Brooklyn, NY – The city’s plan to add “dollar vans” to bus routes abandoned by the MTA is all but dead — and the head of the city agency that spawned the ill-fated initiative admitted that it was partly his fault.
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Two out of the three Brooklyn routes in the controversial pilot program have already been abandoned — just one month after the city announced the plan — and Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky admitted that he didn’t crunch the numbers well enough before pushing for private vans to take over the slashed MTA service.
“I cop to this,” Yassky told Community Board 14, where he was a guest speaker on Monday night.
The problem, Yassky said, was that there simply has not been enough customers to justify service on the former B23 and the B39 lines. But Yassky admitted that he didn’t look close enough at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s own ridership data, which revealed that only 1,580 weekday riders took the B23, which connected Kensington and Borough Park; and 1,180 used the B39, which ferried Williamsburg riders into Manhattan.
“We did it,” he said, “without looking behind the numbers.”
For example, the agency never determined how many of the bus trips were students using a bus pass, or other customers who might not want to spend $2 for a van with no free transfer to a subway or bus.
Things got off to a bumpy start on the first day of the initiative along the B23, as this newspaper waited for two hours in vain for a van.
A similar fate awaited a reporter in Williamsburg, who went looking for a van for two days and failed to find even one.
Yassky would not pronounce the program fully dead, as van service survives — barely — along the former B71, which connected Carroll Gardens to Crown Heights.
But Sulaiman Haqq, the van operator along the route, is bleeding money, and has wondered if he will be able to sustain his effort.
Two other routes survive in Queens, but Yassky said none are making money for the operators.
Hey he did his best and meant well.. Cant blame the guy. better to be proactive to help the community
1,580 weekday riders is not a small number. The attitude is, to heck with the residents of the “outer boroughs”.
will they take off the new signs thats was put on 50th street and 16th ave. No Parking 6am-10pm for van pick up and drop off….?
i love how this guy confesses & tries to be good, unlike a lot of other politicians who would never admit any wrongdoings & would rather justify it, & keep up a failed policy,
we need more of this like in public office,
Everybody is human & can make a mistake!! but u gotta be honest & admit it & change direction
The public was outraged at the TA’s decision to end the B23, and Yassky’s agency and TA proposed the van service. Perhaps, if the operator had stuck with it for more tan 1 month he would have had enough riders to turn a profit. He did not allow enough time.
Those in attendance at the same meeting were impressed with Yasky’s honest straight forward presentation.
The City also eliminated the X-29 Express Bus which ran through Coney Island Avenue taking frum Yidden to work in Manhattan. Now, DOT is trying to shut down the righteous gentile who is running a bus for these refugee commuters. The City seems to be at war with Brooklyn commuters.
So are we going to get a new press release from Greenfield stating the the van service is over? He took credit for it so I think he should now tell the 44th District that its over.