturday n16 service):
n1:
Change the route's southern terminus from Grant Park to the intersection of Broadway & W. Broadway, and reroute the bus down Gibson Rd. and Harris Ave. south of the Gibson train station. This would create a southern terminal with more ridership potential (Hewlett has a Trader Joe's, for example), and would reduce travel time slightly for many riders on the n1 south of Green Acres, who use it to transfer to/from the n31/32 for service to Far Rockaway.
n6/n6x:
Re-introduce all previously-eliminated N6 Limited stops as n6x stops, and reduce late night frequencies on n6 service to every 45 minutes.
n15:
Eliminate County Seat Drive service, since there are very few intermediate riders on that section (at least from my experience), and reroute those trips down Clinton Road. I would also re-time trips so that they don't arrive and depart HTC at the same times that n31/32 trips do. This would create more frequent service for riders in Hempstead and parts of West Hempstead, as south of West Hempstead LIRR, many people live within walking distance of both routes.
n20G/n20H:
No changes would occur to n20G service. n20H service, on the other hand, will be reduced to every hour midday weekdays.
n21:
This route would be restructured significantly. It would follow the current alignment of the n20H from Great Neck LIRR to Glen Cove Rd., then follow the route of the n27 up to Glen Cove. This would increase the catchment area of the route, since much of the current alignment runs along the water. To compensate for the reduction of midday service on the n20H, midday service would be reintroduced on the n21, and timed so that Northern Bvld. retains half-hourly service between Great Neck and Greenvale.
n23:
Extend service to Hempstead via Washington Street. This would give direct access, as well as more frequent service, for riders heading to/from places such as Roslyn and Port Washington.
n27:
Re-routed via the current n23 route from Mineola to Roslyn. Both services would be timed so combined frequencies on this section would be half-hourly midday. While some riders would need to walk a bit further if they get on/off along Roslyn Road, others will now have easier access to things such as the LIRR and Winthrop Hospital.
n31/n32:
Reduce Saturday service to every 30 minutes combined.
n35:
Eliminate the weekend alignment via Stewart Avenue, so that all trips on weekends service NCC, as well as extending weekday trips that terminate at Hempstead to NCC during school periods.
n54/n55:
Eliminate the n54, and convert all n54 trips into n55 trips.
n57:
Rebrand the route as "Great Neck Community Shuttle" and replace buses with minibuses.
n70/n71/n72:
No changes to the n70 or n72, but n71 service would be rerouted to run via Merritts Road and Broadway, instead of via Carmans Road, which serves an area that is served by the S1 bus, which has better frequencies. This would also open up more areas for ridership.
Mercy Medical Shuttle:
Extend to Park Avenue and Merrick Road, and re-time service so that combined frequencies with the n16 are roughly every 15 minutes.
Elmont Flexi:
Eliminate all deviations besides LIJ Valley Stream, and reroute service to operate via Rockaway Parkway.