Source: Chariot.com

The city’s BusForward program has been slowly expanding Select Bus Service (New York’s BRT scheme) on existing bus corridors. Unfortunately new routings are not on the drawing board. Chariot, a start-up with money from Ford and Silicon Valley, has, however, been rolling its app and commuter van service out along new rush hour routes.

The fact is that many Brooklyn & Queens neighborhoods are less than 15 minutes by road from Manhattan and the private sector is stepping in because the city has failed to imagine successful, inter-borough bus service. The MTA postponed (aka cancelled) plans to send a new bus through the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel in 2009. Cap’n Transit posted an analysis in 2009, examining which routes might work for the Midtown Tunnel.  A follow-up post came in 2013, examining Williamsburg Bridge routes.

Surprise Surprise that Chariot launched in 2017 and two of their four routes focus on getting Williamsburg commuters in and out of Manhattan at rush-hour, one via the Williamsburg Bridge and the other via the Midtown Tunnel. They are targeting commuters who currently lack a one-site ride to their destinations.

Admittedly Chariot is aimed at ‘waterfront’ residents with extra cash to spend. That said, the company ought to inspire the city to launch new SBS routes along similar corridors. It is worth remembering that many of the current MTA Bus routes, and especially those between boroughs, were originally launched by private companies. The city’s disinterest in start-up subsidies for new, inter-borough bus routes might be understandable if our politicians weren’t so focused on the less efficient ferry roll-out.