George Washington's bus

IN PARTS of New York city, if you know what to look for, you will find a vast and quasi-legal transport 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 transport: for example, Flushing in Queens, Manhattan's Chinatown and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Others serve 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 third-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 trip.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...Continue reading
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