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Commuter Vans

9/14/2009

 
Folks continue to see commuter vans driving in the Maspeth/Woodside area, communities where they are not authorized to pick up or drop off.  People say the vans are pulling into private driveways, backing out of side streets, and blocking traffic while they pick up or discharge passengers.  Elmhurst residents experience similar problems to a more extensive degree because the commuter vans are authorized to operate there.

To complicate things, we have found out some the commuter vans that you have been seeing picking up and discharging people are not considered commuter vans.  We have been told that any commuter van with “BA” at the end of their license plate number is considered a bus.  At this point we assume the vans with “LA” at the end of their license plate are considered commuter vans.  NYC Department of Transportation is in charge of the “BA” license plates while NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) is in charge of the “LA” license plates.  If you think that is complicated, we are now seeing commuter vans with a “T” at the beginning of their license plate number and a “C” at the end.  This is now being investigated and we are curious as to what the answer will be.

We have been notified that the NYC TLC has undertaken a project to revise its existing rule book.  During the first phase of the rules revision project, all of the existing rules will be redrafted, then posted on a chapter-by-chapter basis on the TLC Website for review and discussion by interested members of the public.  We are hopeful that we can propose some changes that will be instrumental in resolving the ongoing problems that we have been dealing with.

Dominic Collucio, Special Assistant to the Commissioner has promised to send COMET President Roe Daraio a copy of the commuter van guidelines and NYC DOT guidelines pertaining to the commuter buses.  Everyone in COMETland will just have to wait for the next chapter to find out if we will, in fact, unravel the commuter van and commuter bus dilemma/mystery.

Miss Maspeth
2/13/2012 02:55:00 am

I take this commuter van to Chinatown because Maspeth has horrible public transportation. We are such a short distance from Manhattan, yet it takes forever to get there. I understand that the area does not have it's own train and the Winfield Spur line that was built will never be put to use, but how about we turn the Q59 into an express bus to downtown or have some of the Express busess passing through Maspeth stop at Grand Avenue. Having an Express bus on Grand Avenue would increase foot traffic to help the already ailing businesses. The commuter van is awesome because there is a need for it. The people that complain about it don't probably drive to work and don't have to experience the painful public transportation every day. Fix the real problem and maybe there wont be


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