Submitted by Steve Adler, Jul 17, 2007 11:45

The existing bus service is slow, infrequent and unresponsive. On upper Park Avenue, the Brooklyn Bridge and much of the FDR drive, there are no buses at all -- they're just too heavy. It is no wonder that so many choose to take a car or taxi. It is also illegal to provide a competing service -- using relatively lightweight vans for example. Yet a recent study by this author shows an open market for bus serrvice in NYC would lead to unsubsized owner-driven vans -- including low floor "zero polllution" vehicles -- providing an order of magnitude increase in service. Fast, frequent, responsve service attracts people out of cars and taxis, creating a substantial net reduction in traffic, pollution and energy consumption. More importantly, it saves everyone time and money. The existing bus riders save time walking, waiting and riding by taking the vans and the new van riders benefit as well. The net effect , after taking care of the transit workers and taxi medallian owners, is an annual benefit of over ten billion dollars a year for the five counties of NYC alone. Nationwide, the benefits of this progarm would be about ten times this.

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