After last week’s snowstorm which saw around 10 inches of snow that fell in south Queens, Department of Sanitation (DSNY) employees have been working around the clock to clear roads, sidewalks and MTA stations of the snow to keep things on schedule. DSNY is still working to clear several roads around Ridgewood to stop B38 buses from getting stuck in both snow and traffic as the persisting freezing temperatures require extra snow removal to enable smooth public transit.
Users across every social media platform reported that the B38 MTA buses, which travel from Downtown Brooklyn to Ridgewood, were getting stuck and backing up on the streets of Dekalb Avenue, Stanhope Street and Seneca Avenue. According to the MTA, the B38 saw a daily ridership of close to 11,000 people in 2022, which ranked 24th in most trafficked bus lines. Residents reported that the buses were bottlenecked around the crossroad of Dekalb Avenue and Seneca Avenue, where the buses turn, forcing lines of 10+ buses that stretched several blocks back.
A combination of snow banks and parked cars too far from the curb narrowed the roads of the already cramped streets caused the delays, which residents reported throughout the last week of January. According to a DSNY spokesperson, the lack of snow melting has become a “huge undertaking” for the department that has 2,500 employees out working on snow removal at any point in time.
“This has happened every day. The buses keep getting jammed up cause of snow, ice and the way people are parking. I take the B38 every day and have had to use the subway all week because of this,” wrote one user on Reddit.
Now that the snow has hardened into ice, the operations require hundreds of pieces of specialized equipment to break up the ice, load into the repurposed garbage trucks and remove to be melted. After ensuring that at least one traveling lane is open, DSNY continues the efforts of widening the roads. As of Feb. 2, the B38 has yet to become as congested, though delays are still present, as the week prior as DSNY continues the operations in the sub-freezing temperatures.
According to the spokesperson, Dekalb Avenue, Seneca Avenue and the other streets are “on our radar and work is underway.”
