Two months after its ill-fated attempt to place a stop on Essex St. just outside Seward Park, Greyhound now has a nod of approval from Community Board 3 — albeit with numerous stipulations — for its proposed stop on Pike St., between East Broadway and Division St. C.B. 3 voted overwhelmingly in favor of approving the stop at its full board meeting on Tuesday night.
Greyhound plans to launch its Yo! Bus line at the Pike St. stop, with 14 daily round trips to Philadelphia. The buses will use a ticket office at 98 East Broadway.
The board’s decision is only a recommendation, and any permits for stops will ultimately be granted or denied by the city’s Department of Transportation. That’s why, as David Crane has said, he believes it’s a better idea to focus on adding stipulations to any recommendation, rather than trying to deny proposals outright.
A major point in C.B. 3’s approval is that the board wants D.O.T. to grant this particular permit as a nine-month trial period at the Pike St. location, with a D.O.T. report back to C.B. 3 after six months with an opportunity for board input on any further extension of the permit.
Among other stipulations on the recommendation for the bus stop, the board’s resolution calls for a maximum loading/unloading time of 10 minutes, approval for only one bus stopped at a time, trash bags at the stop to collect litter, and a staff member on site to guide the loading process. Also, the resolution calls for Greyhound to focus on hiring locally for its on-site staff, with reports back to C.B. 3 in that regard.
As new intercity bus legislation for the permitting process goes into effect in the coming months, Crane noted that resolutions like this will become increasingly important, because D.O.T. will likely approve any bus stop that doesn’t present safety hazards.
“We’re going to have to start saying ‘Yes,’ ” Crane said, “because if we just say ‘No,’ the D.O.T. won’t take our input seriously, and we’ll be doing the community a huge disservice. We need to keep striving to create influence over what’s being granted.”
