TROUBLE ON THE HIGHWAY
AND PARKED IN CHINATOWN
Questions about 'Chinatown bus' policies gain urgency after last month's deadly crash. > By I-Ching Ng

City Limits WEEKLY #591
June 11, 2007

Best known for their bargain prices, interstate buses run by Chinese companies have attracted travelers in droves, and helped many Chinese immigrants who can't communicate in English to travel to far-flung parts of the country. But a recent fatal accident involving a New York-bound bus has prompted new calls for the bus industry to step up safety measures.

New York City is the largest hub for these Chinese-run charter buses. The immigrant transportation industry started as an alternative and more affordable means to shuttle Chinese workers to Chinese restaurants in different locations. As the Chinese bus routes expanded rapidly along the East coast and Midwest over the years, commuters including students, artists, budget travelers and immigrants nationwide also caught the cheap fare trend. Currently the Chinese buses travel from New York City to Albany, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Michigan, Washington, D.C. and even as far as Florida for as little as $12 to $20 one way.

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Low costs don’t necessarily mean low conscience, some say. City Councilmember John Liu, chairperson of Council’s transportation committee, said there is no pattern showing charter buses run by the Chinese companies are more accident-prone than those run by big national bus companies. He warned that the public should not stereotype these vehicles. “If an accident happened to a Greyhound or Trailway bus, you won’t say the 'Port Authority Bus' crashed. Likewise, Chinatown is not a company and it’s absurd to say the 'Chinatown buses' are not safe,” Liu said.

 

Trying to corral Chinatown's booming cowboy buses

By Sruthi Pinnamaneni

Holding fluorescent-colored signs calling for a halt to a proposed relocation of bus zones in their neighborhood, hundreds of Chinatown and Lower East Side residents poured into the M.S. 131 auditorium on the evening of Tues., July 24. Some had waited almost an hour for the start of the Community Board 3 meeting.

After several hours of discussion, C.B. 3 voted against a contentious proposal to relegate hundreds of interstate buses to a two-block stretch where Pike St. meets the F.D.R. Drive, in the heart of a cluster of housing developments. The protesters got what they hoped for in the board vote, but many say the buses remain a problem.

The proposal was a response to a thriving curbside bus business in multiple locations of Chinatown's commercial hub that some officials say has become virtually impossible to regulate. There may be as many as 600 interstate buses going in and out of the neighborhood in a single day, Sergeant Frank Failla of the Fifth Precinct estimated.

But when city officials recommended moving the buses to one central location to improve their regulation, residents of the nearby Rutgers Houses and Knickerbocker Village were outraged, saying they refuse to put up with what they call a "mini bus depot" on their doorsteps. The neighbors say the proposal would worsen pollution, garbage and traffic violations by relocating the buses to a more residential area.

"We are not the Port Authority. We are housing projects with families," said Janice McLaurin at the meeting. "So don't treat us as though we are expendable." McLaurin, a Rutgers Houses resident and a mother of two asthmatic children, is worried her family's health could deteriorate if more buses are moved near her home.

In this debate, residents found themselves on the same side as the bus companies.

Chinatown bus lines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Brief History of Chinatown Bus

Copyright © 2006 by GotoBus®

Brief History of Chinatown Bus
by Robert Mills
October 8, 2004
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Brief History of Chinatown Bus