Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

New Bus Company Wants to Roll into Midtown

By DNAinfo Staff on November 10, 2010 11:16am

The Big Taxi bus company serves commuters in Northern New Jersey.
The Big Taxi bus company serves commuters in Northern New Jersey.
View Full Caption
Courtesy of Big Taxi

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN — A New Jersey bus company is itching to roll its way into a new bus stop in Midtown, but some want to pull the breaks.

Midtown's Community Board 5 will consider a proposal on Tuesday evening from the Big Taxi bus company to create a permanent, exclusive 95-foot bus stop on the north side of W. 37th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

The company is currently operating a fleet of 30 25-passenger buses, which ferry commuters from Northern New Jersey to Midtown. But because they have no stop, the buses are forced to circle and pull in haphazardly wherever they can find a spot.

The buses also have to return home empty since there’s nowhere for passengers to wait.

"Now it's unsafe. They just stop anywhere," said Big Taxi president Rosa George, who runs the company with her husband, Renin.

The Georges said they hope the low-cost route will serve Fashion District and other manufacturing workers in the area.

Community board members raised concerns about the enormous number of buses already loading and unloading on area streets, including Megabus, Bolt and Washington Deluxe, at a CB5 Transportation Committee meeting late last month.

It's not unusual to see two or three buses waiting on some corners, with crushes of passengers overwhelming the sidewalks waiting to load.

"To me, this is the tip of a very dangerous moving iceberg," said George Haikalis, a public member of CB5’s Transportation Committee, during the discussion.

Haikalis said the area is already saturated with congestion on the sidewalks.

"This just adds to the agony of pedestrians in the city," he said.

A representative from the DOT said that, because the Port Authority Bus Terminal is full, new companies are forced to set up stops on the street.

In the end, most members of the committee concluded that buses are better than more cars and welcomed a new low-cost option.

They also argued that circling buses cause more harm than the bus stop would.

"I don’t think congestion is any worse because of these buses. It's probably better," said member Joe Ferrara, who "wholeheartedly" supports the project.

The full Board will vote on the proposal at its November meeting at 6 p.m. at St. Xavier High School at 30 W. 16th St.

Reactions were mixed outside of the meeting.

"I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s crowded," said Paul Lee, 28, who lives on the Upper West Side but works next-door to the Bolt Bus stop at the corner of W. 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, which is often crammed with waiting passengers.

He said that if new companies stagger their schedules, things would work better.

Nabil Elkettani, 27, who lives on the Upper West Side and worked in Midtown before recently losing his job, said that any new means of transportation is good for the city.

Still, he added. "It is too busy from 6 a.m."

But Chinatown resident Mara Wollong, 37, who also works in Midtown, said that more buses are just water under the bridge.

"One more bus is not going to make that big a difference," she said.