IN PARTS of New York City, if you know what to look for, you will find a vast and quasi-legal transit network operating in plain sight. It is made up of “dollar vans”, private 15-passenger vehicles that serve neighbourhoods lacking robust public transport. With an estimated 125,000 daily riders, they constitute a network larger than the bus systems in some big cities, including Dallas and Phoenix.
Van drivers, like all entrepreneurs, have recognised a market and met demand. Some shuttle between Chinese communities not connected directly by public transit, for example Flushing in Queens, Manhattan’s Chinatown and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Others service Caribbean communities in Brooklyn and south-eastern Queens. The Utica and Flatbush Avenue corridors patrolled by the vans in Brooklyn are the borough’s busiest and fifth-busiest bus routes, respectively. These vans offer what New York City buses fail to provide: speed and reliability. They are also cheaper, at $2 per ride.
Eric Goldwyn, an urban planner, compared a week’s worth of ridership data from the B41 bus route along Flatbush Avenue with average travel times of dollar vans making the same trip. Buses...Continue reading
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