The Q38 is an anomaly of a bus, and quite possibly one of the few that was saved by being severed in two during the bus network redesign changes. For those who don’t know, the Q38 used to form a U shape that took 50 minutes to, essentially, go half a mile. The deviation index? 24.34. YEP. However, for the purposes of this blog, I’m only really going to count the new Q38’s routing towards the scoring (that has been unchanged aside from being severed into this and the Q14 near Middle Village station). With this, welcome to the former most deviatory bus in NYC.
The Q38 in its current form didn’t change much from when I rode it, up to Metropolitan & Eliot Avenues. With that said, the route is a straight shot down 62nd Drive, a turn down Queens Boulevard with a connection to the M/R lines, and then things get SLOW. The route weaves through the streets of Middle Village, going down Penelope Avenue, Woodhaven Boulevard (briefly), Juniper Valley Road, and eventually Metropolitan Avenue, ending at Metropolitan & Eliot. In terms of scenery, it’s mostly residential, although you do have various shops near Queens and Woodhaven Boulevards. Certainly, it could be a bigger stinker as far as land use goes.
In terms of the section axed, it’s a return back up to Corona via a straight shot up Eliot Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard, serving the M/R again, going into the Queens Center Mall, and then turning towards the Horace Harding Expressway (I-495), terminating around there.
The good: It’s (now) a mostly normal straight line between Rego Park and Middle Village! It serves the local neighborhood and at a rather frequent 10-20 minute headway. It also connects the M on both ends, so it conceivably could be faster than taking the M in a giant circle.
The bad: I think the biggest stinker for this route comes down to Queens traffic patterns. Which, isn’t the worst, but can still be unbearable at times. It also doesn’t run overnight to connect the M shuttle to the E/F more directly.
Nearby points of interest: I think the Best Buy, Burlington, and Queens Center Mall are the biggest ones. There’s also a park, graveyard, and a Costco.
Overall, it’s a funny route (historically), and it does well to connect the two segments of the M.
Rating: 8/10
