The Taxi & Limousine Commission yesterday released a set of data concerning the misguided dollar van pilot program yesterday, and while I’m still working to track down the numbers, Transportation Nation clued us into the findings. In a phrase, they are not good, and in fact, the TLC is considering the program a complete bust.
Here’s how Andrea Bernstein reported the news:
Along the B23 line in Brooklyn, 1580 riders used to take the bus. Two took the privately run commuter vans. The most “successful” line was along the former Q79, which had 650 riders, and about 27 customers a day.
According to the TLC “Lessons Learned:”
- Drivers won’t cruise where there is no demand.
- Timing is everything.
- Local outreach/advertising is essential.
The TLC recommends the pilot “be terminated and the lessons learned from it be used to inform other projects in underserved areas.” It says the three-month lag in setting up the commuter van meant commuters found other options, and by then, drivers weren’t cruising for non-existent drivers.
If your initial reaction to this news is one of shock that a leading taxi agency operating in 2010 needed a disastrous study and pilot period to learn these lessons, well, you’re not alone. In fact, these are lessons that Cap’n Transit knew back in October and lessons that I wrote about in March. If two amateur transportation analysts understand how to run a semi-successful dollar program, why didn’t the TLC? It’s almost as though they set this up to fail from the get-go.
8 comments
We spent enough tax $ on this utter waste, just not enough I guess to call this a boondoggle!
The TLC, super genious!
I’m confused. Wasn’t this program abandoned months ago?
I always thought the van program was just a dumb PR stunt to mollify people who don’t know anything about transportation who would have otherwise been more angry with the bus cuts.
Of course this should be gone! It’s pretty freaking sad when the richest city in the richest country on Earth models its transportation solutions after Guatemala and Bangladesh.
It WAS set up to fail from the get-go. The vans in the B71 service area are still running. The people are warming to the service, but the advertising is still very poor. TLC asked them to convert to a standard commuter van authority so they could shut group ride down.
Why not just slap a B1/Q1/S1 sticker and a metrocard reader on a 16 passenger Econovan and be done with it?
You wont know its not a 40 foot bus until it pulls up.
All I know is that I miss the B71 bus on Union Street. I have NEVER seen a van. I suppose they run (according to the post above). But how are you supposed to use them if there is no schedule? I’d love to take the van to the park, library, museum, etc. but I can’t plan how long it will take. This was a dumb idea from the get-go.