About 10 days ago, local elected officials sent out an email blast announcing that the city’s Department of Transportation and the NYPD had finally begun enforcing a two-year-old state law meant to regulate the intercity bus industry. So how’s it going?
According to Community Board 3, the local precincts now have codes to issue tickets for a variety of violations, including loading/unloading in unauthorized locations (all operators must be assigned designated bus stops by the city). CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer encouraged residents to call 311 to report potential violations. Callers will be asked to give the time of day the violation occurred and the location. Stetzer urged people making complaints to also forward them to the community board (with complaint numbers) so that the staff can follow up with police precincts. As of now, you need to call 311; the website is not equipped to handle bus issues (this problem has been reported to the DOT’s borough commissioner). There are certain “trigger” words, 311 operators will recognize. Here are some of them:
- “Long periods of layover”
- “Idling”
- “More than one bus at the site”
- “Passengers waiting to board”
- “Visible permit”
You can contact Community Board 3 at this email: info@cb3manhattan.org. As an alternative, you can fill out a complaint form here.
As previously reported, a website run by local residents fed up with the intercity bus onslaught, LES Streets, has been taking complaints. We’re told they forward those complaints to CB3. The best policy for now? Call 311, email the community board and send violation reports to LES Streets. At the moment, the privately run site is the only place where reports of violations are publicly viewable.
This is the current list of city-approved bus stops.
