Buses

The Taxi & Limousine Commission-approved private van service designed to replace bus routes lost to the June service cuts launched yesterday with one van along the former Q74 route, and Rebecca White of The Times went along for the ride. First, she feels in some gaps: The commuter van pilot is set to last one year, but operators can pull out after 90 days if the routes prove to be unprofitable or if ridership is too low. Then, she gets on board the van, and that’s when the first signs of trouble emerge.

Naresh Guness, driver of the van running in Queens, found that few people knew about or boarded his shuttle. Only eight people paid to go to Queens College early in the morning, and his second run was empty. Guness tried to remain optimistic. “I wasn’t expecting to make money this week. I am making a sacrifice, but it is going to pay off. It always takes time to build.”

Yet, a comment from one of his potential riders hints at why this service doesn’t work in a city with an integrated transit network. “Two dollars? That’s not bad,” Queens college student Laura Diaz said. “But I buy a MetroCard, so there’s no point in paying more.” It’s that MetroCard-based sentiment that could doom these vans. New Yorkers like to pay for their transit in bulk and use the same fare cards for all of their rides. It’s cheaper and more convenient than a pure pay-per-ride system, and it’s going to take a lot to convince people used to New York City Transit buses with MetroCard readers to shell out even more for their bus-like service. With a year left on the pilot, these first 90 MetroCard-less days are going to be the telling ones.

As the city looks to private operators to replace lost bus routes, the first of the Taxi & Limousine Commission’s six commuter van routes will debut on Monday with the rest to follow in a week, The Post reported today. According to Tom Namako, the first of the pilot routes will be a van that replaces the Q74 service in Queens, and it will debut on the 13th. On Monday, September 20, vans will start running along the former B23, B71, B39 and Q79 routes.

The city has yet to announce pick-up locations or frequency of service for these routes, but The Post says the vans will not operate as frequently as buses did. The vehicles themselves will hold 16-20 passengers and charge a flat fare of $2 per ride. Riders, says Namako, will be able to negotiate with the driver over drop-off locations “as long as it’s in the general direction of the van.”

Finally, as an odd ending to an ongoing saga, the TWU has dropped its plans to operate its own TLC-licensed van with unionized bus drivers. The union had recently lost its lawsuit challenging the city’s legal ability to operate this privatized program, and more than 100 laid-off bus drivers were recently rehired. The TWU did not provide me with a comment by press time, but the Daily News via Twitter reports that the union thinks the idea is “self-defeating.” We can only speculate as to why they came to this realization so close to the pilot’s launch.

As the Taxi & Limousine Commission prepares to launch its dollar-van program along now-defunct bus routes, transit advocates are watching to see how and if these routes become profitable. The MTA says many of their eliminated routes were cost-prohibitive to run, but tossing these services to private operators allows for more flexibility. Private operators can run fewer buses and aren’t beholden to the demands of a public-benefit corporation as the MTA is. Whether these routes can be run at cost or with a profit remains to be seen.

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Jen Weiczner profiles the Hampton Jitney, one of New York’s longest running and most successful private transportation companies. The Jitney, which offers luxury trips to the Hamptons over the summer and chartered rides in the winter, makes $20 million a year and, as Weiczner reports, has cornered the market on mass transit to the Hamptons. “For 36 years, the company has maintained a near monopoly on express transportation to the Hamptons,” she writes, “drawing passengers with newspapers, snacks and beverages – all handed out, airplane-style, by uniformed attendants. And every so often, passengers get goodie bags with products that advertisers pay the Jitney to distribute like Tory Burch gift cards and Vera Bradley accessories.”

Of course, the Hamptons Jitney is in a bit of a unique situation. It caters to a very wealthy clientele that expects upper-class service, and it covers distances greater than any New York City bus route would. Still, the Jitney shows that public transportation can be, in limited ways, a profitable undertaking. I don’t expect the dollar vans to fair quite as well, but if run properly, they should be adequate replacements for the lost bus service.

As the MTA must respond to a lawsuit over the June service cuts from disabled advocacy groups, the Taxi & Limousin Commission may face a similar legal challenge soon. The TLC will soon began licensing dollar van companies to provide service along bus routes that were eliminated by the MTA. This private van service isn’t subjected to the same Americans with Disabilities Act standards as the MTA, but with the TLC’s imprimatur needed to run vans, advocacy groups may have a legal opening they’re willing to exploit. And it exploit they will.

As Crain’s New York reported yesterday, an attorney with the United Spinal Association said that his organization will sue if the TLC doesn’t require vans to be wheelchair-accessible. “If the TLC wants to go ahead with inaccessible vans, we will sue them,” Jim Weisman said. The TLC, reports Jeremy Smerd, is not going to require accessible vans, and as the Crains reporter notes, with the TWU’s application for a van route in, this lawsuit could pit disabled riders against one of its key transit allies. The dollar van program will not start until September, and at that time, these advocacy routes will weigh their legal options.

A New York State Supreme Court judge denied the TWU’s request for an injunction against the city’s new commuter van program. Designed to replace bus routes lost to the service cuts with private operators, the commuter van program came under fire from the TWU who claimed it violated state law and was an unsafe alternative to bus operations. Justice Anil C. Singh disagreed, and now the Taxi & Limousine Commission will move full speed ahead. The TWU will run one of these van routes, and The Daily News has more on the one operator-per-line approach the TLC will soon establish for this pilot program.

While New York City is still awaiting authority to dole out tickets to drivers caught blocking bus lanes, the Taxi & Limousine Commission in conjunction with the MTA has mailed out the first round of summonses for those cabbies who are caught in the bus lanes. According to Heather Haddon of amNew York, the commission mailed out 30 tickets last week with another 120 more to come.

Fines are $150, and cabbies are, of course, not happy with it. “I wish there were other ways for the city to find money other than consistently targeting drivers who work for a living,” David Pollock, the man behind Taxi Insider, said. But Pollock has it wrong. It’s so much about finding money by harassing cab drivers as it is ensuring that buses have the right of way they deserve. To avoid the $150 ticket, cab drivers must simply stay out of the bus lanes, and the buses will be able to operate at optimal speeds. Anything else is just plain selfish.

As the MTA prepared to shutter bus routes across the city, I joined with livable streets advocates in calling for the city’s Department of Transportation to turn former bus stops in bike parking spaces, among other non-auto-centric uses. When the NYPD, however, told its enforcement agents to avoid ticketing cars parked in the old bus zones, I was not optimistic that the battle would be won. Today, the New York Post reports that, by and large, DOT will convert the bus stops into parking spaces, thus handing over premium curbside space once reserved for transit to drivers.

According to Rich Calder and Tom Namako’s reporting, 365 of the 600 bus stops no longer in service are being used by drivers searching for more parking space. Although DOT has yet to decide which areas will be permanent parking spots and which will be deemed school or loading zones, no bike parking or pedestrian spaces will be considered. Hopefully, some of the abandoned shelters can be converted to that purpose instead. DOT says the removal of the bus signs and the installation of signs proclaiming the new use will be completed “over the next few weeks.”