By Veronica Vanterpool

Commuter, intercity and tour buses all benefit the city, but they can create problems for pedestrians and residents.

New York City leaders are pondering ways to address the challenge of encouraging private bus ridership into Manhattan, while managing limited street space and growing community concerns.

This issue, which was the focus of a recent town hall meeting hosted by NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, has the tour bus industry, private bus carriers, and neighborhood residents at odds with each other despite the shared sentiment that tour buses are good for the citys economy while private bus carriers help the environment and reduce traffic.

(Sixty percent of megabus passengers, for example, reportedly switched from private automobiles.)

But private long-distance providers like megabus and BoltBus and bus tour operators appear largely unregulated throughout the city, especially in Manhattan. They often park in undesignated spots, idle for long periods at a time, and utilize valuable sidewalk space to load and unload passengers.

Speaker Quinn wants to put an end to the citys lax enforcement of buses and is working to create an inter-agency task force with NYCDOT and the state Department of Environmental Conservation on bus idling.

She also is facilitating discussions between the NYPD and community boards in response to community complaints that enforcement agents seldom ticket buses that idle.

Tour buses create additional concerns.

Residents are mobilizing against double-decker tour buses and speaker systems that diminish their quality of life. There is legislation pending in the New York City Council to address each.

Poor enforcement and leniency by NYPD and NYCDOT may be rooted in a lack of clarity when it comes to the law. At the town hall, Manhattan borough DOT commissioner Margaret Forgione said that the DOT can only tell buses "where they can have a bus stop and where they cant."

Speaker Quinn disagreed and is looking at ways to increase the citys authority.

In the meantime, Mobilizing the Region looked at the language to try to arrive at some answers.

How much legal authority does NYC have over buses?

While it is indisputable that New York City has authority to regulate buses generally, including where they can and cannot park (see Rules of New York City Title 34, Chapter 4.08(m)(5), and Chapter 4.10(c) and (i)), legal issues remain, namely whether the city has authority to regulate bus routes to keep buses off narrow residential streets and whether buses fall into the category of "commercial vehicles" that allows double parking under certain circumstances.

The question of whether tour bus routes can be regulated appears to be answered in the Rules of New York City, Title 34, Chapter 4.10(b), which reads:

"Designated routes. No person shall operate or cause to be operated on any street a bus operating pursuant to a franchise or consent of the Department of Transportation of the City of New York which designates the route to be followed, except on the route so designated. No person shall operate or cause to be operated on any street any other bus, other than a charter bus, except over a route designated by the Commissioner [of Transportation] in writing." ("Sightseeing buses" are not the same as "charter buses," and are defined separately in Chapter 4.10.)

While sightseeing buses are licensed and regulated in areas of safety and registration by the NYC Office of Consumer Affairs, their operation is a different matter. The Office of Consumer Affairs licensing website states that the bus operators "must comply with all relevant federal, state and city laws and rules," including the requirement that routes be designated per 4.10(b).

As to whether a bus is legally a "commercial vehicle," Title 34, Chapter 4 of the Rules of the City of New York has this: "For purposes of parking, standing and stopping rules, a vehicle shall not be deemed a commercial vehicle or a truck unless: (B) it is permanently altered by having all seats and seat fittings, except the front seats, removed to facilitate the transportation of property"

Clearly tour buses and charter buses dont fit into this category. Because the buses arent commercial vehicles, they cant take advantage of a double parking loophole like an unloading box truck can.

A bus can load and unload passengers while "double parked," so long as safety allows. This rule pertains only to layovers and parking.

Reprinted from Mobilizing the Region, the official blog of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing car dependency in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Environmental and planning organizations formed the campaign in the early 1990s.